From his Lisbon, New Hampshire, birthplace Rufus Ash travelled many a long,
  hard mile to his final resting place in the Highland Cemetery.
     Rufus was a revered elder of the community, having served his country both
  in the Mexican and Civil Wars. In 1900 he was carried to his rest by his
  comrades of the GAR, where the old veteran found his eternal peace.
     Rufus was born October 6, 1816, the son of Nathaniel and Sarah (Bayley) Ash.
  Following the westward trend of the time, the family removed after 1834 to Clark
  County, Ohio. He later moved to Hamilton County, Indiana, where on May 25, 1845,
  he married Susan, daugher of Joshua and Mary (Morgan) Wright. (Susan's grand-
  father and uncles were instrumental in helping Alexander Campbell establish the
  faith of the Disciples of Christ in Indiana.)
     The young family moved in 1854 with their three young children to Clark
  County, MO. There was his residence until after the death of his beloved wife
  in 1883; in about 1886 he elected to live the remaineder of his days with his
  youngest son, Amos. Mrs. William (Alice) Sturgeion, his youngest daughter, had
  already moved to Barber County in the fall of 1883, where she and her family
  lived until the famous "Run" in 1895 to Oklahoma, when they staked a claim in
  Kingfisher County. A nephew of Rufus, Manson Thomas Ash, desiring a better life,
  came to Barber County and taught school near Sun City for a number of years.
     Mr. Ash enriched greatly the lives of those who knew him, and particularly
  those of his oldest grandchildren.
     To mourn his death he left Joshua Wright, born 1846, married Mary Hanslow of
  Clark County, MO; Mary, born 1847, married to Aaron McNerlin, and after his
  death to Michael Lewis of Seiling, Oklahoma; Mrs. Joseph (Sarah) Decker, born
  1850, of Llano, Texas; Jordon, born 1855, died Rangely, Colorado; Mrs. William
  (Alice) Sturgeion, born 1858, of Ames, Oklahoma; and Amos, born 1860, married
  Rebecca Isabella Wiley of Barber County, Kansas.
     At the writing of this article, he still has five granddaughters - surely a
  rememberance of the hale and hearty men and women who forged the wilderness into
  the United Sates.
               
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 89