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Archiver > OH-FOOTSTEPS > 2001-03 > 0985301445


From: "Ralph W. Cokonougher" <>
Subject: Hester Genealogy by M. Hester, 1752-1905,pp. 16 - 25.
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 22:50:49 -0000


Pages (16) through (25).
"HISTORY AND GENEALOGY OF THE DESCENDENTS OF
JOHN LAWRENCE HESTER AND GODFREY STOUGH. 1752 - 1905."
Compiled by Martin M. Hester in 1905 at Norwalk, Ohio.
****************


discovered one of their large butcher knives lying on the floor by their
side. To lessen their means of doing harm should they attempt it, he had
concealed this knife in an opening between the puncheons of the floor and
the wall. When Mr. Beggs came in he requested one of the Indians to let him
have his tomahawk, which was granted. A few minutes afterwards, the one
that had lost his knife began to feel for it about his person and on the
floor. Not finding it he immediately became furious, sprang to his feet,
violently wrenched the tomahawk out of Mr. Beggs' hands and turned upon my
father with it drawn back as though he would hew him down, exclaiming with
almost every breath, 'Me bad man! Me bad man! Me kill you!' My father
retreated backwards towards the other end of the room where he generally
kept his axes, intending to watch his opportunity to secure one with which
to defend himself. But discovering that the axes were not in their usual
place, he found it necessary to resort to mild means to allay the fury of
his savage antagonist. The other Indian, although so drunk he could not
arise to his feet, seemed to be trying to pacify his infuriated fellow, but
the angry one snapped back his Indian answers in a manner that seemed to
say, 'I'll do as I please.' Father spoke to him kindly, calling him
'Brother' and other soft names, and finally succeeded in getting him
quieted. During all this time Mr. Beggs stood almost motionless by the side
of the fire. A gun-barrel which was used for a fire poker, stood close by
his hand with which he could have dealt an effectual blow on the back of the
savage's head, but he was too badly frightened to think of defending himself
or my father either. We conjectured that when the Indian missed his knife
and saw that Mr. Beggs, who had been brought in at a late hour of the night,
had possession of his tomahawk, he suspected that an attack was premeditated
upon them by my father.
"Though nearly seventy years have elapsed since I witnessed this scene,
it is impressed upon my memory with the vividness of yesterday. I have
never seen so much of the savage depicted in the countenance of any being as
was manifested by this Indian. He was a very large, well-proportioned
Page (16).
**********************

man and his whole appearance bespoke the viciousness as well as the courage
of a wild beast."
Extracts from the will of the late Matthias Hester dated November 21,
1823:
A life estate was given to his wife Susannah. He gave to his son David
the choice of two yearling colts and saddle and bridle, and to each of the
younger sons on their arriving at the age of twenty-one years, a good young
horse and saddle and bridle, and to each of his daughters, who are now
unmarried, at their coming to the age of eighteen years, one cow, one bed
and bedding and a spinning wheel.
MATTHIAS HESTER

(Photograph of Susannah [Huckleberry] Hester.)
Page (17).
***********************

Susannah Huckleberry was a descendant of Lord Craven. She was
affianced to the late Matthias Hester, who said to her after he had been
scalped by the Indians: "As I have lost my scalp I will release you from
your promise." She said: "I am not after the scalp, I want the man, and
therefore do not wish to be released from the engagement." Eighteen months
thereafter they were married, and she bore him twelve noble children, one of
which was a Methodist minister. Many of their grandsons and great grandsons
are devoted and successful ministers in the M. E. Church. A large number of
their descendants are physicians, judges, lawyers, bankers, teachers,
military and prominent men and women in Church and State.
She was one of the noble Methodist women of Southern Indiana in her day.
Children of Matthias and Susannah (Huckleberry) Hester, being the third
generation, were:
26. REV. GEO. KNIGHT, b. September 26, 1794; m. Benee Briggs, January
24, 1820. She was b. near Glasgow, Scotland, December 12, 1789; d.
September 9, 1878, a. 89. He d. September 2, 1874, a. 80.
27. CRAVEN, P., b. May 17, 1796; m. Martha T. Leonard, August 25, 1819.
She was b. August 28, 1799; d. June 19, 1877, a. 78. He d. February 15,
1874, a. 78.
28. WILLIAM, d. in infancy.
29. MARY, b. 1798; m. Wm. L. Muir, May 12, 1816. She d. January 5,
1852, a. 54. He was b. January 12, 1792; d. March 5, 1864, a. 72. Had nine
children.
30. ELIZABETH, b. 1800; d. 1846, a. 46.
31. EFFIE WINLOCK, b. August 3, 1804; m. John Wesley Lee, August 24,
1824. He was b. February, 1797; d. February 15, 1846, a. 49. She d.
November 18, 1885, a. 81; had nine children.
32. DAVID went to New Orleans with a boat load of produce and received
his pay in silver money. When on his way back in a boat on the Mississippi
river, there was a false alarm of fire; he ran to his trunk, got his money
and jumped overboard, with two sticks of wood; but the weight of his money
sunk him to the bottom and he was drowned.
32a. He left one daughter, Catherine.
Page (18).
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33. SARAH, b. September 11, 1807; m. John Combs, January, 1831. He was
b. September 15, 1809; d. January 16, 1885, a. 76. She d. March 24, 1877;
both d. at Charlestown, Indiana.
34. REBECCA, b. November 14, 1808; m. Lewis McCoy, May 24, 1831, at
Charlestown, Indiana. He was b. January 31, 1806; d. at Franklin, Indiana,
September 7, 1874, a. 68. She d. in Dallas, Texas, March 3, 1895, a. 89.
35. WILLIAM ALLEN, b. February 29, 1810; d. August 2, 1890; m. Nancy
Wier, August 12, 1840; left three sons.
36. MILTON PAINE HESTER, b. June 4, 1813; m. Christine Copple, 1840.
She d. May, 1855. Second m. to Martha Caroline Johnson, August 26, 1856.
She d. October 15, 1884. He lives at Centralia, Illinois. Had twelve
children.
37. DR. URIAH A. V. HESTER, youngest son of Matthias and Susannah
Hester, was b. September, 1816; m. Ellen Hudson, January 23, 1850. She d.
1868. He m. for his second wife, Rachel Ann Fiscus, 1884. She was b.
January 27, 1858; d. May 19, 1895. He d. September 20, 1893, a. 77. Had
five children. One child by his first wife, name unknown.

No. 8.
Henry Hester was the youngest son of John Lawrence Hester. He was
born on May 24, 1781, in Fayette county, Pa. He died at Chillicothe, Ohio,
in August, 1833, of cholera. He was married to Rebecca Roberts in 1802.
She was born September 20, 1782; died September 2, 1833. They were
married in Fayette county, Pa., and moved from Redstone, Fayette county,
Pa., in 1804, to Twin Creek township, Ross county, Ohio. He was a
wheelwright and carpenter as well as a farmer and a very reliable and
industrious man. He and his devoted wife were faithful members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, ever willing to lend a helping hand to the poor
and needy, and to do much for the cause of his Master.
Children of Henry and Rebecca (Roberts) Hester, being the third generation,
were:
38. ZACCHEUS, b. December 15, 1803; m. Margaretta Hixon, 1826. She was
b. July 19, 1808; d. September 24, 1878. He d. July 19, 1878, a. 75. Had
nine children.
Page (19).
***********************

39. HENRY, b. June 14, 1808; m. Rachel Ann Cowen, 1835. She was b.
1817; d. June 10, 1903, a. 86. He d. October 3, 1891, in Chillicothe, Ohio,
a. 83. Had six children.
40. CHARLES MONTGOMERY, b. June 4, 1810; m. Mary Christian. She was b.
January, 1806; d. April 30, 1876, a. 70. He d. November 24, 1887, a. 77.
Had four children.
41. JACKSON, b. 1812.
42. ELANDER, b. 1813.
43. REBECCA, b. 1815; m. Jackson Huckleberry.
44. JAMES DICKEY, b. 1817; m. Rebecca Hixon.
Page (20).
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FOURTH GENERATION

No. 9.
(Photograph of Martin and Mary (Stough) Hester.)
Martin Hester, the eldest son of John, Sr., and Elizabeth (Mason)
Hester, was born in Greene county, Pa., September 6, 1787. His youth was
spent on his father's farm acquiring habits of industry.
Though having but a limited opportunity for schooling in the
Subscription Schools, he learned to read and spell in Dillworth's Spelling
Book and went as far as the rule of three in Gough's Arithmetic. But later,
as he had opportunity, having a taste for reading, he became well informed
on many subjects.
In 1807, when twenty years of age, he removed with his
Page (21).
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father's family to Columbiana county, O., where he was married to Mary,
second daughter of Rev. John Stough, November 30, 1809.
He soon bought and settled on a piece of land near by, where he lived
until A.D. 1815, when he entered 160 acres of unbroken forest land in Orange
township (Richland), now Ashland county, O., to which he removed. Having
partly cleared this and built a good house on it he sold it for $600 and
removed to Bronson township, Huron county, O., in 1827.
Here he bought 122 acres of almost entire woodland. The timber was
the choicest. On this he built a frame house and eight years later erected
a commodius brick. The brick and lime were made and burned on the premises.
The trimming stone, which was hauled from Florence, Erie county, seventeen
miles, with a three horse team, was dressed on the place. The timber and
the choicest of lumber were taken from the farm and all the doors and sash
and flooring made by hand and even the lath slit out by hand, and shaved
shingles were made on the premises from pine shingle bolts brought from
Canada. The house stands in fair repair, after being occupied by him and
his descendants for seventy years.
He was a man of untiring industry. His integrity and reliability won
for him the confidence of all who knew him.
In politics he was a lifelong, decided Whig or Republican. He reared
a noble family of four sons and one daughter.
In the year 1820 he was converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal
Church, of which he remained a faithful and an official member till the time
of his death, January 31, 1870.
Page (22).
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A REAL PIONEER MOTHER

Mary Stough was born February 15, 1789, in the Glades of West
Virginia, 160 miles west of Hagerstown, Md., and twenty miles from the
nearest known neighbor.
When three years of age her mother died and her father took her and
three other young children on horseback to Hagerstown to her mother's
people. They had the small-pox on the way, and his horse was unjustly taken
from him, but by the help of Providence and kind friends he got through.
When she was seven years of age her father remarried and commenced in
the woods in Fayette county, Pa. Later he moved to Washington county, Pa.
When she was seventeen years of age, 1806, the family moved to Columbiana
county, O.
Her father, who was a pioneer minister, was moving forward with the
very earliest emigrants. Here again they commenced in the unbroken forest.
November 30, 1809, she was married to Martin Hester, when they commenced
life in the woods. March, 1815, they moved to Ashland county, O., again in
the unbroken wilderness. They brought cattle with them but had no enclosure
to keep them, and the cattle went back to Columbiana county, O., and my
father went after them, which required a week's time, the distance being one
hundred miles, and left the mother with three young children alone in their
cabin home. One day while her husband was gone for the cattle there came
six armed Indians to the house with their rifles, tomahawks, and scalping
knives in their belts. Mother did not run nor scream, but gave them some
turnips which they peeled with their scalping knives and ate and then went
away. The youngest child screamed and ran under the bed. Mother was glad
to see the Indians go.
In 1827 they removed to Bronson, Huron county, O., where they had to
clear away the native forest to build their house, and moved into it in
November. There was no floor, chimney, doors, windows, siding, ceiling,
lathing, plastering, stairs nor loft. But they soon had a comfortable home,
where she lived for thirty-six years, until her death, June 15, 1863, at the
age of seventy-four years - after, as it were, starting
Page (23).
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life for seven times in the unbroken forests. Her life was one of great
industry, economy and thrift, and she was a lifelong, devoted and earnest
Christian.
Her home was always noted as being the most welcome stopping place for
friends and Christians, and especially for ministers. She was greatly
respected and beloved by all who knew her, and her children rise up and call
her blessed.
For further sketch of Mrs. Mary (Stough) Hester, see Stough part of
book.

(Photograph of Hester Brothers and Sister - John S., Eliza, Samuel,
Matthias, and Martin M.)
Page (24).
***********************

Children of Martin and Mary (Stough) Hester, being the fourth
generation, were:
45. JOHN STOUGH, b. November 8, 1810; m. Jane S. Pancost, October 13,
1836. She was b. April 24, 1814; d. May 15, 1837, a. 23. Second m. to
Lucinda M. Hildreth, April 6, 1842. She was b. August 21, 1816; d. November
6, 1899, a. 83. He d. February 17, 1901, a. 91.
46. ELIZA W., b. January 7, 1812; m. James Wilson, March 4, 1832. He
d. March 4, 1839; had four children. Second m. to Elisha Savage. He d. May
9, 1893, a. 85. She d. January 27, 1897, a. 85.
47. SAMUEL, b. August 23, 1813; m. Emily L. Barnum, February 8, 1838.
She was b. August 8. 1818; d. at Paxton, Ill., May 26, 1874, a. 56. He d.
December 29, 1893, in Chicago, Ill.; buried at North Fairfield, O.; a. 80;
had eight children.
48. MATTHIAS, b. December 24, 1815; m. Leucia Kiser, April 25, 1843.
She was b. September 16, 1822; d. October 9, 1879, a. 57; had four children.
Second m. March 1, 1882, to Jennie Crawford. She d. January 7, 1891. He
d. October 18, 1903, a. 88.
49. MARTIN MASON, b. September 23, 1822, in Ashland county, O.; m.
Mary Finlay, May 21, 1850. She was b. October 20, 1824. Both living, had
three children.
Page (25).
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