Barbara Ellen Asire

Barbara Ellen Asire, my great-grandmother, was born February 24, 1858 in Millcreek Township, Coshocton County, Ohio.  She had a twin sister, Amanda, who lived only six weeks.  They were the youngest of eight children born to Henry M. and Elizabeth Conrad Asire.

Both the Asire and Conrad families came to Ohio from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.  Elizabeth Conrad arrived in 1826 with her family in a covered wagon.  The Asire family came a few years after that.  Henry and Elizabeth were married in 1836 in Holmes County, Ohio.  Six years later on March 26, 1842, 95 acres were deeded to them by Elizabeth's parents, Jacob and and Mary Conrad, for the sum of $500 (tribute to Barbara Ellen Asire Bechtol, written by daughter Nellie Bechtol Patterson).  That land was in Millcreek Township.  They built four different homes on the land and were living in the last when when Barbara was born.  Ironically, she died in that same room nearly 53 years later.  Photo of the Asire home taken c. 1902 - Barbara with several of her children.

Barbara attended  church and Sunday School at the Reformed Church in New Bedford.  She went to Hardridge, which was a one-room school house located just over the hill from where they lived.   Her brother Leonard taught at the school for one term while she was there.  Later, her children would attend the same school. 

In 1879, at the age of 21, she married Frederick Bechtol, son of Nathan and Nancy Griffith Bechtol.  He, too, was also born and raised in Millcreek Township.  The Bechtols were farmers who had come to Coshocton County from Pennsylvania.

Frederick and Barbara lived with her widowed mother for several years (I assume until Elizabeth's death in 1892).  During the 1880's they purchased 110 acres from Elizabeth (including the house).  Barbara and Frederick had 12 children.  One son died in 1889, at the tender age of three months.  No one has a record of what the baby's name was.

As a farmer's wife and mother of 11 living children, Barbara led a physically hard and demanding life.  She had been ill for several months before she died on November 24, 1910 - only 52 years old.   It was said that she bore this with patience and endurance.  Her death certificate lists the cause of death as organic heart disease complicated by nephritis (kidney disease) and enlarged liver.  In her obituary a neighbor said this of her:  "The most beautiful feature of her life was that she was always more thoughtful for the happiness and welfare of others than for herself.  Her name will ever be a blessing to her estimable family and all who came in contact with her."

Today her descendants number in the hundreds and are scattered across the country.  Not long ago I asked my mother if she named me after Barbara Ellen.  Although I wasn't, I am still proud to carry her name.  She left a great legacy to look to.  Aunt Nellie wrote in her tribute, "I think we can truthfully say, as in Proverbs, that 'She looketh well to the ways of her household and she eateth not the bread of idleness and her children rise up to call her blessed'."   These photos are of her New Testament, published in 1859, just a year after she was born.  The book measures 3" x 4 1/2".  The cover is peeling and there is some water damage.