Caldwell County MO Archives History .....NATHAN POTTS FAMILY OF SOUTH CALDWELL  
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 4:52 pm

THE NATHAN POTTS FAMILY OF SOUTH CALDWELL COUNTY IN THE FIFTIES
	Narrator:  Mrs. E.G. Wallace

     Mrs. Wallace was a daughter of Wm. Kesterson of the south part of the 
county in the fifties.  Kesterson was one of the families in that vicinity who 
during the Civil War fled with their families from that section to avoid 
trouble with the Caldwell county militia who were "pestering the Southern 
sympathizers to death" killing them and burning property.  He took his family 
to Nebraska.  It was while yet in this county that he served as "curator" in 
administering the will of his friend and neighbor Nathan Potts.
     He died before 1860 and Mrs. Wallace recalled him well.  He must have 
been somewhat of a character.  When he died, he in his will freed his oldest 
and favorite slave Jule, this being a custom in some families; but he also 
said that his other slaves should not be freed.  In spite of the fact that he 
was a plantation owner and held several slaves, he could not write, could not 
even sign his own name and when he signed legal documents etc. he used a 
mark.  Some one signed his name for him, he made an X and then above his name 
was written the word His and below it was written the word Mark.  This was 
done on his will.  Such a thing was not so uncommon in his generation, when 
people were reared in backwoods country, where not even the poorest schools 
were to be had.


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