Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Descendants of Paulus Kuster

Big changes have come to Genealogy.com — all content is now read-only, and member subscriptions and the Shop have been discontinued.

Learn more

[ Home Page | First Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Last Page ]

Descendants of Paulus Kuster

71. ELI¹⁰ CUSTER (JOHN⁹, PETER⁸, JONATHAN⁷, PAUL⁶, ARNOLD⁵, PAULUS⁴ KUSTER, ARNOLD³, JOHANNES², REINER¹) was born 31 Mar 1818 in Pennsylvania, and died 18 Jun 1871 in Jackson Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania. He married (1) SARAH JOHNSON Abt. 1840, daughter of JOSEPH JOHNSON and SARAH KENT. She died Unknown. He married (2) MARIAH WAYCHOFF Abt. 1845, daughter of CORNELIUS WAYCHOFF and ELIZABETH CAGE. She was born 1821 in Pennsylvania, and died Unknown.

Child of ELI CUSTER and SARAH JOHNSON is:

ELIZABETH¹¹ CUSTER, b. 1841, Greene County, Pennsylvania; d. Unknown; m. REASON GODDARD, 08 Sep 1870, White Cottage, Jackson Twp., Greene Co., Pennsylvania; d. Unknown.

Children of ELI CUSTER and MARIAH WAYCHOFF are:

117.	ii.	JOHN¹¹ CUSTER, b. Abt. 1848; d. Abt. 1888.
	iii.	HARRIETT ANN CUSTER, b. 23 Apr 1849; d. 26 Mar 1871.
118.	iv.	CHARLOTTE CUSTER, b. 06 Oct 1850, Jackson Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania; d. 27 Oct 1912, Lynn Camp near Silver Hill, West Virginia.
119.	v.	SARAH JANE CUSTER, b. 19 Jul 1852, Greene County, Pennsylvania; d. 16 May 1933, Clay County, West Virginia.
	vi.	JENNE F. CUSTER, b. Abt. 1854; d. Unknown.
120.	vii.	MORGAN E. CUSTER, b. 01 Apr 1854; d. 30 Jun 1882.
121.	viii.	MARTHA J. CUSTER, b. 25 Jun 1856; d. 12 Jun 1921.
	ix.	RHODA M. CUSTER, b. 05 Nov 1860; d. 28 Oct 1885.
122.	x.	JOEL M. CUSTER, b. 23 Dec 1862; d. 14 Jun 1880.

72. PETER¹⁰ CUSTER (GEORGE⁹, PETER⁸, JONATHAN⁷, PAUL⁶, ARNOLD⁵, PAULUS⁴ KUSTER, ARNOLD³, JOHANNES², REINER¹) was born Abt. 1825, and died Unknown. He married MATILDA LEWIS 08 Dec 1846 in Berkeley County, Virginia (Source: Guy L. Keesecker, Marriage Records of Berkeley County, Virginia 1781-1854, (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc 1983), page 54, Custer, Peter m. Lewis, Matilda Dec. 8 1846 suretor Lewis Lewis bond 7b 79.). She was born Abt. 1827, and died Abt. 1910 in Berkeley County, West Virginia.

Notes for PETER CUSTER:
      Information about Peter Custer is from his descendant, Don Silvius.
      Peter was a farmer.
      Don states that Peter was listed as Jacob Custer in the 1860 Census.

Notes for MATILDA LEWIS:
      Information for Matilda from her descendant, Don Silvius.
      Matilda in 1910 lived in Berkeley County Alms House, Gerradstown District. (1910 Census)

Child of PETER CUSTER and MATILDA LEWIS is:

123.

JOANNA PAGE¹¹ CUSTER, b. 07 Oct 1847, Berkeley County, Virginia; d. 28 Feb 1921, Berkeley County, West Virginia.

73. SARAH JANE¹⁰ CUSTER (MARK⁹, PETER⁸, JONATHAN⁷, PAUL⁶, ARNOLD⁵, PAULUS⁴ KUSTER, ARNOLD³, JOHANNES², REINER¹) was born 06 Aug 1812 in Berkeley County, Virginia, and died 03 Mar 1880 in Pleasants County, West Virginia. She married SAMUEL B. SECKMAN 02 Sep 1830 in Greene County, Pennsylvania, son of PHILLIP SECKMAN and ANNA BELLEMAN. He was born 20 Mar 1810 in Berkeley County, Virginia (Source: Information from Lenore Radcliffe Yeager. A Pleasants County history says he was born in Berkeley County, Virginia. Lenore is checking on her source which she believes was from the Allen County Library in Indiana.), and died Unknown.

Notes for SARAH JANE CUSTER:
      Information on the descendants of Sarah Jane "Sallie" Custer Seckman is contributed by her descendant Lenore Radcliffe Yeager. Her sources are the Bible records of her Great Grandmother Mary Florence Seckman Jones as well as marriage and birth records from the Court House at St. Marys in Pleasant County, West Virginia.

Notes for SAMUEL B. SECKMAN:
      Served eight years as a Justice of the Peace. Primary occupation stock-raising on his farm, which lies along Big Run. His address was Twiggs, Pleasants County, WV.

Children of SARAH CUSTER and SAMUEL SECKMAN are:

	i.	ELIZA¹¹ SECKMAN, b. 21 Oct 1831, Greene County, Pennsylvania; d. Unknown; m. ? SAYER; d. Unknown.
124.	ii.	ANDREW MATHIAS SECKMAN, b. 29 Dec 1832, Greene County, Pennsylvania; d. Aft. 1880, Pleasants County, West Virginia.
125.	iii.	BENJAMIN FRANKLIN SECKMAN, b. 17 Nov 1834, Greene County, Pennsylvania; d. 04 Mar 1904, Pleasants County, West Virginia.
	iv.	ANNA ELIZABETH SECKMAN, b. 20 Apr 1835, Virginia; d. 20 May 1875; m. ALFRED SAYER, 18 Jan 1855, Pleasants County, Virginia; d. Unknown.
	v.	MARGARET SECKMAN, b. 30 Apr 1839, Virginia; d. Unknown; m. ? WOOD; d. Unknown.

Notes for MARGARET SECKMAN:
Lived in Henry County, Missouri

vi.

SARAH A. SECKMAN, b. 15 Aug 1841, Virginia; d. 16 Sep 1862.

74. JOHN PETER¹⁰ CUSTER (MARK⁹, PETER⁸, JONATHAN⁷, PAUL⁶, ARNOLD⁵, PAULUS⁴ KUSTER, ARNOLD³, JOHANNES², REINER¹) was born Jan 1818 in Berkeley County, Virginia, and died 19 Jan 1902 in West Virginia. He married (1) CHARLOTTE SECKMAN Abt. 1842. She was born Abt. 1818, and died 11 Jul 1862 in Jackson County, Virginia. He married (2) ELIZABETH KNOTTS 11 Oct 1863, daughter of EDWARD KNOTTS and MARY BRYAN. She was born 02 Jul 1816 in Preston County, Virginia, and died 14 Dec 1905 in Jackson County, West Virginia (Source: John House, Pioneers in Jackson County , W.VJA. History of Mill Creek and Sandy Valley and its Early Settlements, (Compiled in 1906), page 243, died December 14th, 1905, aged eighty nine years, five months and twelve days.).

Notes for JOHN PETER CUSTER:
      In an e mail from Freda Blake Bradley sent 16 Apr 2001:

Middle Sandy Valley

Big Lick Run comes on the right of Sandy, and a short distance above. It has
been a wild, rough country in the pioneer days. The hills are high, steep,
and rocky. There are imposing cliffs and walls of sandstone lining the sides
of a gorge, below the Grant farm, with rocks framed in the walls as large as
a house. This strata of rocks seems to run solid through the hill, and crops
out on the right fork of Coon Run in a solid wall of rock on each side of the
stream, twelve to sixteen feet in thickness, through which the valley has
been worn in the course of centuries. Near the mouth of Trap Run, the left
bank of the stream is a wall of stone.

The run is named from a spring in the bottom, on the right side of, and near
the stream a little distance from its mouth. This once famous deer lick is
only about a hundred yards below the site of John Custer's cabin, and near
the upper line of K.C. Hutchinson's land, and the water comes out from under
the foot of a towering mountain.

      1850 Census Jackson Co., VA: 198-202 Custer John P. age 33 Miller at Sandyville b. Berkeley County; Charlette (Seckman) age 33; Melissa J. Custer age 7 born Tyler Co., VA,; George N. Custer age 6 born Tyler Co., VA,; Sylvester B. Custer age 5 born Tyler Co., VA.

      1860 Census Jackson Co., VA: 840-792 John P. Custer age 42 farmer on Trace Fork of Sandy born VA; Charlotte (Seckman) 42 born PA; George 15 born VA

      1870 Census Jackson Co., WV: 77-77 John P. Custer age 52 farmer on Trace Fork born Berkeley Co.,; Elizabeth age 54

      1880 Census Jackson Co., WV: 286-288 John P. Custer age 62 farmer born Berkeley Co., WV;
Elizabeth 64; Okey C. Grant age 11 nephew (s/o Chapman Grant and Margaret Custer Grant m. 16 Aug 1866 Jackson Co., WV); Holman, H. age 33 domestic born WV; Lucy? Grant 14 waiter born WV (Charles L. Grant).
      Margaret Custer MacFarland Grant was the sister of John P. Custer.

      Home Guard during the War Between the States.

      From John House's "Pioneers in Jackson County":
"John Custer married first a Seckman, a sister of Squire Sayre's wife. He lived on the Sarver Farm, on Big Lick, which he sold to Old Jimmy Harper. He was living there in 1858. He married next Elizabeth, widow of Jephtha Magee. He lived after his second marriage at the home of his wife, beyond Independence."


Notes for CHARLOTTE SECKMAN:
      John House in "Pioneers of Jackson County" states that Charlotte was a sister of Squire Sayre's wife. Squire Sayre was the brother of Jerusha Sayre, wife of David Custer. John Custer would be the brother in law of Squire Sayre and Jerusha Sayre Custer.

Notes for ELIZABETH KNOTTS:
      From the MAGEE FAMILY in John House's "Pioneers of Jackson County":
In the low gap between the waters of Beatty's Run and Copper Fork, up on a slope overlooking the pike, and a deep cut, through which the railroad passes, is an old hewed log house, weatherboarded and grown old and weatherbeaten a second time, which was built by Jephtha Mcgee, in 1847, and the house of his wife, the late Elizabeth Knotts Magee Custer for fifty eight years. A large beech tree standing in the front yard, three feet in diameter, well proportioned, and with a magnificent spreading top, was when Magee cleared the ground and cut the top out of it to make it branch out, "a tall slim sapling, about as thick as a stovepipe".
      When I visited the old lady, in September 1904, and enjoyed a pleasant hour, talking of pioneer days, she expressed herself as greatly attached to the tree and wished it to stand as long as she might live.
      A little over a year later, she was in her grave, but the tree is (August, 1907) still hale and vigourous . Shame to the hand that is ever raised against it.

      From "Some Early City, Village, County Burying Grounds" by John House.
Received from Freda Blake Bradley June 29, 2000. Cemetery visits made in 1903, 1904, and 1905 by Mr. House:
      "The Magee Chapel, M.E.S. stands on a point above the Railroad and is about a mile below Sandyville Bridge. It was built in the Centennial year and is a neat and commodious building and pleasantly located. The graveyard lies above it. It is irregular in shape and contains about an acre.
      It is well fenced with barbed wire and the boundaries were considerabley extended when the new fence was put up.
      There is a nice shade on the north side of White Oak, Black Oak, and hickory trees.
Second growth, I should think, but of good size.
      The top point is nearly level, sloping gently to the east, in the northeast corner, a steep bank has been included within the bounds of the fence and there is fresh dirt on it, caused I think, by the dumping of dirt from the graves.
      After visiting the churchyard, I returned a short distance to where lives an old lady, Mrs. Elizabeth Custer and spent a pleasant hour in conversation with her. Mrs. Custer was born Knotts, on the second day of July 1816, and was well started in her eighty-ninth year. She was raised in Preston County, where in 1834, she married Jeptha Magee and moved to Sandy Valley. They lived on Daniel Sears' place at Sandyville and seven years on the Joe Leap Farm. In 1847, Magee bought land where she now lives and put up the house she yet lives in. It has been weather boarded and has a wide old fashioned porch in front, cool and shady on which the old lady was seated.
      She was very communicative and seemed glad to have someone to talk to, someone who had come ten miles just to talk with her. She said it seemed like people didn't pay much attention to her, that she had outlived her time. What the present generation talked about did not interest her and the young people did not like to talk about old times.
      She was well prepared, intelligent and quite sorry for her age. She is living with some of her grandchildren perhaps. The house is at the head of the little runs, in a low gap, one of them is a tributary of Copper Fork, the other of Beatties run.
      In the yard is a magnificent beech tree, three feet in diameter with wide spreading top. The old lady is quite attached to this tree which was about as thick as a stove pipe when they moved there in the woods, fifty-seven years of age.
      She told me much of the first settlers, of their customs and hardships and victories.
      She said the graveyard was opened some years before the church was built, but it is of comparatively recent date, yet there are many old people buried there, some of them pioneers.
      The first grave was that of a daughter of William Ables, and the next, of a man named Baker, who was killed by lightning in a barn at Joe Leap's. He was no kin to the Leroy Bakers.
      The oldest dates are in the side of the cemetery next to the church."

Freda Blake Bradley also sent a copy of this document:
      This agreement made this 18th day of August 1897 between James F. Blake and Mollie Blake his wife, parties of the first part and Elizabeth Custer party of the second part, Witnesseth, That whereas the said Custer has heretofore conveyed to said first parties a tract of 50 acres of land situated in Ravenswood District of Jackson County, West Virginia, on which all parties now reside: Now therefore, in consideration of the premises and for said land, the said first parties hereby agree and bind themselves with the said Elizabeth Custer to keep, board, clothe, and care for, in sickness and health, the said Elizabeth Custer, so long as she may live: furnishing to her, at all times a comfortable home on said land, and supplying all her necessities as her age and condition in life reasonabley require: and on her death to pay her funeral expenses and in a reasonable time, to erect at her grave a monument at a cost not exceeding $50.
      And this agreement is executed in duplicate.
      Witness the following signatures & seals the day and date above written.
                                    James F. Blake (seal)
                                    Mollie A. Blake (seal)
                                    Elizabeth Custer (seal)
      16 Apr 2001 in an email Freda wrote:
I learned ... that Elizabeth Knotts McGee was widowed at 43 and was pregnant when Jeptha died. Within days, she went into labor and lost the baby it being stillborn. Isn't that such a sad story? Elizabeth had 2 stillbirths according to this person.

Children of JOHN CUSTER and CHARLOTTE SECKMAN are:

	i.	MELISSA J.¹¹ CUSTER, b. Abt. 1843, Tyler County, Virginia; d. 30 Jun 1860, Jackson County, Virginia.
126.	ii.	GEORGE W. CUSTER, b. Abt. 1844, Tyler County, Virginia; d. Unknown.
	iii.	SYLVESTER B. CUSTER, b. 1854; d. 1893.

More About SYLVESTER B. CUSTER:
Burial: Unknown, Independence Cem., Sandyville, Jackson Co., WV

[ Home Page | First Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Last Page ]