John H. Ashford (1875-1908)

ASHFORD, LONES

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 3/12/2017 at 14:29:24

From Nevada Representative July 20, 1908

OBITUARY

DEATH OF JOHN ASHFORD

Mrs. Josephine Ashford received advice last evening of the death of her son John Ashford which occurred at Nome, Alaska on July 17 of heart failure. Other particulars are meager. His brothers George M. and Charles had recently arrived at Nome from Seattle where they had spent the winter and they were consequently with him at the end. John had remained as usual at Nome for the winter and there had been some previous report that he was not in his ordinary health but there had been nothing to suggest that his condition was serious.

John Ashford was thirty-three years of age, having been born in Ohio, in January, 1875 He was brought by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. O. G. Ashford, to Nevada when he was a boy, and the most of his life was spent on the Ashford farm in Nevada township, or in town, after his father was elected sheriff and the family moved in from the farm. He grew here to manhood, and after he had grown up he was variously employed, her and elsewhere, until the Klondike gold excitement arose, soon after which he went with his brothers to Nome, where he had remained almost continuously for the past six years. His brothers who were with him there and a large part of the rest of the Nome population have been in the habit of working up there like mad for the hundred days of the open season and then coming back to the states for the winter, but his habit has been to employ himself similarly during the hundred days and then remain there for the Arctic winter also. He was an exceedingly strong man and could probably stand more of that sort of life than most men could stand but all men have their limitations, and it is perhaps not so very surprising that he had succumbed to the continuing strain. He was a man of much energy and persistence, as his continued life at Nome amply proved; and the news of his death is an occasion of shock and great regret to his family and to host of friends of his youth.

SUBMITTER'S NOTE: John H. Ashford was the son of Oliver G. Ashford and Josephine Lones.