BIO: Ashbel Green SIMONTON, Dauphin County, PA

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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, 
Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the 
Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: 
J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, page 274.
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  SIMONTON, REV. ASHBEL GREEN, youngest son of Dr. William and Martha 
(Snodgrass) Simonton, was born January 20, 1833.  His classical 
education began in the Harrisburg Academy, under the tuition of Rev. 
Mahlon Long.  After two years' preparatory study he entered the College 
of New Jersey, from which he graduated in 1852, his scholarship and 
acquirements being of the first rank.  In the autumn of the same year 
he went to the South with his brother James and took charge of an 
academy for boys at Starkville, Miss., where he taught with much 
success for eighteen months.  In July, 1854, he returned to Harrisburg 
and entered upon the study of law.  In the spring of 1855 he decided 
upon a theological course, and for this purpose prepared himself for 
entering the theological seminary at Princeton, which he did in 
September of that year.  He was licensed to preach by the Carlisle 
Presbytery, which met at Greencastle on the 14th of April, 1858.  He 
had decided upon a missionary life, and after consultation and 
application to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions was ordered 
to Brazil.  He was ordained by the Presbytery of Carlisle, at 
Harrisburg, April 14, 1859, and on June 19, following, he sailed from 
Baltimore in the merchant ship "Banshee" for Rio Janeiro.  He arrived 
at the latter place August 12, and at once entered upon his field of 
labor.  In November, 1864, he took the lead in the establishment of the 
Impresna Evangelica, a semi-monthly newspaper for the dissemination of 
religious information among the people of Brazil.  Educated Brazilians 
acknowledged their surprise at the elegance and force with which he 
wrote in their native language and his leading articles in the Impresna 
were characterized by great ability, clearness and comprehension of the 
subjects treated.  In the spring of 1862 he returned to the United 
States and married Helen Murdock, daughter of William Murdock, of 
Baltimore, Md., March 19, 1863, and sailed for Brazil May 23, 1863, 
reaching the harbor of Rio, July 16.  His wife died after a short 
illness, July 28, 1864, which to a missionary in a foreign land was an 
incalculable loss.  But there was a duty to perform and he labored 
zealously for the Master.  Toward the close of March, 1865, he made a 
missionary tour into the Province of Sao Paulo, returning to his post 
in Rio early in May.  The news of Lee's surrender, the suppression of 
the great Rebellion and the assassination of President Lincoln reached 
that city in quick succession.  When there was no longer any doubt that 
the last mentioned event had occurred, he was requested to preach a 
sermon to the American residents on the occasion, which was delivered 
at a special service, May 21, 1865, to the largest assembly of his 
countrymen ever convened at Rio.  Near the close of 1865 the Presbytery 
of Rio Janeiro was organized at Sao Paulo, that being the mission 
station of his brother-in-law, A. L. Blackford.  It was soon perceived 
that his overtaxed energies had begun to give way under the gradual 
approaches of the disease which forever ended his earthly activities.  
Unable to continue his labors, he left Rio for the home of his sister, 
at Sao Paulo, the last week of November, 1867, where after a brief 
illness, he died December 9, following.  He was buried on the same day 
from the little church of Sao Paulo, two Englishmen and two Americans 
officiating as pall-bearers, addresses being made in Portugese by Rev. 
Mr. Blackford and Rev. Emanuel Pires, singing the hymn, "We Speak of 
the Land ever Blest." The Rev. Mr. Simonton possessed a clear, 
penetrating intellect, a sound and discriminating judgment.  His manner 
in public was quiet, unaffected, dignified and self-possessed.  In 
relations of private life he was frank, genial, social, affectionate 
and noble-hearted.