William and Jenny Ashford
William Haemer Ashford: 1851-1925
Research seems to indicate that William Ashford, also known as Haemer Ashford, was the son of Mariah Butcher Ashford and her husband John Ashford, rather than the son of William Ashford named on his death certificate. Mariah Butcher, the daughter of Ely Butcher and Elizabeth Hart, married John Ashford of Catletts, Kentucky, on September 12, 1833.
William Ashford’s death certificate states that he was born December 25, 1851, in Greenup County, Kentucky. However, the 1860 census lists Haemer Ashford as 12 years old, which would put his year of birth as 1848. At that time, he was living with his mother Mariah in Wheelersburg, Scioto County, Ohio.
How and when William arrived in Oregon is uncertain. He first appeared in Oregon in the 1880 census in Lake County, Oregon as a 29-year-old carpenter. On May 15, 1883, William married Amanda Jane (Jenny) Sullivan in Dallas, Oregon.
Son William Melvin’s birth record names his father as “William Hama Ashford”. William and Jenny were living and farming in Polk County, Oregon, in 1900. In the 1910 census, William was a truck farmer in Marion County, Oregon. The previous year his daughter Sadie had married in Marion County. According to a diary written by their daughter Ruby in 1915, the family left from Alpine, Benton County, Oregon, and traveled north, appearing to relocate to Portland or someplace north, possibly Castle Rock in Cowlitz County, Washington. In 1917, daughter Sadie married in Castle Rock, Washington.
By 1920, William and Jenny were living with the Walter Stafford family in Lone Pine, Lane County, Oregon with their two youngest sons. William was a hired man and Jenny was a caretaker. At some point, they returned to Castle Rock, where they were living when William died in 1925.
by Brenda Ashford
See Also:
William Haemer Ashford Fact List
William Haemer Ashford’s Mother
Amanda Jane Sullivan: 1866-1960
Amanda Jane (Jenny) Sullivan was one of 8 children born to Thomas Jefferson Sullivan and Sarah Catherine Hooker. She was born in Napa, California on October 21, 1866. On May 13, 1883, she married William Haemer Ashford in Dallas, Polk County, Oregon.
Jenny’s husband died in 1925. On June 1, 1931, she married Alvin J. Orrahood in Chehalis, Washington. He passed away in 1939. At the time of Jenny’s death in 1960 at age 93, she was a widow residing in Castle Rock, Washington. She was known affectionately to her Ashford grandchildren and great-grandchildren as “Grandma Orrahood.”
Children:
- Maude L. Ashford, born in 1884
- Elmer Lorenzo Ashford, born in 1886
- William Melvin Ashford, born in 1888
- George Butcher Ashford, born in 1890
- Sarah Elizabeth Ashford, born in 1892
- Ruby Alice Ashford, born in 1899
- Wallace Raymond Ashford, born in 1902
- Velma Blanche Ashford, born in 1903
- Aaron Dean Ashford, born in 1905
- Arlo Francis Ashford, born in 1909