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<br /> Hattie Mae (1879-1972)7. Nicholas and his family shared the cabin with his brother,
<br /> Egbert, and his wife Martha.$
<br /> The 1880 agriculture census reported that Nicholas Corbett Hester's farm included
<br /> a mix of cultivated land, forest, and unimproved acreage. The value of his farm was
<br /> $1,000 including land, fences, and buildings. Hester used fertilizer and employed
<br /> full-time farm workers. He had the same mix of livestock his father had raised,but
<br /> also chickens. In all, Hester's livestock was valued at$250. Hester grew corn,wheat,
<br /> Irish potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Tobacco remained the major crop,with 4,000
<br /> pounds produced in 1879. He also had fifty apple trees on one acre.9
<br /> Around 1880, Nicholas Corbett Hester hired carpenter Will White to build a new
<br /> house on the farm. The current owner has a note written in pencil on a baseboard
<br /> concerning lumber from Will White to Nicholas Corbett Hester. In a 1994 interview,
<br /> Eleanor Walker, granddaughter of Nicholas and Sallie Hester, described the dwelling
<br /> as a"well-built house." She continued that,"they were just, as I say, ordinary
<br /> country people, farmers.And of course farmers have never had a great deal.°10
<br /> Around the same time he had the house built, Hester acquired eighteen to nineteen
<br /> acres across current-day NC 86 North from J.W. Reid, his brother-in-law. 11
<br /> Nicholas Corbett Hester died in 1891 and was buried in Prospect Hill in Caswell
<br /> County. In 1896,his daughter, Sallie Bet, married J. Clarence Walker in the parlor of
<br /> her parents'house and moved to his nearby farm. Their portrait hangs in the parlor.
<br /> In 1901,the Walkers returned to the Hester Farm for a year to help her mother,
<br /> Sallie. In 1905,the Walkers invited Sallie and her unmarried daughter, Hattie Mae,
<br /> to live with them in Graham. In 1920,Jasper and Lula Roberson bought the property
<br /> from Walker for$8,300.12 They likely built the one-story ell that was later removed.
<br /> 7 Hattie May Hester, Certificate of Death, North Carolina State Board of Health, Office
<br /> of Vital Statistics,April 6, 1972,viewed on Ancestry.com, accessed June 16, 2015.
<br /> 8 Mimi Logothetis, draft Part 2 Orange County Landmark Application, no date. In the
<br /> Nicholas Corbett Hester House survey file, Orange County Department of
<br /> Environment,Agriculture, and Parks and Recreation, Hillsborough, NC.
<br /> 9 1880 Census of Agriculture, microfilm, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC.
<br /> 10 Karen Love, interview with Eleanor Walker, March 23, 1994, Burlington, North
<br /> Carolina. In the Nicholas Corbett Hester House survey file, Orange County
<br /> Department of Environment,Agriculture, and Parks and Recreation, Hillsborough,
<br /> NC.
<br /> 11 J.W. Reid et al to N. C. Hester, Orange County Deed Book 49, page 417, November
<br /> 16, 1881, Orange County Register of Deeds, Hillsborough, NC.
<br /> 12 Sallie B. and J. C.Walker to Jasper Roberson, Orange County deed book 78, page
<br /> 231, October 26, 1920, Orange County Register of Deeds, Hillsborough, NC.
<br /> 7
<br /> October 26,2015
<br /> Orange County Local Landmark Application: Nicholas Corbett Hester House
<br /> 9501 NC 86 North
<br /> Cedar Grove, NC 27231
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