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Remembers
Village of Ash |
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(Undated
article from collection of Dennis
Stephens and submitted by Lisa Perry.
The Baptist Church in Ash was built by
her great-grandfather, William Franklin
Dailey, in 1888 and the photos are from
her collection.)
"Earl
Haden, now of Moberly, formerly of the
vicinity of the village of Ash,
northwest of Madison, has written an
article for the Appeal entitled
"What I Remember About Ash".
It is reproduced below.
The
editor recalls a visit he made in his
early days to Ash, with his late uncle,
Sidney Utterback, who was on a stock
buying trip, and one of his usual
humorous statements. Passing by an
extremely steep hill where a farm barn
and feed lot stood at the crest.
Utterback remarked that "when
feeding hogs the owner ties the corn to
stakes so it won’t roll away from
them". That’s one of the lasting
recollections we have about Ash.
The
Haden story follows:
Baptist
Church in Ash built by W.F. Dailey in
1888
The
first church built in western Monroe
County was seven miles east of Cairo at
the first crossroads in Monroe County.
The church was made of logs with logs to
sit on, called the Hickory Grove Church.
In 1888, there was a frame building
built just south of the old church in a
grove of hickory trees of which several
still stand. Some of the early preachers
were Smith, Lynn, Colborn (W)hite,
Neeley, Alex Jones, (W)are, Coleman
White, Green. The last minister was
Klinken(b)org. There were services held
regularly until 1972. The church is in
good repair. The leaders in the church
back in the eighties were J.W. Cosby, (W).H.
Bennett, Billy Steele, John (H)enley,
Wallace Pollard, Louise Bennet George
and Molly Smith and W.G. Alexander. It
is now called the Hickory Grove Baptist
Church. (??)r settlers located around
(??) and the village was called Ash.
Baptist
Church in Ash built by W.F. Dailey in
1888
Town
of Ash
There
was a church built 7 miles (of the)
first crossroads in Monroe County east
of Cairo.
Just
east of the church, Paul Houston and W.H.
Bennett built a general store. A short
time later the store was purchased by
W.P. Ash. He sold leather boots, knee
top like the men and boys wear. No
buckles nor laces. There were no
overshoes at that time. All dry goods
sold by the yard. He bought from other
people feathers, as most everyone raised
geese and they plucked them every six
weeks. He also bought cured meat, lard,
eggs, chickens, ducks and turkeys. He
built a large pen out of 1x2 slats and
put a roof on it. He bought turkeys by
the head and confined them in this pen
til he bought several. They then walked
and drove this bunch of turkeys to
Shelbina about 35 miles. It took three
men two days to make the trip.
Other
businesses came there, harness shop,
drug store, blacksmith shop, woodworking
shop where they made coffins as there
were no undertakers at that time, a
grist mill where they ground corn to
make their corn bread. There also was a
saw mill. There was another church built
which was a Christian Church.
A
doctor settled there by the name of Dr.
W.E. Johnson practiced there until the
late 1890’s (when he sold his business
to) Dr. O. O. Ash, son of W.P. Ash. The
only way of getting a doctor, as we had
no phone, no transportation, only heavy
farm wagons, was to ride a horse or
walk.
Mr.
Ash’s store burned in the late
1890’s. The post office was moved to
Madison. Dr. Ash sold his business to
Dr. Gaines and went to Moberly and other
businesses moved away. Other stores
following J.J. Patrick, Jo(h)n
Hendricks, Urb Brown, Louis and Claude
Stephens, I. Newton Haden and sons,
Horace and Earl, G.A. Beamer, Albert
Kirgan, Lem Walkup, Harvey Davis, Bryan
Alexander, Johnnie Pollard ran the last
general store and Orville Luntsford the
last grist mill.
Forrest
Dailey and Dr. Gaines (right)
The
village got a post office which had to
have a name as there was another town
named Hickory Grove in the state. They
then called it Ash, Mo. All that’s
left to show where Ash was is the church
(Baptist) and cemetery known as Hickory
Grove. One house and the crossroads
church built i(n) 1888 which now
stands."
Submitter’s
Notes:
From
Physicians of Randolph County: Moberly -
OTTIS ORVILLE ASH b. 1869. Graduated
1892 from Beaumont Hospital Medical
College, St. Louis (MO)(now St. Louis
Univ School of Medicine). Graduated 1893
from Washington Univ School of Medicine.
Licensed in MO: 1892. 120 Clark St.,
Off: 2201/2 W. Reed St., hrs: 9-12, 3-5.
Affiliated with AMA. (Information
submitted to Randolph County MOGENWEB by
Helen Bremmer)
Urb
Querry Brown: Son of Armestead and
Zerelda (Alexander) Brown; born 20 Jul
1875, died 2 Aug 1954 and buried at the
Ash/Hickory Grove Cemetery.
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