William Ashmore, Jr. was born September 28, 1851 in Bangkok, Siam. William graduated from Brown University in 1870 and in 1879 from the Rochester Theological Seminary. Following his marriage to Lida Scott October 10, 1879 he began a Baptist missionary career also in the Swatow District, which lasted 46 years. He translated the Bible into Swatow's Tei-chi dialect. He and Lida had two children, Edith, born May 27, 1882 and Frank, born January 5, 1885. He died March 11, 1937. Lida Scott was born in Waterford, Michigan January 19, 1852. In 1876 she married Albert Lyon, an acquaintance of Ashmore's at Rochester Theological Seminary. After Lyon died from a fever she married Ashmore. In Swatow, Lida was a teacher, administrator, and Red Cross volunteer. Lida wrote a book detailing the mission's history, The South China Mission of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. Lida died June 6, 1934. Their children, Edith and Frank, moved to the United States in 1895 where they were raised in a home for missionary children in Morgan Park, Illinois. Edith graduated from Vassar College in 1906 and married Charles Elder. They had two children, Rachel and Philip. Following Charles' death in 1935, Edith relocated to Albany, Oregon where she later married Fred Hensolt. William Ashmore, Sr. was born in Putnam, Ohio December 25, 1824. He graduated from Granville College in 1845 and from the Western Baptist Theological Institution in Covington, Kentucky in 1848. In 1850, he married Martha Sanderson and they embarked for missionary duties in South China. William's missionary career lasted until 1903 and he is remembered as an exuberant pioneer of Baptist missions in South China. With William Jr. he founded the Ashmore Theological Seminary in Swatow. He died April 21, 1909. Zar Scott was the brother of Lida Ashmore. He was born in Waterford, Michigan October 25, 1848. The collection includes his correspondence with the Ashmores and other missionaries in the Scott family.
From the description of Ashmore family papers, 1850-1937. (University of Oregon Libraries). WorldCat record id: 53276839
