Ashbel Fairchild Hite

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Birth: 15 Jun 1847,Monongalia county, Virginia (West Virginia)                                   

Death: 16 Aug 1931, Seabeck, Kitsap county, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Alice J. Hite (née Wilson), Robert Bruce Hite

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Matthias Hite (Virginia) DAR # A055697, Joseph M. Longacre (Virginia), and Peter Hess (Pennsylvania).

Ashbel Fairchild Hite was born on June 15, 1847, in Monongalia County, in what is now West Virginia. Historical note: West Virginia separated from Virginia in 1863 during the Civil War to join the Union, becoming the only state formed from a Confederate state.

Ashbel was the son of George Hite Jr. and Elizabeth Hess, but from the age of two he was raised by his grandparents, George Hite Sr. and Lucinda Longacre. Further research is needed to determine what became of his parents. In his probate, Ashbel’s grandfather left him $100 to be used for his support and education.

In 1865, when Ashbel was nearly 18 years old, he signed enlistment papers as a substitute for Isaac Hite—presumably his uncle—in the Union Army’s 1st West Virginia Cavalry Regiment, Company A. He enlisted on March 3 and served until July 8, 1865. Military records describe him as having blue eyes, dark hair, and standing 5 feet 4 inches tall.

Ashbel reappears in the historical record at age 23 with his marriage to Alice Jane Wilson, the eldest daughter of Civil War veteran Dempsey Wilson. They were married in Noble County, Ohio, on May 11, 1871. Their first child, George (born 1874), was born in West Virginia, but the family later settled in Ohio, where four more children were born: Icia (1876), Edward (1878), Robert (1881), and Sadie (1885). Census records indicate that Ashbel and Alice had six children, though only five were living; the name of the deceased child is unknown.

In 1889, Ashbel and his family, along with his Wilson in-laws, traveled west toward Seattle and eventually settled in the Crosby/Seabeck area of Washington. Ashbel worked as a cement contractor. He was living in Seattle during the Great Fire of June 6, 1889, and according to his daughter Sadie, her parents made coffee for the firefighters during the crisis.

Ashbel Fairchild Hite died on August 16, 1931, at the age of 84, in Seabeck, Washington, from a bladder infection. He was buried beside his wife Alice, who had passed away earlier that same year.