JOHN K. HESTER
b. Aug. 26, 1821. d. Jan. 28, 1895
He followed virtue as
his truest guide
Lived as a christian
died
ANNA E.
dau. of J.K. and S.J. Hester
b. Sept. 21, 1870
d. June 9, 1883
Someone loved one
Someone loved two
I loved one and that is you.
John Kenton Hester is surely named for his father's father John Hester
and the family name of his great grandmother Jane (Kenton) Owens.
On Dec. ' 22," 1846 John Kenton Hester married Susan
Jane Mitchell (Mi4). This marriage is recorded in the Court Record
of Bracken Co. in Brooksville, page 60. They were married by A. Anderson.
Susan Jane's sister Permela (Amelia) Ann Mitchell. married a brother of
John Kenton Hester - Willoughby Griffith Hester. Susan Jane Mitchell was
born Nov. 23, 1828. She died in Robertson Co., Ky. on Feb. 13, 1905. 8usan
Jane (Mitchell) Hester is buried in the 0ld Corinth Christian Church cemetery.
There are not many graves there. Her grave is enclosed with an iron fence
and on the gate is the word "MOTHER". The stone reads:
SUSAN JANE HESTER
b. Nov. 23, 1828
d. Feb. 13, 1905
Mollie (Mary Louise England)6 Lucas, a granddaughter of John Kenton
Hester and Sarah Jane (Mitchell) told Miss DeBell the genealogist:
"Grandfather lived in a valley and wanted to be buried on the hill above the McDowell Burial Ground. Grandmother didn't want to be buried there."
A grandson Eustace Granger Hester wrote his cousin Clinton M. Hester
on June 25, 1955
"For some reason our grandparents were not
buried side-by-side, but some 5 miles apart.
Our grandmother is buried in the Old Corinth
Burial grounds and is well marked and her grave
is enclosed by an iron fence, and well marked.
I don't know why this was, but their deaths were
several years apart and I believe she was active
in the church there and the familv and relatives were closer to Old
Corinth." ¬
Could it be sentiment - wishing to be buried in the churchyard of the old church where her next to youngest son John Kenton Hester, Jr. had preached his first sermon?
In a letter written Aug. 15, 1955 to Clinton M. Hester by the genealogist
Miss Mary Pickett DeBell, she writes of the Old Corinth Church:
"It is a most interesting old log church abandoned of course - a mute
testimony though to the
days of yesteryears and the faith and industry of the sett1ers who
desired a place to worship.
Some of the logs with sti1.l the bark on them were about 12 inches
and hand hewn, The weather boarding off on one side so we could see the
clinking of rocks and plaster over. Growing up
the side of the old building I got a winter bouquet of bitter sweet
and it will be a pleasant reminder
of our interesting trip there. This old church is up an extremely rocky
hill".."
The New Corinth Church was first built in 1918. That church burned and
about 1943 another church was built on the site of the burned church.
The granddaughter Molly (England) Lucas told Miss DeBelll "She expressed
it as if John Kenton Hester had never worked: Just made things with his
hands which he sold. One thing she recalled was his making fly brushes
out of peacock feathers. They were the most elegant weapons of that day
to keep the fly off the tables while eating. My mother had one she paid
ten dollars for and a colored boy swished it over the table and sometimes
gave us a whack."
"When his son John Kenton Hester, Jr. "as in Ontario, Canada at school
grandfather would be
so anxious to hear from him that he would walk sometimes twice a day
to get mail from him in
Mt. 0livet. No wonder with such interest he (the son) succeeded."
Paul Nelson Hester, another grandson of John Kenton Hester told
Miss DeBell:
"My grandfather was a tall man, a great reader, had much mail
and people came from around to be read to. He invented a corn planter and
sold them for 25 c and never got a patent. His grandparents lived not far
from where Paul lived."
In the Court Records of Bracken Co., Ky. is recorded a
mortgage; dated. June 1855 signed by John K. Hester and given to
R. J. Hughey. It. states in part,
"John K. Hester mortgages to R. J. Hughey June 1855 $150'. due
by note.' about 3 acres of tobacco,
2 acres of corn, 2 acres of wheat, 2 calves, one white and one red.
one cupboard and one clock to
have and to hold to him or his heirs - but on condition that
said Hester pays off, etc."
John Kenton Hester and Susan-Jane (Mitchell) had 11 children:
Note the surnames this couple used in naming their children
Wright, Owens, Mitchell, Kenton, Willoughby and Griffith.
Source: Geneology of the Descendents of John Hester, by Hester
Geraldine Lester Searl