John Daniel CHESSER

                   BIRTH PLACE-PARENTS:  1850 Census; Cannon County, Tennessee; FHL #0024563
DEATH-BURIAL-SPOUSE-CHILDREN: Williams Ranch Cemetery; Rural Cemetery
          Inscriptions of Brown County, Texas; compiled by Hazel Ellis Wetzel.
          Children: Infant (daughter) Chesser, born & died 11 Dec. 1889;
                    William P. Chesser, born 10 Jan. 1862, died 10 May 1871.
BIRTH-DEATH: Family Bible records.
MARRIAGE: John Daniel Chesser, married December 20, 1860, Burnet County,              Texas.
HISTORY: Mills County Memories; Mills County, Texas Historical Commission.
           It was a freezing cold night in Cannon County, Tennessee when the             two young orphan Epley sisters (Elizabeth Caroline & Louisa Ann)              slipped through a window of thier anunt's home and rode horseback             with a trusted friend, Tobe Avery, to a rendevous with the girls              cousin, William Lyon "Bill" Williams, a young man in his twenties             and leader of the Williams Wagon Train to Brown/Mills County, Texas           in 1856.  Elizabeth Caroline, age fourteen, and Louisa Ann, age               eight, (daughter of John and Mary Spangler Epley) had been unhappy            residents in the home of their aunt, Sarah Epley Moore, since the             death of their parents in Hickory County, Missouri, in 1852.
           William L. "Bill" Williams started the wagon train on its way to
           Williams Ranch, Texas, then he waited for the Epley girls to arrive           at the pre-arranged meeting place. Their arrival had been delayed an          hour or two, so Bill and girls-all on one horse-rode as swiftly as            possible through the bitterly cold night to catch the wagon train in          time for breakfast.  The girls' feet were frost bitten and caused             much discomfort for several years.  It is said they did not have              shoes that night, only the clothes they wore.  At Williams Ranch,             Elizabeth Caroline and Louisa Ann Epley lived a few years with                another aunt, Annie Epley Williams (John), in Burnet County, who had
           established Williams Ranch in 1855.   Elizabeth married John Dan              Chesser in 1860.  They established a homestead in Chesser Valley              (six miles from Williams Ranch), built a log cabin and reared eleven          children.  Louisa married John Parks in 1867.  They moved to
           Arizona in 1879.   submitted by Stella B. Jaynes