| Notes |
- A tape recorded conversation with Mary Kesterson by her granddaughter,Judy. Date unknown, but probably in early 1980s.
Mary's grandmother and grandfather were Joshua Foster and ParleyUnderwood Foster. Parley possibly died the summer before Mary wasborn in September.
Levi was called Uncle Lee and was Jane Elizabeth Foster's brother.Jane Elizabeth or Elizabeth Jane Foster was Mary's mother.
George Washingon Foster was called Uncle Wash.
Fred and John
Uncle Wash took his family to Missouri in a covered wagon. They gotthere and John Brown sent him with horse and sled to get wood to burn.The wood was on a creekbank. The sled turned over and they found himon the ice. He had been drinking and had frozen into the ice.Sarah's boy, John, apparently went with them.
The snow would bank up to 10' against the fence sometimes. John wouldrun back and forth from the house to the barn so Jane could go to thebarn to milk the cows in the barn. Jane's parents raised him.
Mary remembers her mother telling stories of her childhood inMissouri. It is possible that Elizabeth Jane Foster lived in Missourifor awhile.
Mary doesn't remember many of her cousins.
Uncle Lee's wife thought Mary Kesterson was named after her and gaveMary a pretty piece of cloth one time with anchors in it. It was greyand red with white ahcnors.
Ernest, son of Levi Foster, was the father of A.B. "Salty" Foster.Salty was Mayor of Harriman for several terms and died in 1982.Another of his children, Victor Foster, was responsible for the familytree through 1800 and Enoch Foster.
Joshua, brother of Jane, went to college in Middle Tennessee. Maryis not sure he graduated, but he was called the "professor". Theclover threshers came and grandma (Jane's mother) said she wasn'tgoing to let them stay long. Jane told her Jot may be begging(thumbing?) his way through from MT right now,"you'd better let them stay". And She let them stay just becauseMommy told her Jot might be on his way to come home.
Jane Elizabeth married George Hudson (1) had Sam. "Lord how I lovedmy brother. He was the greatest person in the world. I'd go meet him at the store and he'd set me up on the counter and say 'Nowwhat do you want?'" "Sunbeam Candy" It was an oblong piece of candy"wrapped up in paper that looked like the sun, real pale, soft candy,hard center, only candy I loved"
Jane married (2) William Lincoln (Link) Cox. Samuel WhetsonKesterson's mother was married to a Pruitt at sometime or another.
Daisy and Lizzie were Hudson's
Johnny and Fanny died before Mary was born
Sam, Jane's brother, took Jane to parties when they were young, suchas barn dances and socials. They enjoyed dancing very much.
One of her brothers lived in East Fork Valley and was bringing a bridein (home) and there was a big snow on the ground. They were cominginto Kingston (via ferry?) and I don't know, must have been coming ona boat. Momma and others went to meet them and her riding skirt wasfrozen plumb to her waist. They rode horses, the whole wedding partywent to meet them. They got wet in the snow while riding. Could havebeen the one that married a Fox.
Uncle Wash. When I was 14, I spent the night with Uncle Wash. He wassick. They lived in East Fork Valley. Mary and her mother went tothe home as was customary when someone was dying.
Deal Bailey - Ruth and Granny went to seen them in Oliver Springs andRuth sneaked meat off her stove. If she hand known Ruth had of been(was) hungery, she'd given her something off the table. side of bacon stacked up on a plate on the kitchen stove.
"I can just see Uncle Lee sitting in the holler when Paul was 3or 4 (1924-1925). Lee had a mustasche. We rode a buggy up there witha cheastnut hourse."
"Bob's wife is one I was on the horse with and I fell off backwards,off the horse's end onto the ground. I was 14. It was the last horseI ever rode. They hadn't been married long. It was when Uncle Washwas sick. He died after that.
Uncle Jot went to college and possibly was a professor
Cousin Lee moved to Andersonville.
Uncle Enoch worked in a bank at Coal Creek. Lost his mind. The bankwent broke and he lost his mind.
Jane (Mommy) died in 1925
Mary's great grandmother was a cherokee indian and her grandfather wasa "Farmer". They lived in bear creek valley where she and a baby waskilled by a bear. Granny said her grandparents were Fanny and MartinCox and that Fanny lived to be 106. Her great grandmother was acherokee indian and great grandfather was ??? farmer. Fanny andMartin had a daughter, Kate, and sons Will and Tom.
Her mother's parents were Joshua Foster and Parley Foster Underwood
Her mother was Elizabeth Jane Foster, born in East Fork Velley anddied at her sister's house at Morley" and William Cox, a miner. Shewas buried in White Oak graveyard above Westburn, above Catula, AboveLafollette. William was buried around Peabody.
Grandma and Grandpa Cox were Fanny and Martin Cox. Fannie waspossibly a Farmer and lived to be 106 per Mary. Fanny also had adaughter named Kate.
Mary thought she remembered her mother telling her that her mother'sparents, Joshua and Parley Foster, owned slaves
*****
September 2006. Jesse,Mary's son, and Judy, Mary's granddaughter,tried to find the grave of Mary's mother, Elizabeth Foster Cox, at thegraveyard at White Oak and didn't find anything that would indicate agrave was hers. There were other Cox graves there, however, and manyunmarked graves. J SOLIS
*****
Mary Cox Kesterson talked about her wedding day to her granddaughterJudy. Mary said it was her first time to wear nylons. Sam mailed herwedding ring to her. Sam's mother wouldn't let them get married soSam hoboed on a train to Montana. Later he mailed the wedding ring andcame home to marry his love (His sister was there at the time.) Sherode in a taxi to the wedding. Mary said Sam's sister stole herbrother Sam whom she loved better than anything. Mary told her newsister-in-law, Minnie Dunn, that since she stole Mary's brother, Marywas going to steal HER brother.
Sam used to play hopscotch with Mary and she told him she was going tomarry him.
Mary once said to Judy, her granddaughter, that Sam Kesterson's (Dunn)mother was hateful, that she had a heavy burden to bear. Mary wouldnot discuss that burden.
Mary said that if she had her life to live over and could be anythingshe wanted to, she would be a detective!
Her memory of when one of her children was born was that they wereplanting sweet potato slips after the baby was born. Mary would go tothe house to breastfeed the baby and would cool her wrists with waterand feed the baby and go back to helping Sam plant sweet potatoes.
Mary Cox had only a 4th grade education. She was often sick with asore throat and would miss so much school that she fell behind.
Mary's mother knitted her a pair of stockings that Mary absolutelyhated. Mary would leave the house wearing them, stop at a rock andtake them off and hide them under the rock and put them on again whenshe came home from school. This might have contributed to herfrequent sore throats!!!
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Mary Cox met Samuel Whetson Kesterson when Mary's brother marriedSam's sister. Mary was only 5 years old when her brother married andleft home. This is how Mary told her granddaughter, Judy Kesterson,about her brother and husband in an interview in the late 1970s.
"I told Minnie I didn't like her taking my brother away from me. Shetold me, "I've got a brother, his name is Sam." I told her, "Thatbrother ofyours will be my man someday."
Minnie went on to change the spelling of her name to Hutson fromHudson because of a neighbor with a similar name, according to Mary.Minnie and Sam Hutson lived with Elizabeth and Will Cox (Mary'sparents) for a few years after they were marriedd. When they moved outon their own, they moved to Westburn and Mary would visit with themoccasionally. It was during one of the visits, whehn Mary was 13,that she first met Minnie's brother, Sam. Sam was 15 when they metand was boarding at his sister's home while he worked in the mines.
According to Mary, she and Sam became good friends, seeing each otherevery day. Sam played in Mary's playhouse and made hopscotch squaresfor her. Mary recalled that the two of them wore out their shoeskicking a block back and forth on the hopscotch board.
Mary said that their friendship developed into a courtship eventuallyand they made plans to marry. Neither of the parents wanted them tomarry. Mary told Judy that she thought her mother's main reason foropposing the marriage was her mother's fear of being left with no oneto do the housework. "She liked to have went crazy after I left,"Mary said.
According to Mary, Sam's family was alos opposed tot he marriage. Samwas upset and sold some property he owned (no documentation for this)and left for Melstone or Milestone Montana, where his sister Cora wasliving at the time.
Mary said Sam hopped a freight train, hobo style, although he had themoney for a ticket. He told her later that the freight train carriedlumber and he got splinters in his backside from riding on top of thelumber.
Sam corresponded with Mary and eventually sent her a wedding ring byregistered letter. Mary said it was a pink gold band. He also senther a pair of yellow gold earrings.
Sam stayed in Montana 2 years and 3 months. Mary said that when hereturned to Tennessee, they went ahead with their wedding plans.
He returned and they were married on November 16, 1916, at Sam'ssister's home (Ethel) in Clinton, TN. Thye man who married him wasJudge Wallace, a distant relative of Mary's through her mother.
OBITUARY - Mary Kesterson.
Mrs. Mary Kesterson,87, of Harriman, died Saturday, November 12, 1983.
Her daughter Grace (Mrs. Clarence) Sweet lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Mrs. Kesterson was the widow of Samuel W. Kesterosn. She was a member of Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church in Oliver Springs.
Survivors in addition to Mrs. Sweet are another daughter, Dorothy (Mrs. Jack Riggs) of Dayton Ohio, Martha (Mrs. Hubert) Hill of Harriman, Helen (Mrs. Oliver ) Christopher of Petros, Ruth (Mrs. Boyd) Lackey of Lawton, OK, sons, Paul Kesterson of Wilmington, NC., Jesse Kesterson of Coalfield; 18 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren, and two great-great grandchildren.
Services are being held today at 2:00 p.m. at Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church, Oliver Springs. The Rev. Milford Ely is officiating. Burial will be in New Hope Cemetery, Oak Ridge. Sharp Funeral Home in Oliver Springs is in charge of arrangements.
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1898 - 1983 (85 years)
Siblings
