On his frequent trips to North Africa in the early 1920s, Horace Ashton often stopped in Europe. One country that he was eager to explore was Turkey, which had changed a great deal since The Great War (now known as World War I) ended. Toward the end of 1923, Ashton went to Turkey to visit with its president, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, and observe firsthand the many changes that had taken place since the country was no longer the center of the Ottoman Empire. (more…)
Many historical figures appear in The Spirit of Villarosa.
Horace met a Chinese gentleman named Yuan Shikai aboard a steamer ship bound for Japan. Little did Horace know that this man was a Chinese army leader and reformist minister toward the end of the Qing dynasty. In 1912 Yuan Shikai became the first president of the Republic of China in 1912, a position he held until his death in June 1916.
Horace recounts, “Aboard ship, I met a remarkable Chinese gentleman, Yuan Shikai, who became my companion for a daily promenade around the deck. He impressed me immensely with his memory. We would chat, and he could tell me the exact dates and the names of all commanders in every important battle of the American War for Independence and the War Between the States. … Yuan Shikai awakened my curiosity about China and other lands I never dreamed I’d visit. His words inspired me to travel and live among different cultures.”
To discover more of Horace’s adventures, please read The Spirit of Villarosa, www.thespiritofvillarosa.com.
This image depicts Horace Dade Ashton with Princess Houang Ti Teh, daughter of the King of Indo-China in Paris, 1932.
Author Libby J. Atwater will launch The Spirit of Villarosa, a book written with Horace Dade Ashton and Marc Ashton, at a joint meeting of The Adventurers’ Club of Los Angeles and the Southern California Explorers Club on July 21, 2016. Author Marc Ashton makes his Southern California debut at this event, where he will talk about being kidnapped by four armed men near his home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and how he channeled his famous father’s adventures to survive.
Cocktails begin at 6 p.m. with dinner to follow at 7 p.m. The presentation begins at 8:30 p.m.
Reservations are required.
Please visit the Adventurers’ Club website at the following address for more information. http://www.adventurersclub.org/About.php
While growing up in the East, I crossed the Delaware River many times to visit family and a number of hallmarks of our nation’s independence:
Each visit gave me insight into our founding fathers and the sacrifices they made to form our great nation, the United States of America.
On July Fourth I salute them for their hard work and sacrifices to create a country that celebrates its 240th birthday this year.
On Sunday, June 26, 2016, a Chinese freighter transited the expanded Panama Canal. The man who inaugurated the canal nearly 110 years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt, would have been astounded. When he arrived in the Isthmus of Panama in 1906 with his trusted photographer, Horace Dade Ashton, no canal existed.
President Roosevelt and Horace Ashton saw a huge sign that read “We’ll do our best to help you build it!” upon their arrival in Panama. Ashton describes their time there in the following paragraphs.
“‘Ah, that’s bully!’ Roosevelt exclaimed. “At that moment, the president recognized an old friend operating the steam shovel. He strode up to the man and shook his dirty hand as if he were a long-lost brother. I sprang into action with his camera. The president then hopped on and took over the steam shovel.”
“It was pouring rain,” said Ashton, a member of the Explorers Club, who took photographs every seventy seconds. “The entire three days Roosevelt was there, it poured as it never did before. We were hip deep in wet and slimy clay every which way we turned every hour of every day!”
Travel and trade have changed a great deal as a result of this pivotal journey.
To accompany Horace Ashton on his life’s journey, please read The Spirit of Villarosa, debuting June 28, 2016.
White Cattleya Orchid
Have you ever wondered where the beautiful blooms of the white cattleya orchid that we enjoy today originated?
In 1906 two young Englishmen accepted a job from a wealthy countryman to travel to the Rio Negro Valley in Colombia, South America, where these rare orchids were reportedly spotted by a group of rubber gatherers. Explorer Horace Ashton encountered the young men at the boardinghouse where all three stayed. After the would-be explorers admitted they’d never been in the jungle and Ashton said he’d just returned from mapping the Magdalena River, they enlisted him as their guide.
To read about their adventure and how the orchids lived to become the parents of the white cattleya that can be seen throughout the world today, read The Spirit of Villarosa, available on June 28, 2016. This true adventure story contains a treasure trove of unknown tales.