Research seems to indicate that William Ashford, also known as Haemer Ashford, was the son of Mariah Butcher Ashford and her husband John Ashford, rather than the son of William Ashford named on his death certificate. Mariah Butcher, the daughter of Ely Butcher and Elizabeth Hart, married John Ashford of Catletts, Kentucky, on September 12, 1833.

William Ashford’s death certificate states that he was born December 25, 1851, in Greenup County, Kentucky. However, the 1860 census lists Haemer Ashford as 12 years old, which would put his year of birth as 1848. At that time he was living with his mother Mariah in Wheelersburg, Scioto County, Ohio.

How and when William arrived in Oregon is uncertain. He first appears in Oregon in the 1880 census in Lake County, Oregon as a 29-year-old carpenter. On May 15, 1883, William married Amanda Jane (Jenny) Sullivan in Dallas, Oregon. He and Jenny had 10 children:

Maude L Ashford, born in 1884
Elmer Lorenzo Ashford, born in 1886
Wiliam Melvin Ashford, born in 1888
George Butcher Ashford, born in 1890
Sarah Elizabeth Ashford, born in 1892
Ruby Alice Ashford, born in 1899
Wallace Raymond Ashford, born in 1902
Velma Blanche Ashford, born in 1903
Aaron Dean Ashford, born in 1905
Arlo Francis Ashford, born in 1909

Son William Melvin’s birth record names his father as “William Hama Ashford”.
William and Jenny were living and farming in Polk County, Oregon, in 1900. In the 1910 census William was a truck farmer in Marion County, Oregon. The previous year his daughter Sadie had married in Marion County. According to a diary written by their daughter Ruby in 1915, the family left from Alpine, Benton County, Oregon and traveled north, appearing to relocate in Portland or some place north, possibly Castle Rock in Cowlitz County, Washington. In 1917 daughter Sadie married in Castle Rock, Washington.

By 1920, William and Jenny were living with the Walter Stafford family in Lone Pine, Lane County, Oregon with their two youngest sons. William was a hired man and Jenny was a caretaker. At some point, they returned to Castle Rock, where they were living when William died in 1925.