Family:John Feaster and Mary Seiver (2)

John was born on his father’s farm on 18 Oct 1819 in Hardy Co VA. According to his obituary in the Winchester Star, John would spend his entire life on that same farm. He was the fifth child of Henry Feaster and Catherine Seiver. The family had three boys and five girls. John was the youngest boy. All three of his younger siblings were sisters. His brother Henry was two years older.

Before 1844 when John was 24, he married 19 year old Mary Ann Seiver, in Hardy County Virginia. Hardy County Virginia, later split off Grant County. During the civil war Grant County was one of the counties in northwestern Virginia that stood apart from Virginia in order to stay in the Union, thereby forming the state of West Virginia. Grant County forms part of the eastern border of West Virginia. Hardy County stayed in Virginia. The Feaster family was split between Grant county and Hardy county. Grant County was in the Union, Hardy in the Confederacy.

This split certainly affected John’s life in some manner, as he was 41 when the Civil War started. At that age he was probably too old to fight in the war. He made his sympathies clear when his youngest son was born in 1864 during the height of the war. He showed his backing for the Union cause by naming that son Abraham Lincoln Feaster. It is not known if any of John’s sons fought in the civil war. His oldest son Moses was 15 when the war started and may have fought. His son Daniel was 12 when the war started and 17 when it ended. It is possible he could have fought near the end of the war. John’s remaining sons were all too young to have fought in the Civil War.

John spent his life as a Farmer. He inherited his father’s farm when he died in 1866. The 1870 census form shows his mother Catherine still lived with them on the farm. She was 85 at the time of the census. John died in Grant Co WV on 26 Dec 1909, he was 90. Buried in Grant Co WV.

It is interesting that Mary has the same last name as John’s mother. It is certain that Mary and her mother-in-law are distant relatives, but how distant is unknown. There were a lot of big families in a small area and very little moving around. Intermarriage between the families happened all the time. For example, Mary’s son Abraham would marry Alice Keplinger. Alice was descended from Mary’s husband John’s grandfather (also named John) and his third wife Catherine. John is descended from his grandfather’s first wife, so the relation between son and daughter-in-law is truly distant. Along the same lines, Alice’s parents were both named Keplinger.

1. ↑ Nancy Feaster. Feaster GED Nancy Feaster. (GED File, Received December 14, 2005).
2. ↑ 1850 US Federal Population Census: District 23, Hardy County, Virginia (5)
   185.
   
3. ↑ 1860 US Federal Population Census: District 2, Hardy County, Virginia (2)
   1860.
   
4. ↑ 1870 US Federal Population Census: Grant Township, Grant County, West Virginia
   1870.
   
5. ↑ 1880 US Federal Population Census: Grant Township, Grant County, West Virginia
   1880.
   
6. ↑ Marsh, William A. 1880 census of West Virginia : compiled alphabetically by counties. (McClain Print. Co.,, 1979)
   1880.
7. ↑ 1900 US Federal Population Census: Grant Township, Grant County, West Virginia
   1900.