Ashby's has been in existence since 1882 and has come through five generations of the Ashby family. The business was started that year by the late J. W. Ashby and initially was situated on Main Street in the site where Cox Auto Company later located. This is the approximate present location of the Arkansas Radiation Oncology Center.

Ashby, a native Georgian, the son of John and Rebecca Ashby, grew up on a farm and learned the carpenter and blacksmith trades. After the Civil War broke out, Ashby enlisted, fighting for the South from 1862 until his parole at Greensboro, N. C., on April 26, 1865. He returned to take care of his mother and her family, then living in north Louisiana, and remained with his mother until her second marriage. In 1868 he moved to Arkansas and married the former Mary Scott. He farmed for 13 years, until moving to Benton in 1882, the year he built a home, opened a general merchandise store and started the undertaker's business.

The company's first hearse was purchased in 1900 and at that time, about a dozen caskets were in stock. In 1914, Ashby retired from active business life until his death in 1923. In 1914, Ashby's son, Robert J. Ashby, who had been closely associated with the business since 1906, acquired the firm and it moved to the corner of Market and South streets, where the Dollar Store stands today. At this time, a mercantile store was located in the front of the building and the undertaking business was in the rear. In 1931, the business moved farther west on South Street, where Johnston's Cleaners is now located.

Robert Ashby formed the Ashby Burial Association in 1936 and remained at the head of the firm until 1950. Ashby's is now in its 5th generation of family operation. Douglas Ashby Hawkins became the owner in 1981, and his wife, Deb, and sons, Kenneth and Chad, work in the funeral home. Ashby's is proud to have served, and to continue to serve, the citizens of Benton and Saline County for 135 YEARS!