Ashford was the son of Daniel F. Ashford (1837–1902), M.D., who attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1895, Ashford came to Tensas Parish to manage a plantation for Eli Tullis. He received plantation property thereafter as a wedding gift from his father-in-law, Joseph Moore. Ashford was a stockholder in the Panola Company, an agricultural firm for which Ashford's House successor, Joseph T. Curry of St. Joseph, was the secretary-treasurer. Ashford owned a stable of racing horses and was active in the sportsmen's group, the Cooter Point Club on the Tensas River. Known for his immaculate dress and refined manners, Ashford spent lavishly on himself and his daughters. He is believed to have been the first resident of Tensas Parish to own an automobile and a wristwatch.[3][4][5]
Ashford and his wife, the former Margaret "Maggie" Moore (born September 30, 1878), had three daughters, Marie Louise (born 1903), Edith (born 1908), and Margaret Moore (born December 21, 1911).[6] Mrs. Ashford died in Natchez, Mississippi, of acute cardiac arrest on February 27, 1912, at the age of thirty-three,[7] just two months after Margaret's birth. The daughter Margaret never married and lived until January 30, 1980.[8]
Like most of the Tensas Parish planters, Ashford was a member of the Episcopal Church.[3]
Ashford died at the age of forty-nine. He is interred with his wife, youngest daughter, and parents at Natchez City Cemetery in Natchez, Mississippi.[1] In a special election, Joseph T. Curry was elected to succeed Ashford in the House. Curry served from 1930 until 1944.
^Frederick W. Williamson and George T. Goodman, eds. Eastern Louisiana: A History of the Watershed of the Ouachita River and the Florida Parishes, 3 vols. (Monroe: Historical Record Association, 1939, pp. 1414–1416
