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Bestor Family History
1635AD - Present

William Barstow settled in Dedham, Massachusetts in 1636, and about 1644 he moved to Scituate, located just southeast of Boston on Massachusett's Atlantic Coast. He was a shipwright, and started his shipbuilding business in Scituate. The early generations of his descendants settled around Scituate and Hanover, MA, where most of them became shipwrights or iron workers. Thus, they engaged in building ships, or in making iron for ships. Some of them became mariners and took to the sea. Some even became shipmasters and sailed their ships to all parts of the world.

It is unknown at this time as to the reason why our ancestors decided to leave their homes in England to sail across the vast waters of the Atlantic Ocean in a tiny wooden ship only to later endure the many hardships of the New World. Perhaps William, his brothers and sisters were adventurous souls, or like so many others, were seeking freedom from the religious persecution of England's King James at this time. Perhaps the opportunity to better themselves and stake claims to their own land was their motivation. Perhaps the name change was not really an accident, but intentional, and the brothers were hiding from authorities. Whatever the reason, the last name of many of William Barstow's descendants became permanently changed to Bestor.

It would be fascinating to know the reason why Abel and later family members decided to continue using the Bestor name. Two explanations have come forward as to the Bestor family name's American origins. One is the imagination of Abel Barstow, and another is due to the poor spelling of the ship's clerk of the "TRUELOVE". After hearing the name "Barstow" pronounced by William Barstow and his two brothers when they came to America from England in 1635, the ship's recorder possibly mistook the pronunciation of their last names, since it was entered into the ship's manifest as "Beeresto". It appears from the latest Bestor family research by Max Andrae, that it was Abel Barstow, son of John Barstow, who permanently changed his name from Barstow to Bestor in the late 1700's. Perhaps they were simply poor spellers or they just wanted to differentiate themselves from other members of the Barstow family. Whatever the reason, the new spelling of "Bestor" became permanent in the late 1700's with Abel Bestor and his descendents.

Abel Bestor was born as Abel Barstow in 1760 in Rehoboth, Bristol County, MA. In 1766, his parents moved the family first to Plainfield, CT, then to Stafford, CT in 1774. In 1778, Abel entered the Continental Army as a private in Capt. Robinson's company, Col. Roger Enos' Regiment, therein doing service on the Hudson River. In 1783, at the end of the Revolutionary War, he married Sarah Gager and bought land from Jason Gager in Stafford, CT. He apparently prospered here, eventually buying more land in 1783, 1789, and again in 1790. In the 1790 Stafford census, he is shown having a family of seven people, including one son and four daughters. For some reason he recorded all the land deeds with different spellings of his last name. Sometime between 1790 and 1794, he moved his growing family to Tolland, CT, which had grown to nine people by the census of 1800.

Abel had a son Chauncey in 1794, who eventually moved from the family home in Bristol, Massachusetts to New York City, where he soon met his future wife Rachel. Rachel was born in 1798 in New York State, and she met Chauncey in New York City. They eventually had a son by the name of Daniel Bestor in 1821. Chauncey fought in the War of 1812 from Herkimer County, NY. He survived the war and it appears after the war Daniel moved to Utica, New York, since Daniel's son John Edward was born there in 1852. Daniel married, but his wife's name is unknown. We do know he had at least two sons, John Edward and David. John Edward was the elder son, having been born in Utica, New York in September, 1852. David was born in March of 1860 in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, after the family had moved to the town of Auburn, near Campbellsport, Wisconsin.

According to the Auburn town records, Rachel Bestor bought an acre of land in the town of Auburn. In 1860, Rachel was living with a Romig family in the town of Auburn. Mr. Romig was a widower with four children. The 1870 census states Rachel Bestor was living with the John Dill family, also in the town of Auburn. The Bestors and Dills may have been friends since the time that they both lived in New York State. It is believed that both the Dill family, Rachel, and Chauncey Bestor are all buried in the Hake-Childs cemetery. There is also a tombstone here for Mary Bestor (Tuttle). Mary had married a John Wesley Tuttle.

Both brothers later moved to the Black Earth, Wisconsin area. Here John Edward Bestor met and married Luella Billington on December 10, 1870, since the records show they married in Iowa County, Wisconsin. For a time, John Edward and Luella also lived in Blue Earth City, Faribault, Minnesota with their young family, since they were listed there on the 1880 census. In that same year, John was 28 and working as a laborer, Luella was 27, their daughters Laura and Matie were respectively, 10 and 8 years of age, and young William was 6. John and Louella later moved their family to a farm near Black Earth, Wisconsin. They eventually had a total of 7 children - Laura, Matie, William, Bert, Rollie, Winnie, and Nettie. Their surviving children all eventually ended up in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where the boys went to work for the Soo Line railroad. With the growing popularity of baseball and football, the boys became interested in sports and were remembered by Winnie's widow Hazel as athletically inclined. Other than a brief time in Kaukauna for Bert, they all lived out the remainder of their lives in Fond du Lac. Here some of them met their future spouses, including Winnie who married the vivacious and lively Hazel Cutler.

Bert Harrison Bestor married Edna Marie Stearns on May 9, 1907 in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. Edna was born of French Canadian parents; George Stearns and Melinda (Letourneau) Stearns. Bert and Edna lived most of their lives at 388 Forest Avenue in Fond du Lac, where they had 15 children, 11 of which survived to adulthood (Ray, Viva, Violet, Blanche, Ruth, Doris, Evelyn, Don, Glenn, Jack, and Joan). Each of the boys in the family seemed to inherit their father's athletic talents, since they all excelled in their favorite sports. The girls were all lively, kind, outgoing, and charming. It seemed to many of us that knew them as if growing up in that large family kept most of them very close to each other.

We wish to thank Max and Patricia Andrae, Doris Reginell, Delores Thurman, Evelyn Smith, and Carrie Henderson for sharing their genealogy records and memories to recreate the family history we have provided here. Keep checking back often, so you can continue to learn about our family heritage and to keep current with the history still being made. Since many of our readers are growing branches of common Bestor Family ancestors, we hope you enjoy reading about our common heritage and will enter your family's information into the family tree. Keep sending us new information that we can publish for all to read!

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