seedless ash?

[flashy]

I recently cut down a tree that was right next to my house and starting to show signs of dying. I live on a farm that has been in the family since 1896. My Dad always said this tree was a Seedless Ash. Being not too familiar with the Ash family I'm posting here to find out if that is right. It had small leaves, was roughly 65" tall, had trunk that was 15' around and 55" across at 4' off the ground. Hated like heck to cut it down, but didn't want it to fall on the house. The trunk was solid up until the point where the main branches went out, where it was starting to rot. Also, a lot of the top branches were dying. I counted 120 rings.
Did they have the ability to make an Ash 'seedless' in the 1800's? Was it done by grafting?

 

[ATH]

Ash is dioecious (meaning that there are male and female trees). I'd assume you probably had a male tree - so it would have seedless.

 

[treeseer]

Seedless ash makes less litter, so cultivars like "Marshall's" got very popular.

Then that shiny green bug ate these cultivars faster than other ashes, and they got unpopular.

The trunk was solid up until the point where the main branches went out, where it was starting to rot. Also, a lot of the top branches were dying. I counted 120 rings.

It would be very interesting to see pictures of these primary, scaffold branches, to see the rot. if you haven't burned them yet, could you please post a couple pictures of them?