In the books' own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. The later printing (1910) is folded below the first. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
From Young's history of Lafayette County, Missouri (1910), History of Lafayette County, Mo., carefully written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of its townships, cities, towns and villages, together with a (1881)
AI EDGAR ASBURY, banker, Higginsville. Mr. Asbury was born in Pruntytown, Taylor county, West Virginia, August 16, 1836. He was partly educated at Rector College, Virginia, and finished his education at Allegheny College, Pennsylvania. In 1857 he removed with his father's family to Richmond Ray county. Mo. Here he studied law in the offices of C. T. Garner and Hon. Mordecai Oliver, formerly member of congress and afterwards secretary of state of the state. In 1859 he was admitted to the bar and removed to Texas county, and practiced his profession until the breaking out of the civil war, when he took service on the side of the south, first in the service of the state of Missouri, and afterward, and until the close of the struggle, in that of the Confedrate States. In 1865 he returned to Missouri and engaged as clerk in his brother's store at Dover, in this county. In a short time, comparativlj% he engaged in business for himself as a merchant at Dover, where he remained until 1878, when he returned to Higginsville and opened a banking house. In 1880 he organized the Asbury-Catron banking company, of which he is still the senior member. Mr. Asbury was married Nov. 9, 1865 to Miss Ellen Knox Gaw, of Lafayette county, who was born May 15, 1842. They have been the parents of seven children, two of whom died in infancy and five are living, viz: Eva Garnett, Hugh Gaw, Leah Barnett. Ai Edgar, Jr., and Harvey N. He is a member of the masonic order and he and Mrs. Asbury are members of the Baptist church. He has large interests in the coal mines near Higginsville, on the Chicago & Alton railway, is proprietor of Asbury's addition to the town of Higginsville, and is possessed of a fair competency of this world's goods, every dollar of which has been honestly acquired by himself, for in almost every sense Mr. Asbury is a self-made man. At the close of the civil war, and upon his return to Lafayette county, his capital was a $20 gold piece, all that was left of the proceeds of the sale of his horse and pistols after his surrender at Galveston, Texas. Capt Asbury's record as a soldier is a remarkable one. His first service was as conductor of a wagon train of powder, which he conveyed from Jefferson City to the camp of Gen. J. H. McBride, about 150 miles. This was a perilous service since the road was rough and rocky, the powder sifted from the kegs continuously and the wheels of the wagons struck fire at almost every revolution. On reaching the camp of Gen McBride that officer appointed him an Aide-de- Camf on his staff with the rank of lieutenant colonel. In this capacity he served in the battles of Oak Hill, Dry Wood, Lexington and in Zagonyi's attack on Springfield. At ElkHorn or Pea Ridge, he was on the staff"of Gen. Frost. He served twelve months in the service of the state, and upon the expiration of this term engaged under Gen. McBride in recruiting troops for the Confederate States, during which service he was engaged in many an adventure and skirmish with the enemy. April 20, 1863, at West Plains, Howell county, this state, he was captured together with his company of recruits intended for Cornell's regiment of Missouri volunteers. Capt. Asbury was a prisoner of war for twelve months, during which period he endured extreme privations and sufferings, not to mention indignities at the hands of his captors. While enjoying ( the hospitalities of Federal prison-keepers he was frequently confined in filthy prison cells, half-starved and clad, and incarcerated closely for many weeks at a time. At St Louis not long after his capture he was paroled with 27 other officers and started for City Point, Va., for the purpose of being exchanged, where he arrived and exchange being refused he was placed in Fort Norfolk. On the way from Fort Norfolk to Fort Delaware, the vessel — the Maple Leaf — upon which he and about 1 00 other
Confederate officers were, was seized by about ten daring spirits, who overpowered the guard, forced the engineers to land, and, after administering paroles to the officers and crew, struck out for the Confederate lines which they reached in safety. Twenty-seven of the prisoners, Capt. A. among the number, took no part in the emeute, having due regard for their paroles and refused to escape. Notwithstanding they had sworn to do no act in aid of the Federal government until exchanged the officers of the Maple Leaf, as soon as their captors were out of sight, placed the twenty-seven paroled Confederates under guard, and instead of taking the vessel to her destination, steamed away to Fortress Monroe and from there to Fort Delaware. From here Capt. Asbury and his comrades were taken to Jonhson's Island, in Lake Erie. In February, 1864, he was exchanged at Richmond, Va., and went to the parole camp at Demopolis, Ala. From Demopolis he made an adventurous journey to the army of Gen. Price in Arkansas, joining Gen. Shelby's division, at Batesville. In the fall of 1 864 he came into Missouri with a recruiting force, commanded by Col. Rathbun, in advance of Gen. Price's army. The force captured Lexington and Capt. Asbury conscripted the town. After Price's army passed through Lexington, Capt. Asbury crossed the river with 18 others, and became temporarily attached to Bill Anderson's guerrillas, and was present when Anderson was killed. After this event Arch Clements took command and led the force around Richmond, across the Missouri at Brunswick, and Capt. A. soon made his wayto the Confederate armyunder Gen. Kirby Smith, in Arkansas. With this army he served until the close of the war, when, as before stated, he surrendered at Galveston, Texas, in June, 1865, and returned to Missouri, arriving at Dover, July 9, following.
As printed in History of Lafayette County, Mo., carefully written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of its townships, cities, towns and villages, together with a (1881). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
CAPT. AI EDGAR ASBURY.
Herein are chronicled the doings of one of the most prominent citizens of Higginsville and of Lafayette county, one connected with many of her largest and most thriving enterprises, and one who has always taken a leading part in all plans for the advancement of the common interests. His has also been a life of much more than ordinary experience, and one whose details form very interesting and instructive historical matter.
Capt. Ai Edgar Asbury was born at Pruntytown, Taylor county, Virginia (now West Virginia), August 16, 1836. He traces his ancestry back to a brother of Bishop Asbury. His grandfather, John, was a farmer of
Fauquier county, Virginia. His father, Colonel John, was born in Fauquier county and was a judge of the county court in Virginia, and colonel of the Virginia militia. In 1856 he settled at Richmond, Ray county, Missouri, farming and keeping a hotel, but returned to Virginia soon after the outbreak of the Civil war. After the war he came back to Missouri and was a merchant at Plattsburg, Clinton county, until he died in 1882, when past seventy years of age. He was an active and esteemed member of the Baptist church. He married Leah Bayly Rogers, also a native of Fauquier county, daughter of William A. Rogers, who was the son of Edward Rogers, a Revolutionary soldier. William A. Rogers was a large farmer of Virginia and served as high sheriff of his county. He died when past eighty. Mrs. Leah Asbury died at Plattsburg, in 1878. Through her grandfather, Pierce Bayly, proof has been established for membership in the Sons of the Revolution. He enlisted for the war and served in the Continental line. Of ten children of John Asbury, eight grew to maturity. Ai was the sixth. William Pierce was in the Confederate army, practiced law at Dover, Lafayette county, and Warrensburg, Missouri, where he died in 1879. Mountjoy, who was a Confederate captain, acting as quartermaster, is now engaged in sheep growing at Anson, Texas. Harriet married Samuel Harrison, of Ray county, Missouri, and died when young. Virginia Bird is the wife of Hon. W. F Davis, of St. Joseph, Missouri, a former member of the state Legislature. Penelope was married three times, her last husband being Mr. Shields, of Virginia. Emma is the wife of Col. David S. Hall, of Cripple Creek, Colorado.
Ai E. Asbury attended Rector College in Virginia, and Allegheny College at Meadville, Pennsylvania. In 1857 he followed his father to Missouri and read law with Hon. C. T. Garner and May. M. Oliver, formerly a member of Congress, and in 1859 was admitted to practice and was practicing at Houston, Texas county, Missouri, until the outbreak of the war.
In May, 1861, Mr. Asbury was a delegate to the secession convention at Jefferson City, and when it was decided to organize the State Guard he was entrusted to transport three wagonloads of gunpowder to his county and to deliver a commission as brigadier-general to Judge James H. Mc- Bride, of Texas county, and after a dangerous journey delivered his charge safely. General McBride at once gave him a commission as lieutenant-colonel, and made him his aide-de-camp and sent him seventy miles to Springfield with dispatches and commissions for others to serve as his staff. The town was full of Unionists, and it required some clever diplomacy to elude them and return to Texas county safely; as it was, he barely missed Siegel's German soldiers, who were en route to Springfield. A little later, with his brigade, he joined General Price in Arkansas, and at the battle of Wilson's Creek he had an active part. He saw General Lyon after he was killed and, cutting a button from his coat, sent it to his mother at Richmond, Missouri. He was then in the campaign to the Missouri river and assisted in the capture of Mulligan at Lexington in September, 1861. He was behind the lines of hemp bales and at the surrender he received a fine sword and pair of pistols from a Federal officer. The winter of 1861-2 was spent at Springfield, and in March he participated in the sharp fight at Pea Ridge. That summer and fall Was replete with incidents, he being often sent by General McBride on dangerous and important missions, with Batesville, Arkansas, as headquarters, where he made many pleasant acquaintances, especially among the young ladies, with whom it would seem that he was quite a favorite. Once, with a few others, he was sent out to capture the mail of General Custer, who was moving into northern Arkansas. Two drowsy mail carriers were easily captured, and information obtained that a regiment of Illinois soldiers were coming to reinforce Custer. Three hundred and fifty men were led by General McBride to ambuscade them, and upon coming into sight, McBride whirled his horse so suddenly to get out of range that he lost his saddle bags, including the regimental mail. McBride retreated south of White river and remained there until Custer withdrew from Batesville, when Ai Asbury was one of the first to enter that town. In April, 1863, he went into Missouri to recruit, and with some twenty recruits was quartered in a private house in West Plains when he was surprised and captured. He was taken to St. Louis, and after some six weeks sent to Point Lookout to be exchanged. Delays occurred and on June 13th. in company with twenty-six Confederate officers, he was placed on the boat "Maple Leaf," a fine steamer, to be taken to Fort Delaware. Some seventy-five prisoners were already on board, and at a given signal each attacked a guard, and after a few minutes' struggle, in which not a shot was fired or a person killed, the vessel was captured by the prisoners, who placed the former captain of the "Star of the West" in command. The vessel was landed on the Virginia coast and those Confederates who were able started for their lines. Some of the sick, including Asbury, were left on the vessel and it was turned over to the Federals. They were taken to Fort Delaware and later to Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie, near Sandusky, Ohio, where there were some twenty-five hundred prisoners. Here he was kept until February 9, 1864, and was better treated than at any former prison. Three hundred prisoners were to be exchanged, and he was one of those to draw lots for exchange, which was finally made at Demopolis, Alabama. They were received by President Davis at Richmond and sent to Demopolis, where they were exchanged on May 14, 1864. Captain Asbury bought a horse and was ordered back to his old command west of the Mississippi, and reported to General Joe Shelby at Jacksonsport, Arkansas. After doing some recruiting in southern Missouri he was sent north to the Missouri river and spent a few days with General Price near Lexington. Deciding to see his father and family at Richmond he crossed the Missouri river in a skiff, leading his horse, and joined some nineteen others who had done the same. They met a company of Federals or home guards and scattered them, and then went on to Clay county. After a few days, in company with Captain Henly, of Richmond, he started again for that place and soon met Bill Anderson, who, with his men, was retreating from the raid and fight at Centralia. He wished to cross the river, but was attacked, and in the melee that followed Anderson was killed. In a few days the rest of the command, under Arch Clemens, crossed the river near Brunswick, and on reaching Texas county Captain Asbury left the command, and in a few weeks reported to Gen. E. Kirby Smith, at Shreveport, Louisiana, and was sent to take charge of clothing and provisions at Huntsville, Texas. He surrendered at Galveston, June 20, 1865.
Not being permitted to practice law owing to the ironclad oath prescribed by the Missouri constitution, he entered a store at Dover as a clerk, in which his brother was a partner, and on November 9, 1865, he was married to Ellen Gaw, daughter of Philip Miller Gaw, of Shenandoah county, Virginia, and Mary Barnett Gaw, who was born in Boone county, Kentucky, in 1812. Philip and Mary Gaw were married in Boone county, and in 1839 they settled at Dover, Lafayette county, Missouri. Of the two daughters who reached maturity, one, Eliza, who married a Mr. Garnett, was, after a widowhood of twenty years, married to Rev. George W. Hyde, now of Lexington, Missouri.
Two of Captain Asbury's children died in infancy. Eva Garnett, who died at the age of twenty-five years, was a student of Stephens and Hardin College. Hugh Gaw is assistant cashier of the American Bank of Higginsville. Leah Barnett graduated from Hardin College and is the wife of John P. Withers, a farmer of San Antonio, Texas. Ai Edgar is manager of the Higginsville Mill Company. Harry Newton is with his brother in the mill.
Captain Asbury is president of the American Bank, started thirty-two years ago, called the Bank of Asbury, because he owns two-thirds of the stock. He is a director in the Higginsville Switch Company, which connects the Missouri Pacific and the Chicago & Alton railroads, and has some six miles of track leading to several coal mines. He is president of the Higginsville Milling Company, capital one hundred thousand dollars, which has a capacity of ten thousand barrels, and is the most important manufacturing enterprise in the county. Thirty years ago he built a small one hundred and fifty-barrel mill, which burned four years ago, and was a paying proposition. The present big mill is its successor. He was a director in the Kansas City & Chicago (now the Chicago & Alton) railroad during its promotion and construction, and still has stock in the Chicago & Alton. Since the organization of the Confederate Home Association he has served as its treasurer. He organized banks at Corder, Aullville and at Mayview, and still owns a large part of the Corder Bank stock. He is trustee of the Rouse Memorial Fund to build a memorial abbey at Richmond, Virginia.
Captain Asbury served as Democratic committeeman in his district in the Cleveland campaign, was a supporter of Palmer and Buckner, but later voted for Bryan, and is now in favor of Gaynor, Harmon or Folk for President. For many years he was a business associate of the late H. G. Smith, of Corder, with whom he developed the coal fields of Lafayette county. He also laid out a hundred and sixty-acre addition to Higginsville. He has been active in the Fair Association and in all that advances the interests of Higginsville. In 1880 the Captain built his present residence, one of the finest in Higginsville. The Captain has been one of the foremost residents of the county for many years, and it would be hard to name any man who has done more to advance the development of the county than he has done. The life of such a man is an inspiration to every one who reads his deeds.
As printed in Young's history of Lafayette County, Missouri (1910). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
The printed record stops around 1910. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.