OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 40 *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 01 : Issue 40 -------------------------------- From: "Ralph W. Cokonougher" Subject: Hester Genealogy by M. Hester, 1752-1905,pp. i - 8. Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 22:43:45 -0000 PAGES (i) through (8). "HISTORY AND GENEALOGY OF THE DESCENDENTS OF JOHN LAWRENCE HESTER AND GODFREY STOUGH. 1752 - 1905." "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." Compiled by Martin M. Hester in 1905 at Norwalk, Ohio. **************** (Photograph of "Hester Homestead; Built in 1835; Still occupied by the author.") Page (ii). *********************** Preface. All want to know the future; some desire to know the past; some are led not only to inquire but to wonder who their ancestors were, and from whence they came. As I have lived to see seven generations of our kindred, and personally have learned many items of interest from those who have passed away; and since no one else has seemed to be able or willing to undertake the labor and expense of tracing the families and recording in some substantial form the information, for present and succeeding generations, at the suggestion and earnest request of some, I have undertaken the task. This task seems "herculean" in itself, but more so even to one who being a plain, hard working farmer, and well advanced in years when it was begun. The immediate occasion of this effort was the correspondence with Hon. Melville C. Hester, of Los Angeles, Cal., growing out of the appearance of the picture and obituary notice of my eldest brother, John S. Hester, in the "Western Christian Advocate", whose death took place February 17, 1901. My real purpose has been to know our family history, the character of our people, and to place on record a volume to which succeeding generations may go and learn their ancestry. For that purpose I shall deposit a volume in the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., and in the State Libraries of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Kansas, Texas, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri and New York, and also in Page (iii). ************************ the Pioneer Fire Lands Historical Library at Norwalk, Ohio, and in the Library of the O. W. University at Delaware, Ohio. We hereby wish to express our sincere thanks to the Hon. M.C. Hester, of Los Angeles, Cal.; to the late George Hester, Esq., of Cleveland, Ohio; to Herman M. Smiley, of Lisbon, Ohio; to Geo. C. Howenstein, of Carthage, Mo.; to Capt. John M. McCoy, of Dallas, Texas, and to our daughter, Catherine E. Booth, of Delaware, Ohio, who has been an inspiration as well as a valuable advisor and aid in this effort; and to all others, who by their words of encouragement and material aid in gathering these records, have contributed to this work. The sketch and list of the descendants of Martin Mason, Sr., who was a prisoner of war, was furnished by Lewis H. Mason, of Ashland, Ohio, and is indexed under the name of Mason. Undoubtedly mistakes will be discovered. Many times I have received conflicting dates of the same event, in several instances from the same person. At best it would seem impossible to make a complete record and to gather the data of all who are connected with these families which traces through so many generations. But the kindred may be assured that no small pains have been taken to secure as reliable and as accurate a record as could be made under existing circumstances. In the abundance of material furnished it is evident some one is needed to be the final judge of what should be admitted for publication. With no wish to be arbitrary and with deep interest in all concerned, I have made the necessary decision with all the fairness possible and have endeavored to do justly in every case. The book has been as conveniently arranged as we could make it. Of over eight hundred names in the book, all are numbered in regular order and alphabetically indexed, so that they can be turned to at once. And there are also a "Hester" and a "Stough" tree giving the name of every descendant Page (iv). ********************* from the ancestors down for five generations, which alone is worth the price of the book to any of the kindred. In scanning this history there is nothing to bring the blush of shame to our cheeks. Nowhere have I learned that any member of these families has ever been convicted of any crime or dishonest act. On the contrary the proof is abundant that at all times all the members of these families have been honest, industrious, sober, patriotic people. Many of them have been leaders in religious, patriotic and good works for their fellow men; and many of them being devoted ministers and members of the Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Quaker, and other Protestant churches. We should have known nothing of many of these in this world had it not been for this work. Some of them have passed into the life beyond, where it is hoped that all who remain may meet and greet each other and them throughout the eternal ages. M.M. Hester Norwalk, Ohio, 1905. Page (v). ********************* CONTENTS Page Hester Family, record of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Hester Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Hester Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Hester, descendants other than those born in name of . . 169 Hester, list of marriages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Mason Family, record of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Mason Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Hesters of other stocks, record of . . . . . . . . . . 189 Hester, Martin of Clinton Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Hester, Francis and brothers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 Stough Family, record of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Stough Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 Stough Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 Stough, descendants other than those born in the name of 318 Stough, list of marriages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 Page (ix). ********************** FIRST GENERATION 1. My great grandfather, John Lawrence Hester (Hoerster, in German) was born in the kingdom of Hanover, Germany, about 1738. He and his wife, Mary Margaret, and three children emigrated to America A.D. 1771. They took ship at Amsterdam and arrived in Philadelphia. Not being able to pay for their passage, which was $300, he and his family were sold into servitude for a term of six years to pay the debt. The following article will show that this was not a rare case, EARLY SETTLERS IN PENNSYLVANIA. John R. Commons. Another colony to which all races and religions were welcomed was Pennsylvania. William Penn established this colony both as a refuge for the persecuted Quakers of England and as a real estate venture. He was the first American to advertise his dominions widely throughout Europe, offering to sell one hundred acres of land at two English pounds and a low rental. His advertisements called attention to popular government and universal suffrage; equal rights to all regardless of race or religious belief; trial by jury; murder and treason the only capital crimes, and reformation, not retaliation, the object of punishment for other offenses. Thus Pennsylvania, although settled a half century later than the southern and northern colonies, soon exceeded them in population. Penn sent his agents to Germany, and persuaded large numbers of German Quakers and Pietists to cast their lot in his plantation, so that, in twenty years, the Germans numbered nearly one-half the population. Again, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, when Louis XIV overran the Palatinate, and thousands of Germans fled to England, the English government encouraged their migration to America. In one year four thousand of them, the largest single emigration of the colonial period, embarked for New York, but their treatment was so illiberal that they moved to Pennsylvania, and thenceforth the German Page (3). ******************* migration sought the latter colony. These people settled at Germantown, near Philadelphia, and occupied the counties of Bucks and Montgomery, where they continue to this day with their peculiar language, the "Pennsylvania Dutch." Not only William Penn himself, but other landowners in Pennsylvania, and also the shipowners, advertised the country in Germany, and thousands of the poorer sort of Germans were induced to indenture themselves to the settlers, to whom they were auctioned off in payment for transportation. Probably one-half of all the immigrants of the colonial period came under this system of postpaid transportation, just as, at the present time, nearly two-thirds come on prepaid tickets. It was in Pennsylvania that the largest portion of the Scotch-Irish settled, and before the time of the Revolution that colony had become the most populous and most diversified of all the colonies. It was the only colony, except Maryland, that tolerated Roman Catholics, and with all the phases of the Christian religion and all branches of the Teutonic and Celtic races, Pennsylvania set the original type to which all of America has conformed - that of race intermixture on the basis of religious and political equality. -- Chautauguan. The Hester Family were treated with great cruelty by their master; but towards the end of the first year, kind friends loaned them the money to procure their redemption; but the cruel master would not reduce the claim one cent, on account of the year's service, already performed. The husband and father died A.D. about 1785, aged 46. The widowed mother was very strong physically, a woman of great energy and thrift and of deep piety. She kept her family together and reared them to honorable and useful manhood and womanhood. She died about 1800. They were members of the Lutheran Church and lived and died in Greene county, Pa. Page (4). ********************* SECOND GENERATION To them were born ten children, being the second generation. 2. JOHN HESTER, Sr., b. February 9, 1763; m. Elizabeth Mason. She was b. March 25, 1766; d. August 8, 1847, a. 81. He d. March 19, 1834; a. 71. 3. MARY MAGDALENE, b. 1765, d. ----; m. John Van Deman, son of a minister from Holland. 4. MATTHIAS HESTER, b. July 4, 1766; m. Susannah Huckleberry, 1793. She was b. 1775; d. August 21, 1859, a. 84. He d. November 22, 1823, a. 57. The above three children were born in Germany. After coming to America, there was born to them five more children, viz: 5. ELIZABETH, b. September 13, 1772; m. to Coonrad Coleman; lived seven years in Detroit; d. April 30, 1870, near Charlestown, Ind., a. 97; was 70 years a widow. 6. ANN, b. 1774; m. Andrew Spangler; d. in Fayette county, Pa. 7. SUSAN, b. 1776; d. January 1, 1845, a. 69; m. to Martin Huckleberry; lived near Charlestown, Ind. 8. HENRY, b. May 24, 1781; d. August 25, 1833; m. Rebecca Roberts. She was b. 1780; d. 1833. Three other children were born to them, one in Germany, one on the ocean and one in America; all died in childhood. Names unknown. Page (5). ******************* (Photograph of Elizabeth (Hester) Coleman.) Page (6). ******************* THIRD GENERATION No. 2. JOHN HESTER, Sr. John Hester (Senior) was born in Germany, February 9, 1763. He came to America with his parents when he was eight years old. The family settled in Greene county, Pennsylvania. He was married to Elizabeth Mason about 1786. She was born March 25, 1766, and was the daughter of Martin Mason and his wife, whose maiden name was Christina Waite. (Martin Mason was born in 1740. He had a remarkable experience as a French prisoner of war, an account of which is given elsewhere.) He was a weaver by trade. He wove coverlets, blankets, tablecloths, linen, and all the domestic fabrics in use among the pioneers at that time. He and his family moved to Ohio about 1807. They located in Center township, Columbiana county, where they were among the earliest pioneers. In 1808 he bought of Bazaleel Wells, of Steubenville, O., 163 acres of land in section five, adjoining the land of John J. Bowman on the north, for which he paid $489. The land was all a forest. Wolves were common. Looking out of their cabin door in the evening the shining eyes of these animals were seen peering about in the darkness. The wild screams of the panther sometimes made the night hideous. The forest was soon cleared away and the wild animals disappeared. He was a man of great activity, reliability and thrift; an earnest Christian, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Page (7). ******************** John Hester (Senior) died March 19, 1834, aged seventy-one years. He was buried at St. Jacobs Church, east of his home. His wife Elizabeth died August 8, 1847, at the age of eighty-one. The children of John Hester, Sr., and Elizabeth (Mason) his wife, being the third gen., were eight in number. 9. MARTIN, b. September 6, 1787; m. Mary Stough, November 30, 1809. She was b. February 15, 1789; d. June 25, 1863, a. 74. He d. January 31, 1870, a. 83. 10. JOHN Jr., b. May 23, 1791; m. to Hannah Miller, August 13, 1818. She d. April 7, 1827; had five children. Second m. to Elizabeth Miller, November 25, 1827; she d. November 8, 1867; had eight children. He d. 1879, a. 88. 11. MATTHIAS, b. October 17, 1793; m. Susana W. Gaskill about 1818. She d. 1864. He d. February 11, 1890, at Alliance, O., a. 97; had ten children. 12. ELIZABETH, b. December 2, 1796; m. Phillip Biddinger, 1820. He b. December 13, 1789; d. September 6, 1851, in Troy, Ashland county, O. She d. September 6, 1882, a. 86, at Knoxville, Ia.; had two daughters. 13. SARAH, b. 1797; d. February 4, 1868, in Williams county, O.; a. 70; unm. 14. MARY, b. May 4, 1800; m. Geo. Leinard, August 24, 1820. He d. March 20, 1881. She d. May 7, 1886, a. 86. Both d. in Williams county, Ohio; had nine children. 15. MARGARET, b. 1802; m. John Mason, 1820; she d. May, 1822, in Richland (now Ashland) county, O., a. 20. 16. HANNAH, b. in Greene county, Pa., May 10, 1807; m. John Hinds, 1829. He b. 1800; d. January 6, 1875, a. 75. She d. June 28, 1885, a. 78. No. 3. JOHN VAN DEMAN was the son of a minister who emigrated from Holland to America about 1790, and settled in Fayette county, Pa. Children of John and Mary Magdalene (Hester) Van Deman, being the third gen., are: 17. HENRY, b. 1798; m. Sarah Darlington, 1824. She was b. 1802; d. January 24, 1886, a. 84. He d. 1872, a. 74. Had ten children. Page (8). ********************* _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V01 Issue #40 ******************************************