Person:Zacharia Priestley (1)

Born in Benton County, Missouri. Was brought back to West Virginia by his parents (so he says, when he was one year old. Daniel Priestley said he was thirteen, which would make the date 1848, instead of 1844, as would be true if Zachariah was right. Other evidence favors Daniel's statement.) Married Margaret King on January 3, 1866, in Kanawha County, Rev. Thomas Hawkins was the minister. (as of 1945 she was still living in Paoli, Kansas. They had three sons and three daughters: Samuel Jackson who lives at Mutual, Oklahoma; George Washington who lives at Paola, Kansas; Charles W. who lives at Wichita, Kansas; Mary who died at the age of three; Lillie who married a Dellinger and died between 1936 and 1941 leaving no children; and Rosa who married Charles Hawkins. He lived near Griffithsville, WV for a while after his marriage and then went to Kansas to live at Paoli until his death.

Dent data

Recollections from Alvin Bastin:

When I was about 10 the folks decided to take a trip to the eastern part of Kansas to visit relatives and places where they grew up. Dad drove a 1928 Whippet still in good condition. His normal speed was 30, however, he speeded up to about 40 for this trip. We had some problems with the car and while we were in that part of the state Dad decided the excess speed caused the car problems, so decided to go back to the 30 miles per, and sure enough we had no more car problems. We stayed with great Gramma and Grandpa Priestley who lived in Paola, Kansas. They had an ice box which we enjoyed because we had no ice at home. The ice was delivered by horse and wagon. The Priestleys had a barn in the back yard at the alley for their horses and buggy when they were younger. Most of the places we visited had cisterns for storing rain water from the house roof. This was soft water and better then their hard well water. During one drive in Paola with the Whippet we were crossing some rail road tracks and the car stopped and we were caught between two sets of tracks as the train was switching cars. We finally got some mechanic from a shop to fix the car. He found the battery had broken loose and fallen to the road as we crossed the tracks. We visited a lot of kind folks and drove back home at 30 miles per hour with no more car problems. This was my only visit with my parents to that part of the state. They visited once again several years later, but I stayed home to care for the live stock.

Notes from Don Bastin:

Zacharia moved from Virginia to West Virginia so he could fight on the side of the Union. He served in the Union Army in Company C, 13th West Virginia Infantry.

Burial

Zacharia is buried at New Hillsdale Cemetery, Miami, Kansas. Also buried at this location is his wife Margaret.

External links

Zacharia's burial at Find A Grave.