Hathaway-Hester
It was in the spring of 1855 that the wagons came from Mt. Pleasant across the the trail that is now Highway 34. Settlers were finding homes in Union County, Iowa.
The little family in one of the wagons that came so long ago, my first family in southern Iowa was headed by my father Nelson Burgess Hester, his wife Freelove [Clemmons] and three little girls. The oldest one was my Great-Grandmother Mary Elizabeth. Freelove died in 1858 or 1859. A record of her death has never been found. Nelson married again in June of 1859 to E. R. Brown. She must have died soon after as in the 1860 census he was alone with the three girls.
Not long after 1860 another young man and his bride came from the Mt. Pleasant area to live. Seeking a life further west they soon joined a wagon train and started again to find a new home. Albert Fletcher Hathaway soon had to turn back as his young wife Semantha [Smith] was too ill to travel. In the Spring of 1863 she gave birth to a little daughter and then to ill to recover she died. Albert was left with a small child to care for.
I've often wondered how they met, maybe Mary Hester was asked to help care for little Semantha. Christmas 1863 finds Albert and Mary married and a home established. They later moved to the Tingley area and raised thirteen more children, one of the younger was my grandmother, Helen Stella [Hathaway] Mason.
Nelson married again to Albert's sister Melissa and had eight more children, moving to Weeping Water, NE as they became young adults.
Sometime before 1856 Freelove's parents came to live on an acreage just outside of Afton. The father was Joseph Clemmons, the mother was Elizabeth [Van Hook].
Grandpa Clemmons grew a fine vegetable garden and sold produce. In later years he and his second wife moved into Afton and rented out some of the rooms in their spacious house.
Tracing back the families the Hathaways came to America in the 1630's. Joseph Clemmons was born in VA, lived in Pulaski Co., KY, Rush and Hamilton Co's IN and Des Moines Co., IA. Nelson Hester was from a Quaker family from Clinton Co., OH, and Wayne Co., IN. They lived in Hamilton Co., IN, when the 1850 census was taken, then on to Iowa.
My Elliott and Mason families came to Jasper Co., Iowa, early, then moved to Union county much later.
These families were pioneers of Iowa, Indiana and Kentucky. Enduring the hardships of new frontiers as they moved westward in constant search for their promised land. [Marilyn Mason Schmitt Past-President Iowa Genealogical Society]