“If you shake a tree on Cedar Creek, a Hester will fall out,” and “why of course he, or she, married a Hester,” and such current expressions warrant the fact that there are many Hesters in Franklin County. In fact, more people of Franklin County have the name of Hester than any other one name. Even a great many who have some other name have Hester blood in their veins. The Hesters and Malones are practically all related and many of the Jameses, Rickards and Sparkses are closely related to the Hesters.

The great majority of the Hesters in Franklin County are the descendants of William and Amy (Malone) Hester, who were North Carolinians, and very early settlers of the county. According to records which Wiley Hester, an aged citizen of the Belgreen section, and a grandson of William and Amy (Malone) Hester, has in his possession. William Hester came to Franklin County in the spring of 1818, with his eldest son, Roling, then a boy of about eleven years of age. They selected a place for settlement out on, or near the Gaine’s Trace towards the present Tharp Springs Community. Here, they made a small clearing, and in the summer of 1818 they grew a small corn crop.

We love to sit and muse over William or “Buck” Hester as he was known to his friends, and as we shall call him from now on, and his young son during that spring and summer of 1818. Their wife and mother was in far-off North Carolina, a great distance in those days, and with poor means of communication. Did not young Roling’s heart yearn for mothers, and brothers and sisters back at home even if he were brave? Doubtless such was the case. But on the other hand, there was much to amuse himself with in this new country. We fancy that we see him in the virgin forest hunting deer and other big game with his father, for Buck Hester, like John Cook, Sr., was a mighty hunter.

In the fall of 1818, Buck Hester and his son went back to the “Old North State” in their ox cart for Mrs. Hester and the other members of the family. When they returned to Franklin County they continued to reside in the Tharp Springs section, but later removed to a wild section near the line between the Franklin County of that day and the Chickasaw Reservation. This wild, desolate section in after years became Frankfort and the county seat of Franklin County. Does the reader ask, “Why the removal?” The answer seems to be that one thing that induced the removal was the presence of more game and less “crowded” living conditions than in Russell’s Valley. Then, too, Mrs. Hester had two brothers, Pumpfrey and James Malone, who lived on Tollison’s Creek near Frankfort. However, we are not positively sure that the Malones were living there at the time of the Hester’s removal.

We should like to know more about the personal life of Buck Hester and his consort, but as far as we know they were honorable people. They reared large families. One could only expect to find in a family as large as the Hesters’ some members who have failed to live up to the requirements of good citizenship, but it is doubtful if another family in Alabama has a cleaner record. Very few, perhaps, has as clean.

According to Wiley Hester’s Bible records (this Bible is said to have been bought in 1803). Buck Hester was born January 27, 1780. His wife was born on St. Patrick’s Day in the year 1789. They were married in North Carolina, on October 18, 1805.

Their Children.

The children of Buck and Amy (Malone) Hester were as follows:
Roling married Lucinda Richardson; Nancy married John Richardson; John married Sarah Bowen; Poley married Mr. Bourland; Judy married Simeon Waits; Saley married Liindsey Moore; William H. married Malissa Lindsey; Robert B. married Sarah and _______ Williams, who were sisters; Chesley B. married Salley Rickard; Amy Penie married Levi Rickard; Semirah married Henry Rickard; Pertheny married John Pump Malone; Huldah married Carioll Rickard; Jackson, not known if he married; Hudson married Catherine Thorn; Lucus married Martha Elledge.

The Descendants

The great majority of the descendants of Buck Hester have led the quiet, retired lives of farmers, and for may years some of the most prominent farmers have been Hesters. John Chesley Hester, for example, was one of Franklin’s leading farmers in his day. He was a son of Roling and Lucinda (Richardson) Hester, and the father of Sam B., William, Amos and Wiley Hester, Jr., all well known citizens of Franklin County at the present time.

Sam B. Hester was tax collector of Franklin County in the early part of the twentieth century. His three sons -- William, Webster and Blanton -- are scientific farmers and stock growers. The eldest of this trio has the distinction of being Franklin’s leader in the raising of fine hogs. He is also second Vice-president of the Alabama Farm Bureau Federation.

Arthur Hester, of Waco, is a grandson of Roling and Lucinda (Richardson) Hester, and a son of the late Carrol Hester. He owns a fine farm and is one of the county’s outstanding farmers.

This branch of the Hester family also includes Albert Hester, an attorney of Virginia, and a son of the late John Chesley Hester; J. E. Hester, a well known teacher of the county and son of Wiley Hester, Sr.; M. C. Hester, son of J. E. Hester, who is now Clerk of the Circuit Court of Franklin County; James Hester of the Russellville First National Bank, and son of Arthur Hester of Waco; Miss Cecil Hester, daughter of Sam B. Hester, and Misses Essie and Eula Hester, daughters of Amos Hester, all three of whom are doing county agency work in Alabama, and many others who are engaged more or less in professional or official work.

Otto Hester, who is descended from W. H. and Malissa (Lindsey) Hester, is probably the most successful truck farmer in Franklin County. He lives near old Centerview, or Sweetgum Thicket, on Tollison’s Creek.

Colbert as well as Franklin County, has a great many Hesters who are descended from Buck and Amy (Malone) Hester. Most of the Hesters are Democrats and probably the majority are Baptists, but some are members of the Church of Christ, the Presbyterian and the Methodist churches.

The Hester of Dime.

There is a small family of Hesters, who reside at Dime, in the south- eastern part of Franklin County, and who are of no know relations to the descendants of Buck Hester. This family came to Franklin County from Randolph County, Ala., several years ago.

Source:  ‘Distinguished Men, Women and Families of Franklin County, Alabama‘, by Robert Leslie James, circa 1926.  Chapter III., page 100.  This book is out of print but copies can be obtained from various places on-line.