Biography - James Hester
JAMES S. HESTER. A typical example of the virile manhood of Southern
Illinois is found in James S. Hester. Born in the South, he accompanied his
parents to Illinois as a youth, resisted the lure of the city and of the
great West, to which so many of his boyhood companions yielded, and after
serving his country valiantly as a soldier during the Civil war, set himself
to the task of extracting wealth from the farm. After more than forty years
spent in agricultural pursuits he has now retired and is enjoying the fruits
of his labors as a resident of the city of Vienna.
The grandfather of James S. Hester, B. Hester, was a pioneer settler of
Franklin county, Alabama, and built the first house in Franklin, the county
seat. His son, Chesley B. Hester, was born in Alabama, and brought his
family to Southern Illinois during the fall of 1863, when the Union
sympathizers, to which class the Hesters belonged, were driven from the
Southern states. On coming to Illinois Mr. Hester located on a farm near
Vienna, about four miles away, having served for eleven months as a member
of Company B, Sixty-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in which he had
enlisted at Corinth, Mississippi, September 11, 1862, and from which he
received his honorable discharge on account of disability. He never
recovered from the bad effects of his army service, and died in 1881. He had
a family of six sons and three daughters, but a number of the children died
on coming North, on account of the great change in climate. Samaria is
deceased; James S. is the subject of this review; John C. and Louis are
deceased; Emily married a Mr. Dooley; and Alfred Henry, Clinton, Hannah and
Alabama are deceased. Mrs. Hester survived her husband only five days.
James S. Hester was born October 14, 1846, in Franklin county, Alabama, and
had not yet reached his sixteenth birthday when he enlisted in the same
company with his father. He was well grown and sturdy and much better able
to stand the rigors of army life than the older man, and would have
completed his enlistment of three years had not the war closed some three
months prior to that time. For some time he was engaged in garrison duty
around Corinth and Iuka, Mississippi, as well as Glendale, which was his
headquarters for ten months, and he then went to Pulaski, Tennessee, and
Decatur, Alabama, subsequently, in the spring of 1864, going to Chattanooga
to participate in the battles around that place. He then joined Sherman's
division and took part in the famous March to the Sea, and was in the
fighting all through to Savannah, where he boarded ship to Buford, South
Carolina. Marching through to Goldsboro, the regiment went on to Raleigh,
North Carolina, where they received the news of Lee's surrender amid great
rejoicing. Mr. Hester's brigade then went on to Richmond, and then to
Washington, D. C, where it participated in the Grand Review, and he was
mustered out of the service June 8, 1865, and paid off and discharged at
Springfield, Illinois. His brave and faithful services finished, Mr. Hester
went to Dongola by rail and joined the family at Vienna, working on his
father's farm until 1867. In that year he married and began life for himself
on a rented farm situated two miles northwest of Vienna, but in the next
year moved to another farm two and one-half miles southwest of Vienna, on
which he continued operations until 1879. At that time he purchased
thirty-two acres of land, and from that time on his rise as an agriculturist
was rapid, his holdings now amounting to two hundred and twenty-three acres
of excellent land, which is being operated by his sons. In November, 1904,
Mr. Hester left the farm and moved to Vienna, where he purchased a fine
residence and nine lots. He has been active in civic affairs and county
polities and a hard and faithful worker in the ranks of the Republican
party, serving at various times as school director and road commissioner,
and at present acting for the second time as a member of the Vienna city
council. He is a popular comrade of Vienna Post, Grand Army of the Republic,
and he and his family are consistent members of the United Brethren church.
Mr. Hester was married (first) in May, 1867, to Joyce Adeline Ridenhower,
daughter of A. M. Ridenhower, and she died in 1895, having been the mother
of thirteen children, of whom two are deceased, William, who passed away at
the age of thirteen years, and John, who died when six months old, while the
survivors are: R. A., A. M., T. F., Mary Jane, Nancy Ann, Alfred, Garfield,
May, Sarah, Marion Tullis and Mrs. Cora Jones. Mr. Hester's second marriage
occurred in 1897, when he was united with his first wife's sister, Mrs. Mary
Jane (Ridenhower-Hester) Newby, who married first John Hester and for her
second husband William M. Newby, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. Hester
has fifteen grandchildren. He is one of his community's prominent and
influential citizens, having proved himself as faithful and capable in
discharging the duties that have fallen to his lot during days of peace as
he did in his youth as a wearer of the blue during the dark days of the
Civil war.
Extracted from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, volume 2, pages 648-649.
