Simeon Ashley

Simeon Ashley

b. 8 Mar 1830 in Coffee County, Tennessee

d. 29 Mar 1897 in Coffee County, Tennessee

m. 6 Aug 1856 to Ellender J. Roughton (b. 24 Dec 1844 in Coffee County, Tennessee)

taken by David Tharp, FindAGrave.com

Simeon Ashley is the brother of Nancy (Ashley) Moore, my 3rd great-grandmother. Nancy married Thomas W. Moore in 1848. Based on previous research, I had assumed Simeon Ashley was very close to the Moore family. On the 1850 census, Thomas and Nancy are married and are living with the Ashley family, including Simeon.

In 1860, Thomas and Nancy have a household, and Simeon Ashley, age 28, is living with them.

Recently, I have been researching Thomas W. Moore in depth with hopes to discover the identity of his parents. To gather more clues, I began to research Simeon Ashley because of his close ties to this family. I had theorized that Thomas and Simeon had possibly served in the Tennessee Volunteer army during the Mexican war.

While searching, I stumbled across the following bio for Simeon Ashley:

Simeon Ashley, clerk of Coffee county Circuit court, and a prominent citizen of Manchester, was born March 8, 1830, near Beech Grove, Tenn. He is the son of William and Mary (Weaver) Ashley, of English and Scotch descent respectively - the former born in South Carolina, Lawrence District, February 14, 1789, and the latter, in North Carolina in 1790. Their parents came to Tennessee in early days, and the maternal father was a companion of James K. Polk's father in the then far West. After the marriage of the elder Ashley, in about 1812, they made Beech Grove their permanent home. He was a farmer, a stanch Democrat, and a Primitive Baptist in religion. The mother of our subject was a member of the Methodist episcopal Church. The dates of the father's and mother's deaths were in 1870 and 1869 respectively. One of eight children, our subject received his early education at Beech Grove Academy, and taught and farmed about eight years. With W. T. Moore he established a general store at Bradyville in 1856. In 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate service Company E, Eighteenth Tennessee Infantry. His varied experiences may be seen from the following engagements: Fort donelson, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, etc. After his long military life he returned and cared for his father until the latter's death. Since 1878 he has been in public service, as county clerk twice, and his present position of circuit clerk. He is a popular self-made man and property owner, having a farm in Coffee County, and Manchester lots. August 6, 1856, he married Ellender J. Roughton, born December 24, 1844, in Coffee County, and daughter of Elisha H. Roughton, Esq., of Coffee County. They have four children - three sons and a daughter. Mr. Ashley is a decided Democrat, and although not a church member he believes in the Christian religion. Mrs. Ashley belongs to the Christian Church.

This names "W.T. Moore" as his business partner when he opened the general store in Bradyville in 1856. This W.T. Moore is obviously our Thomas W. Moore. He had also been called "T.W." earlier in his life. This bio is either a mistype or cites another name for Thomas.

I had wondered why Thomas was listed as a school teacher in the 1850 census. Ten years later, he had changed his occupation to "merchant." After reading the Simeon Ashley bio, this begins to make sense.

I am happy to see traces of entrepreneurship in my family tree. I am also glad to see that Simeon was such an outstanding citizen in Manchester, even serving as county clerk. Plus, this newly discovered bio gives me another name to research further: "W.T. Moore"

My hopes are to find more information that was previously missed or overlooked.