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Below is a family biography included in The History of Jasper County, Missouri published by Mills & Company in 1883.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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FRANCIS ASHENS, farmer, section 32, post-office Carthage, was born in Washington county, Ind., Oct. 2, 1844. At the age of fourteen he immigrated with his parents to southwest Missouri, settling on Haskins Prairie, Jasper county, where he led an uneventful life up to the civil war, when the family were obliged to leave the county for safety on account of their Union sentiments. They went to Kansas, where our subject enlisted in Company M of the Fifteenth Regiment Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, serving in Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, and New Mexico. He was at the battles of Lexington, Little Blue, Independence, Big Blue, Round Mound, Mine Creek, and Newtonia. They were ordered into the western department to suppress the hostile Comanches, Kickapoo, and Ute Indians, where they had several brushes with the red men; in one important fight over 300 Indians were killed. They were ordered back to the states and mustered out in October, 1865. After a three months’ stay in Kansas he returned to Jasper county, since which time he has been a permanent resident. He was married here March 30, 1867, to Miss Margaret Chrisman, a native of Jasper county, only daughter of Robert and Melvina Chrisman, old residents of the county. From this union there are five children: Robert, Ransom, Albert, William, and Jennie. His farm is well situated, four and one-half miles northeast of Carthage, skirted on the south by Spring River timber. Mineral is supposed to exist in paying quantities.

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This family biography is one of more than 1,000 biographies included in The History of Jasper County, Missouri published in 1883.  For the complete description, click here: Jasper County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Jasper County, Missouri family biographies here: Jasper County, Missouri Biographies

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