Person:Calvin Vest (1)

The following is from Roland Monette in a note he placed on Vest GenForum:

My great grandfather was Calvin Clayton Vest, born 1843 near Rockford, NC, died and buried 1934 Birmingham, AL, Pvt. 3rd Tenn. Volunteer Infantry, CSA, enlisted at Benton, TN April 1861. He married Nancy Jane McGuire (1851-1918)from Rock Island, TN, buried near Athens, AL. His parents were Francis (Frank) Vest (1805-1859) and Eliz. (Betsy) Davis (1810-1865), both died near Conasauga, Polk County, TN. Cal Vest was one of their 14 children. His daughter Florence Drucilla Vest (b. 1879 Rock Island, TN, died 1973 Birmingham) was my grandmother and story-teller extraordinaire.

Roland Monette (RMonette@@Unique-Times.com) expands on this information with an email to Mary Jo Martin:

We have 300+ years of Vest family history and descendents from 1650 to 1995 in a 200+ page book, privately published, authored by my grandmother, mother, and self. Have old photos of Cal Vest at UDC reunions, still have close touch with many, many of his descendents in Alabama, Tenn., NC, GA, elsewhere. I have his Confederate money, but gave his old bible (with all children births recorded therein, casket flag and other personal memorabilia to his grandson (my cousin), Louis Vest, still living in Roanoke, Texas. My GGrandfather Calvin C. Vest did homestead 160 acres of land atop Hale Mountain, Madison County, Alabama near New Market and Pleva. He and family lived there from 1903 until wife Nancy Jane McGuire Vest died in 1918. He then moved to Birmingham to live with my grandmother until he died there in 1934. He is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery, Woodlawn suburb, Birmingham, and his headstone confirms 3rd Tenn. Volunteer Infantry. I have his Civil War service history and pension documents. He was terminated from Confederate pension rolls in 1914 upon discovery by a special Congressional commission that he had taken the Oath of Allegiance to USA while a prisoner of the 9th Indiana Cavalry after Battle of Chattanooga - before the war's end, which disqualified him for the pension even though he had drawn it for 10 years already. He had the choice of taking the Oath else going to a Union POW camp in Illinois. My grandmother sold the old Vest place above New Market in 1950s for $1500. The cabin was burned by bootleggers during Prohibition times. It lies atop the mountain due east of Plevna, Alabama off the Old Winchester Road. Allied families of this Vest branch, back to 1700s, were McGuire, Berry, Davis, Poindexter, Pledge, Wentworth, et al. They were Grist millers, horse and mule traders, and Pack Traders with Cherokee Nation.

1. ↑ Sallie Lee DeWitt. Research by Sallie DeWitt. (1981)
   ppg. 76, 76E.
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Ralph L. Vest. Research by Ralph L. Vest.
3. ↑ Sallie Lee DeWitt. Research by Sallie DeWitt. (1981)
   pg. 76A.
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 USA, NARA. 1860 U.S. Census, District 4, Benton P.O., Polk Co., Tennessee. (M63_1268; page 403; Image 229)
   Census pg. 81.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3} Roland Monette, RMonette@@Unique-Times.com. Research by Roland Monette.