Family Histories of Coleman
County, Texas
PATRICK STEVEN HESTER FAMILY
by Catherine Boyd Rackow
From
A History of Coleman County and Its People, 1985
edited
by Judia and Ralph Terry, and Vena Bob Gates - used by permission
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patrick Steven Hester was born in Grayson County, October 16, 1862,
to Whilie Jonah, buried at Caradan, and Elizabeth (Guess) Hester.
Patrick’s brothers and sisters are Robert, Jonah, Willie, Liza, Rebeckie
and Nannie. He married Lavinia Catherine Whitely, May 5, 1882 at
Goldthwaite, the daughter of Martin and Syrinna (Boydston) Whitely, born
March 13, 1865 in Bell County. Her brothers and sisters are Christina,
Synia, Laura and Martin. Laura married Fred Goacher and raised a family
of six children. Patrick and Lavinia lived around Goldthwaite several
years. Their children:
(1) Cora, July 13, 1886 in Bell County - March 9, 1961, married
Harviston Kenley, October 1, 1905 at Voss, June 3, 1884 - December 14,
1960, both buried in Coleman. Their children: (la) Syrinna Alvertia,
March, 1906 at Starkweather, married George Kitchen, had nine children.
She died March 15, 1947, buried at Coleman; (lb) Stevens married
Doily Horton, they had a boy and a girl; (lc) Virgie married Bill
Carson, no children; (ld) Margaret, July 29, 1923, married Bill Jackson
in Coleman. Bill died in 1982, buried at Gatesville. Their
children: Randy, born in Coleman; Sherry was killed in a car wreck, buried
at Gatesville; they had another daughter.
(2) Laura, April 5, 1888-November 5, 1965, buried at Santa Anna, married
(1) John H. Shepard, February 1, 1911. Their children:
(2a) Lila Mae, December 3, 1911 at Voss, married R. K. Shipman,
August 12, 1936. Children: (1) Milton, October 19, 1937 at Dardnell,
Arkansas, married Linda Landrum in 1954, had a boy and a girl. He
died August 5, 1969, buried at Santa Anna; (2) Melvin, June 22, 1940,
married Linda Brown, has a family; (3) Donnal, February 25, 1944,
married Linda Thomas, has a family; (4) Janice, February 21, 1946
at Coleman, married Bill Modawell in Brownwood, have a boy and a girl;
(5) Wilma, January 29, 1948 in Coleman, never married; and (6) Jerry Don,
December 30, 1954 in Odessa, married and has a son.
(2b) R. V. Lee, November 15, 1913 at Voss married Estelle Baker, in
April 1934, in Coleman. Children: (1) Vernon, February, 1935, married Vera
and had ten children; (2) Ola May, January 5, 1937, never married; (3)
Donna, November 10, 1938, married and has a family; (4) Delbert Ray, July
15, 1942, at Santa Anna, married and has a family; (5) Bobby, August 19,
1946, married, has a family; (6) Bettie Darlene and (7) Nettie Carlene,
August 5, 1951, both married and have families. R. V. died September
10, 1977, buried at Santa Anna. Laura and John divorced in 1914, she married
(2) Henry Sheller in 1920. Laura and Henry divorced in 1922 and in
1927 she married (3) Arthur Southerland, he died in 1972, buried in Santa
Anna.
(2c) Floyd Earnest, September 16, 1921 in Wert, Oklahoma.
(2d) Finance Loyd, January 2, 1930 at Comfort. His children: (1)
Joyce Juanell, August 5, 1950 at Santa Anna, married David Bell, December
12, 1968, in Brownwood, their children: Tommy Glenn, December 14, 1970;
Rhonda Joyce, August 12, 1972; Jason Loyd, January 10, 1977; and Amy Deen,
November 9, 1979, all born in Brownwood; (2) Michael Loyd, born July
27, 1963.
(3) John Arthur, November 2,1889-February 13, 1961, buried at Brown
Ranch; never married.
(4) Lessie, 1892 - died about November 1978, buried at Electra,
married Hugh Adams in 1915, in a buggy south of Voss. Their children:
(4a) Travis, April 1, 1917 at Voss, married Lucile, had two boys and one
girl, who died after she was grown, buried at Houston; (4b) Homer, born
in 1920, married, has a daughter; (4c) Robert, born in 1929, married and
has 5 children.
(5) Zella, August 1, 1894, married Bill Rushing, August 1,1922
at Willson, Oklahoma. Their children: (5a) Irene, April 17, 1923
at Willson-December 3, 1927, buried at Brown Ranch; (5b) Woodie Stevens,
September 16, 1927 at Starkweather-January 1, 1930, buried in Oklahoma;
(5c) Mexine, 1925 in Willson-1960; (5d) Bonnie Jene, 1928 in Oklahoma;
(5e) Cleo, September 22, 1931 at Voss; and (5f) Rose Zella, 1934 in Ardmore,
Oklahoma. Zella died in 1971, buried in San Antonio.
(6) Walter S., September 12, 1897 in Jackson County, married Gladys
Herrin in Hilton, Oklahoma in 1924. Children: Francie, born at Wilson,
had 2 boys and a girl, and Gaylord, born about 1933 in Wilson, married
and has a family.
(7) Nettie, May 9, 1900 in San Saba County, went to school at
Voss, Starkweather and high school in Santa Anna. She did substitute
teaching at Starkweather in 1917, married John Henry Boyd in Hilton, Oklahoma,
August 22, 1922. Their children: (7a) Catherine Annie, June 16, 1923
in Duncan, Oklahoma, married Otto Henry Rackow, March 7, 1942, in Coleman
(see Adolph Rackow); (7b) Pauline, September 22, 1924 at Starkweather,
married Robert Russell in 1945 in Dallas, have a daughter, Gwendolyn, born
April 6, 1946 in Coleman, married (1) Ronnie Uptergrove in 1963 at Lubbock.
Two children: Mickley Wayne, January 14, 1965 in Pueblo, Colorado, and
Lynn, October 23, 1966, in Coleman. Gwen and Ronnie divorced in 1967,
she married (2) Dennis Floyd Bales in 1972 in Michigan, one child, Sonya.
Pauline and Robert divorced in 1945, she married (2) George Kitchen, August
28, 1949 in Novice. Children: Sandra, June 11, 1950 in Lubbock, married
Edward Eldred in 1964 in Coleman, four children: Salinda, September 27,
1966; Chris, January 27, 1968; George, April 23, 1970; and Rickey, May
21, 1971. Sandra and Edward divorced in 1971, she married (2) Billy
W. Walker in 1972, in Coleman and divorced in 1982, one daughter, Carmel
Kay, January 18, 1978 in Brownwood. Nettie and John divorced in 1925.
John died in 1958, buried in Dallas. Nettie moved to Coleman from
Starkweather in 1936 and married (2) Ray Tomlinson, June 8, 1938 (see John
Tomlinson).
(8) Alvie, March, 1905 at Voss, married Margaret White in 1932
at Poteet. They had no children. He died in 1963, buried in
Coleman. Margaret is also deceased.
The Hester family moved from San Saba County to Starkweather in 1903.
Patrick farmed and freighted coal from the Rockwood Coal Mine, with wagons
and big horses, to Ballinger, San Angelo and surrounding communities.
They moved to Voss and bought 160 acres, hauling lumber from Coleman in
wagons to build their house. They also had a water rig and drilled
wells at Valera and Voss (most of the wells here had so much copper that
the water was not used) and the well at Water Valley school. In 1914,
they bought 170 acres at Starkweather and moved there. The Little
Panther and Big Panther Creeks both ran through this place. They
made some good crops here; one year they had as many as ten bales of cotton
picked ahead of the gin and sold it for 6 cents a pound. The tornado
in 1915 didn’t do as much damage to the Hester house as it did to some
of their neighbors. Many lost their homes. However, the one
in 1917 blew their house four feet south and four feet east, tore the kitchen
floor out and it had to be replaced. All the barns were torn up,
the stock ate the feed and cotton seed and some of the chickens were never
found. In 1918, it was so dry, that the Hester family went to Willson,
Oklahoma, where a brother of Patrick’s lived and worked in the oilfield.
Patrick and the family returned to Starkweather in 1921 and farmed.
At the time of his death in 1927, he had stock at Voss, Starkweather and
on the Colorado River, and was selling milk. A truck came from Coleman
and picked up the milk. He is buried at Brown Ranch. Lavinia,
Arthur, Nettie and the girls stayed at Starkweather until 1930, moved to
Voss, then to Coleman. Lavinia Catherine Hester passed away December
3, 1949, at Cora’s home, buried at Brown Ranch.
(Images to be added)
The eight Hester children: standing, Cora, Laura, Arthur, Lessie,
and Zella; front, Walter, Nettie, and Alvie - 1927.
R. V. Lee and Lila Mae Shepard, standing; Travis and Homer Adams,
Patrick and Lavinia Hester, holding Floyd Sheller, 1921
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