Person:John Kester (1)

Biography

Kester11 Carroll 1765-1815: The Settlements, By John Perry Alderman; Published by Alderman Books, 1985, p. 218-219. The first of the family was John Kester, a New Jersey Quaker, who had married Sarah Lundy in 1770. Sarah, born Dec. 19, 1744, was the daughter of Richard and Ann (Wilson) Lundy, and she and John came to the area along with several other brothers in the 1780s. The family was received into the Deep River Meeting in 1795 (1 Hinshaw 823) and at that time it consisted of the parents and eight children: William, Richard, John, Peter, Mary, Ann, Deborah and Edith. Five years later their church membership was transferred to the Westfield Meeting in Surry County, North Carolina and there were only five children; the writer believes that three had died in the interval (1 Hinshaw 965). In any event John had settled on a tract of a hundred acres which was described as being on Reddicks Mill Creek, but more accurately was in the Popular Knob section of the county. He was taxed in Virginia in 1788 which is the earliest record found of him in the county; probably even then he was living on the tract which he entered in the surveyors office in 1790 (Montgomery, Entry C-223). He disappears from the Grayson records about 1811, and it is probably that he moved away. He did not sell his land and the tract was still taxed in his name when Carroll County was formed in 1842. In 1844 some of his heirs deeded their interests (Carroll, D.B. 1-344) and the old records make it plain that his son Peter’s three heirs were conveying their one-fifth interest. The five children of John and Sarah who lived were (1) Richard Kester who married Phoebe Brown in 1800, (2) Mary Kester, (3) Ann Kester, (4) Edith Kester who married a Puckett, and (5) Peter Kester who married Hannah Davis in 1806. Peter Kester was apparently the youngest of the sons, born about 1785. He married Hannah Davis in Grayson on Dec. 25, 1806 and the writer has not been able to discover the parentage of his wife although it would seem that she was one of the granddaughters of old Thomas Davis. Peter had a hundred acres surveyed and in 1810 he received a grant for it (Grants, 59-420). The description in the grant is hopeless, but it is clear that the property adjoined John Kester’s farm. Peter moved away about 1813 and went to Ohio, still owning his land. In 1838 his heirs gave a power of attorney to Morris Davis in order to sell it (Grayson, D.B. 8-457) and that document identifies the heirs as the widow Hannah, who remarried a Josiah Albertson, and three sons, John, Harmon and Daniel. John was living in Warren County while the others were living in Clinton County, Ohio. Richard Kester, as stated, married Phoebe Brown in Grayson in September 1800. The bride was the daughter of James Brown. Five years later Richard bought a hundred acres on Crooked Creek, but near his father’s grand (Grayson, D.B. 2-158). This purchase became his homesite for the rest of his life, being deeded in 1841 to his son-in-law Elisha Jones. The old records indicate that there were ten children born to Richard and Phoebe, but only six can be identified in the old records: (1) Deborah Kester who married David Cain in 1815, (2) Eli Kester who married Elizabeth Davis in 1831, (3) Sarah Kester who married Jordan Felts in 1827, (4) Martha Kester who married Franklin Hanks in 1830, (5) Rebecca Kester who married Elisha Jones in 1838 and (6) Lurana Kester who married Allen J. Smith in 1840. Richard was still living in 1850, aged 77, with the Jonses (1850 Census, Carroll, Household #759). That is the last record seen of him by the writer.