Person:John Ayres (8)

Notes

From "History of Ritchie County" written by Minnie Kendall Lowther, and published in 1910:

John B. Ayres, the youngest son of this family, above mentioned was long prominently known in this county. He was born in the Old Dominion almost within the shadow of historic old Lexington, and not far from the Natural bridge, in 1831, and was a child of but five summers when his parents came to the McNeill homestead. Six years later they both passed on, and he being thrown upon the world, bound himself to J.J. Vandivort, the Harrisville saddler and harness maker, in 1847, and worked as an apprentice in his shop for the next four on-half years. He was then a journeyman saddler, and merchant for several years, before settling down to his trade at Harrisville, in 1870, where he remained until 1903, when his declining health prompted him to seek a change of climate, which he found in Colorado, after visiting Zion City, the far-famed domain of the late Alexander Dowie, for a brief time. After a short stay in the West, he then resided near Washington City, and at Grafton for a time before going to Spencer in Roane county. He died at his home at Sapulpa, Oklahoma, in November, 1910, and there his remains were interred.

He married Miss Anna Hall daughter of Hannibal Hall, who was twenty-three years his junior, and the two sons, Edgar and Charles, born of this union both died in infancy.