Isaac Ashton

ASHTON, DRIGGS

Posted By: C Swearingen (email)
Date: 2/13/2007 at 01:08:39

Isaac Ashton. This honored pioneer, the third settler within the limits of what is now Monona County, and who for many years was a resident of the township that rightly bears his name, will long be held in remembrace by the people of this section of the state. From the time that he came here, when the county contained the families of Aaron W. Cook and Josiah Sumner, he has seen it grow, develop and fill up with an industrious, thriving people, until it is what it is to-day.
Mr. Ashton was born in Hampshire County, Va., July 4, 1811, and is the son of Joseph and Mary Ashton, both of whom were, also, natives of the Old Dominion. When Isaac was yet a child the family removed to Muskingum County, Ohio, then in the wilderness, where, sometime thereafter, the father died. Four years after the latter event the widow and her family removed to Licking County, in the same State, where she, eventually, died. In the fall of 1832, Isaac Ashton was united in marriage, in Licking County, Ohio, with Miss Ruth Driggs and made his home in that locality until the fall of 1842, when he removed to Hancock County, Ill. In the spring of 1846 he came to Iowa and located in Farmington, and went to work in a sawmill. Soon sending for his family, he there made his home about a year, after which he removed to Kanesville, now Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, where he took up his residence with his family. In the spring of 1848 Mr. Ashton entered into the service of the general Government, assisting in the removal of Ft. Kearney to Grand Island, in the Platte River, and was thus engaged for five months. Returning to his home, he was engaged in farming in Pottawattamie County the following year, but in the fall of 1850, reports of the country north of that point pleasing him, he came to what is now Harrison County, and located at what is now Little Sioux, with the intention of making it his home.
In December, 1851, a Frenchman, by the name of Charles Rulo, drove by his cabin with a load of provisions, bound for Sergeant’s Bluffs, and hired Mr. Ashton to assist him with an extra team. The trail led them through this county, and when they arrived at the beautiful grove on what is now section 32, Ashton Township, which has since been known as Ashton’s Grove, he was struck with it although it was dreary winter and thought it the loveliest spot that he had seen, notwithstanding the ground was covered with snow. He said to himself, “Here I shall make my claim.” Leaving the Frenchman to proceed alone, from this point, the next day, January 1, 1852, Mr Ashton cut four logs and laid the foundation of a cabin. Here he removed his family in February following, as shown by the history of Ashton Township in this work. Here Mr. Ashton made his home for many years, and as settlers located around him became one of the prominent men of the country. In 1856 he erected, at the once promising village of Ashton, an hotel, which he carried on for some years. Having disposed of all his landed interests in Monona County, Mr. Ashton is now passing his latter days in Little Sioux, Harrison County.
Mr. and Mrs. Ashton are the parents of eight children, as follows: Caroline, who was born in Illinois, July 2, 1843: Henry, who was born in the same state, in 1845: Mary , deceased, who was born in Kanesville in 1847: Stephen, who was born in Pottawattamie County in the fall of 1849: Molinda, who was the first white child born in Monona County, born June 11, 1852: Ella, who was born in Monona County in 1854: Isaac, deceased, born in 1858. A portrait of this old pioneer adorns one of the pages of this album.

Source: History of Monona County Iowa
Chicago National Pub. Co. 1890