Norfolk City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Ashby, William December 19, 1910 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Donna Bluemink http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00034.html#0008395 November 20, 2018, 8:51 pm Virginian-Pilot, December 20, 1910 DIED - At St Vincent's Hospital Monday morning, December 19, 1910, William Ashby, aged 89. The funeral will take place this (Tuesday) afternoon December 20, at 2 o'clock from H. C. Smith Funeral Apartments, 179 Bank Street, Norfolk, VA. Friends and acquaintances respectfully invited to attend. "UNCLE BILLY" ASHBY, VETERAN OF TWO WARS AND NEWSBOY, IS DEAD "Uncle Billy" Ashby, a veteran of the Mexican and Civil wars, for a quarter of a century a Norfolk "newsboy" and perhaps the oldest "newsy" in the country, is dead. Never again will the familiar figure of this shrunken old man, so round-shouldered that many thought him hump-backed, be seen on the street corners offering newspapers for sale in a low, meek voice. Yesterday morning at 3 o'clock the "grim reaper" silently stalked into St. Vincent's Hospital and sounded final taps for William Ashby, and the valiant spirit, which braved the storm of two wars, quietly "passed over the river to join his comrades on the eternal camping ground." When the final summons came there was not a relative nor a friend he knew at the bedside of this lonely old man. Death was caused by gangrenous pneumonia, complicated with a stomach trouble. No one knows the exact age of "Uncle Billy." He himself did not know, according to his friends. It is generally believed he was well within the eighties. He had told many of his friends that he joined the brave band with General Taylor into Mexico and helped to plant the Stars and Stripes on the walls of Mexico City. If this be correct, Uncle Billy was somewhat over eighty. Walter A. Edwards, one of the former owners of the Public Ledger, said last night that Ashby has been peddling newspapers to his knowledge for twenty or twenty-five years. While "Uncle Billy" was a member of the Pickett-Buchanan Camp, Confederate Veterans, and his comrades often helped him in hours of need, he left behind one good friend, whose heart is grief-stricken by his death. She is Mrs. Maggie Wicks, of No. 197 Church Street. "Uncle Billy" had made his home with her for the past five years. She cared for him, fed him when he could not earn money to buy food, and shed a ray of light into his lonely life, though he was of no blood kin. Mrs. Wicks was able to throw a little more light upon his past life than many of his comrades. She said he has often told her in conversations around the store that he was born in Suffolk and that his mother and a sister were buried in Elmwood Cemetery. "Uncle Billy"-- I always called him "Uncle Billy" and he called me 'Ma,' -- came to live with us five years ago," said Mrs. Wicks l ast night. "I was then living on Cook Avenue. One Sunday I went out of the house and found this little old man sitting in the street crying pitifully. I asked what was the matter, and he told me the people he had been living with had thrown him in the street and he had no place to go. "So I brought him into my home to live with me and my sons, and he has been with us ever since. Our pity for this little old man grew into devotion. I shared everything I had with him. We gave him a room on the fourth floor, and looked out for him as well as our means would permit. His heart was kind. In his last years he acted like he was in his second childhood. "Uncle Billy had never been himself since last winter. I was over in Portsmouth for a few days and he came over there to see me. It was night and someone beat him up and robbed him. That broke the old man up. He never seemed the same afterwards. "We always let him have his way around the house. We never asked him to work. Some mornings he used to get up early, come down and eat his breakfast, and then say he had to go to work. He would then carry out the trash. When coal would be delivered me, he would tell me it was his coal and wood and would carry it in. "Wasn't his death sudden? It was only Friday he was brought home. He hadn't sold his evening papers. He came in suffering with a terrible cramp in his stomach, I wanted to call Dr. Sutton, but he insisted upon seeing Dr. Riddick. When Dr. Riddick came, he had him removed to St. Vincent's Hospital. He suffered terribly Friday night, and we sat up with him most of the night, trying to sooth him." "Uncle Billy's" favorite stand to sell his newspapers was at the ferry wharf. There from early afternoon until late at night he would stand and offer his wares to every person passing. Sometimes when business was dull there, he would move up to Main Street. No "newsboy" ever interfered with "Uncle Billy." He could go where he wished. He had the "right of way." If a green "newsy" would try to tease the little shriveled-up man, a bigger and older "newsy" would take "Uncle Billy's" part and give the tormentor a thrashing which would stop the tantalizing in a few minutes. "Uncle Billy" never cried his wares. He would, with a shaking hand, stick the newspaper under the passer-by's face, offering it for sale. Sometimes he would say "evening paper." Often he would not utter a word. "Uncle Billy" would often tell, in his feeble-voice way, of his war life. Mrs. Wicks said when he came home at night he would sit around the stove and tell war stories. "We couldn't get him to talk about anything else," said Mrs. Wicks. "He just seemed wrapped up in the South and the Confederate soldiers." After "Uncle Billy" joined the Pickett-Buchanan Camp, he never missed a meeting. He would sit around, listen to what was being said, and he always answered roll call on occasions when the camp was called out to parade. "Uncle Billy" used to tell his friends of the fight, led by Captain B. P. Loyall, of Norfolk, in capturing the Federal warship "Underwriter" off the Carolina coast in 1862. Though not recalled by Captain Loyall, the old man said he was a member of that famous expedition and would often boast of it. After that he joined the Confederate army, enlisting in the Sixty-first Virginia Regiment, in the company under Captain John R. Ludlow. He served under the Stars and Bars until the surrender at Appomattox. Then he came to Norfolk. His comrades say he was a good soldier and had a good record. All that's mortal of "Uncle Billy," this veteran of two wars, lies in a casket at H. C. Smith's undertaking establishment, Bank Street. His body is clothed in the Confederate uniform, which he loved so fervently. Today at 2 o'clock, escorted by his comrades, he will be carried to Elmwood Cemetery and there laid in his eternal resting place. Adjutant T. B. Jackson, of the Pickett-Buchanan Camp, Confederate Veterans, issued the following last night in respect to "Uncle Billy": Headquarters, Pickett-Buchanan Camp, C. V., Norfolk, Va, December 20th, 1910. "Attention Comrades: Please meet at the funeral apartments of Mr. H. C. Smith, Bank Street, this afternoon at 1:30 o'clock to attend the funeral of our late comrade William Ashby. Comrades are specially urged to be present on this occasion to do honor to this comrade, who so dearly loved the Confederate cause." File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/norfolkcity/obits/a/ashby439nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/vafiles/ File size: 8.7 Kb