OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 42 *********************************************************************** 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 42 -------------------------------- 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). ************************* 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). ************************ 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). ************************ 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). ************************ 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). ************************ 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). ************************** _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V01 Issue #42 ******************************************