| Notes |
- Divorce Petition:
W.M. Pruett, A citizen of Knox County Tennessee, Complainant, vs ElizaPruett, a citizen of Anderson County Tennessee, Defendant. Yourpetitioner, W.M. Pruett, would most respectfully show to thishonorable court that he and the defendant were lawfully married inKnox County on the 18th day of October, 1892, and were separated onthe 3 day of November, of the same year. He would show that thedefendant willfully deserted him on the 3 day of November, 1892, inKnox county, Tennessee, and they ahve not lived together as husbandand wife since that time. He would show further than the defendantcommitted adultry with one Maston Hill in Clinton, Anderson County,Tennessee, in the month of December 1892, and your petitioner has beeninforformed and believes that she has committed adultry with said MastonHill and with divers others both before and since that time and thatshe is now living in open adultry and lewdness with the said MastonHill in Clinton, Anderson County, Tennessee. Your petitioner wouldshow further that he has been a resident of the state of Tennessee twowhole years prior to the filing of this petition. He therefore praysthat proper process issue to compell the defendant to appear andanswer this bill and that the bonds of matrimony now subsistingbetween them be dissolved. J.R. Ailor Atty.
Personally appeared before me J.R. Ailor, a notary public, W.M.Pruett, the petitioner in the foregoing bill and makes oath and saysthat the facts stated therein are true, to the best of his knowledgeinformation and belief, that his complainant is not made.
Filed on the 28th day of July 1894.
Masten Tate Hill married Harriett Ann Dunn
December 19,1878 Anderson, Tennessee james98@bellsouth.net
Masten is the blood father of Samuel Whitson Kesterson
In the 1910 Census Eliza J. Kesterson (age 42), widow, was living withher son, Sam, and daughter, Ethel. Also in the household was MargaretDunn, Elizas sister-in-law. The census shows Eliza as ?W? widowed
Maston Hill (age 41) was living with his stepmother, Margaret Hill,age 60. She was his stepmother, married or widow of his father.
Harriet A. Hill, age 54, is living with her sister, Margaret Hall, age56. The census shows Harriet as ?M? (married) and Margaret as ?W?(widowed). Harriet had 7 children, 5 of whom were living
Email from Barbara Kesterson 11/2004.
Judy:
I guess you would call Masten homeless. He stayed wherever he could.My dad did not speak very well of him. He didn't want anything to dowith him, but my dad loved his precious mother, Florence BeatriceHill, who died and left her 5 young childreren with Masten and sad tosay Masten didn't want them, so he took them to an orphanage. Mastenwasn't home with my dad and his siblings when their mother passed awayat the early age of 34 with T.B. My dad said their was an aunt takingcare of them. My dad would get up in church and talk about hismother and cry like a baby. He loved her so much. Dad was 10 years oldwhen she died.
Barbara
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District 8, P17/167 D128/F128 Knox Co. TN 1870 Census:
Dunn, J.C., 57 TN Carpenter $1200/$200
Sarah 26 TN KH
Margaret E. 19 TN
Harriet A. 17 TN
James 14, TN
Julia 12 TN
Mary E. 10 TN
Joseph 6 TN
John 2 TN
Sarah must have been pregnant with Eliza Jane Dunn at this time.In the1910 Census Eliza J. Kesterson (age 42), widow, was living with herson, Sam, and daughter, Ethel. Also in the household was MargaretDunn, Eliza?s sister-in-law. The census shows Eliza as ?W? widowed
Maston Hill (age 41) was living with his stepmother, Margaret Hill,age 60. She was his stepmother. This can't be Eliza's children'sfather because he is too young.
Harriet A. Hill, age 54, is living with her sister, Margaret Hall, age56. The census shows Harriet as ?M? (married) an Margaret as ?W?(widowed). Harriet had 7 children, 5 of whom were living.
Per Masten's granddaughter, Barbara Hill Kesterson, Maston and Harrietwere divorced and Maston went to Overton(?) county and remarried aBeatrice Margaret Hill. She died at age 34 and Maston put hischildren by this wife in an orphanage. Barbara's father was 10 yearsold when his mother died of TB.
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Katy Sands:
Katy Sands was a friend of Eliza's and was a school teacher. They lived in Roane County. Some unscrupulous men who lived in the area near the Sands home had stolen from several neighbors and had been caught. The owners of the stolen items were asked to appear in court and testify against the thieves. Katy was one of those testifying in court after recognizing her iron skillet as one of the items stolen by the men. She told officers or family that these same men had once run their dirty hands through her freshly churned butter and contaminated her milk.
The thieves were angry with Katy for testifying against them and apparently extracted revenge.
One night Katy and her husband were preparing for a school Christmas party or program. Her husband went ahead to start a fire to warm up the building, leaving Katy to finish preparations at home.
Katy never arrived at the school. When friends and family went back to find her, they found her dead. She had been beaten in the head with a stick of firewood and stabbed in the throat with a butcher knife.
Eliza Dunn Kesterson lay on her deathbed at the time of her good friend's death--which was the winter of 1929. Eliza's house was filled with family and friends, including Johnny and Stella Joyner,who had just recently arrived. Johnny Joyner was a close friend to Eliza's son Sam. They were said to have grown up together as close as brothers. Johnny was the son of Katy Sands and had come home to attend Katy's funeral, then went to be with his friend Sam as they sat with Eliza.
No one wanted to tell Eliza about her dear friend's death, so Johnny and Stella told her they were home for the Christmas holidays. But a woman identified as a Mrs. Brummett, came in and talked about the murder where Eliza could hear her and the family had to finally tell Eliza about the loss of her friend.
The murderers were later apprehended and housed in the Roane County jail. Johnny and Sam went to the jail. Johnny was carrying a pistol and intended to kill the men responsible for his mother's death. He managed to smuggle the pistol into the jail. Sam pleaded with Johnny to abandon his mission of killing the prisoners and Johnny finally listened. They left the jail..
Eventually the murderers were convicted and executed, according to family stories. Their names are unknown.
(Source, children of Sam Kesterson.)
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Per Mary Kesterson, Eliza's daughter-in-law, Eliza's mother was struck by lightning as she sat in a rocking chair beside a window watching for her husband to come home one night. The lightning didn't come through the window, instead came through the chimney and struck her mother.
NOTE: 2014--other stories on Ancestry.com say it was Mildred, not Sarah (Eliza's mother) who was killed by lightning. J SPRADLIN.
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Eliza met Thomas A Kesterson after he got out of the Spanish American War in 1899. Eliza wanted to marry Thomas and Masten did not want her to marry him and told her if she did, she could not take her children with her. (Sam was living with Eliza's brother at that time; he was 7years old.) Eliza relayed Masten's message to Thomas. Thomas got his gun (one story says he strapped on his six-gun) and went with Eliza to get her children. Masten was sitting in the front yard with a shottgun when they arrived. Thomas told him that they were going to get married and she wanted her children. They had come to get them whether he liked it or not. Thomas told Masten he had better not put his hands on his shotgun because if he did, Thomas would shoot him. So Masten just sat there and they loaded up the children and left.
Another version of this story says they went after the baby, Ethel,not all the children since Sam was not there.
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dunn Name Meaning and History
Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic
OBITUARY:
Eliza Jane (Dunn) Hill Kesterson died at her home Friday night Jan. 30,near Robertsville. She was born Aug. 18,1871, near Knoxville. She had been ill for some time with heart trouble. She was a member of New Hope Church and lived devoted christain and was loved by all who knew her, and will be sadly missed in the community. She leaves to mourn her death, two brothers, J. M. Dunn of Knoxville, John Dunn of Cincinnati, Ohio., one sister, Mrs. Julia Frances of Knoxville, also five children, Sam Kesterson, Mrs. Ethel White and Mrs. Cora Smith of Robertsville, Mrs. Minnie Hudson of Cotuia and Mrs, Nola Seivers of Habeshan, Tenn. and several grandchildren. She was buried at New Hope Sunday.
(Obituary donated by Susie Bullock, contributed by Angela Meadows)
Horror in Jonesville
There is usually a beginning and end to most stories but occasionally a story is not so clear and one must pick a point for both. This story will begin in the early nineteenth century when many families were leaving Virginia and heading west in search for land and a new life. Thomas Howerton Jett was one of these pioneers who along with his family would find their way to Knox County. Thomas was the oldest child of Stark Jett and Frances Howerton. Thomas parents would later cross the Clinch River into Anderson County and Thomas would marry Rebecca Bell Tillery and continue carving out a new life in Roane County around Wheat, Tn. Thomas was an industrial young man and his hard work would take the family to Morgan County to start a long career as a lumber business and the owner of a saw mill and raise a family of twelve children.
The youngest of his children was Erastus (Rassey) H. Jett who worked with his father until he married Rebecca A Love from Roane County in 1893. It
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1870 - 1931 (60 years)
Siblings
