52 Ancestors: #27: Jonathan Kaser, Farmer and Stone Mason

Jonathan Kaser 1855-1949

Jonathan Kaser, older brother of my grandfather, Cliff Kaser, was born near Clark, Ohio and spent his life there, farming and sometimes employed as a stone mason.

To bring you up to date, I have been writing about my father, Paul Kaser’s, uncles, aunts and cousins because I grew up knowing nothing about his close relatives, and he did not seem to know them either.  I am still puzzling over whether that might have been (at least partially) because Cliff Kaser had a falling out with the family.  Certainly part of it was the big age difference between my father and most of his cousins, since Clifford was one of the two youngest in the family, and my father was born 15 years after Clifford was married.

You can also read about their parents, Joseph Kaser II, and Catharine Sampsell.

Jonathan was one of those young men who was slow to leave the nest. He lived with his parents in Clark, working as a day laborer by the time he was 20 (and probably before that).  On July 30, 1883, at the age of 28, he married Amanda Randles who was only 17 and a half years old.

Amanda was already pregnant when they married, as the couple had their first son, Austin Jay, on February 27,1884,  seven months after the wedding.

Son Lester was born1889 and on March 4, 1891 (52 years before my birthday!) Leroy, known as Roy was born.

According to census records, the two oldest only went through 8th grade, but in the 1900 census we see that Jay (16) and Lester (11) were already listed as day laborers. The 1900 census was taken in the summer, but only (Leroy) Roy (9) is listed as at school. Their father, Jonathan is listed as a day laborer, as he was when he was still at home with his parents. However, since his occupation was stone mason,  he could have been working at that along with farming when the census was taken. As I have noted before, the Kaser clan stuck close together. Jonathan’s neighbor was his brother David.

Jonathan and Amanda made the newspaper in 1908 for winning prizes at the Coshocton County Fair, held in August. He had the “largest stock corn” and she made the best butter and tomato pickles and grew the best potted plants!

Jonathan’s father, Joseph Kaser II, died in 1900.  By 1910, Jonathan was listed as a stone mason, and his two sons, Austin (25) and Lester (21) were still at home and working at odd jobs and farm labor.  In the 1910 census, his next door neighbor is Bessie Lowe, daughter of his brother David and David lives nearby, as does his mother Catharine. The year after that census, Jonathan’s mother Catharine died at the age of 82.

In 1920, when he was 52, his occupation was once more listed as farmer, although he continued to live in the same place, still near David Kaser, and also near the Sutherlands (his sister Emma).  The boys had all left home by the summer of 1920.

Even though Jonathan was ten years older than his wife, Mandy, she died first–in 1924 at the age of 56. By 1930, when he was 74, his occupation was once more listed as stone mason,  he was listed on the census report as single but the line should have read ‘widowed’).

Johnathan did not enjoy his career long after that last census.  In 1931, he apparently suffered a stroke, and needed the full time care of family.  In 1932, a front page obituary in the Coshocton Tribune announced his death at the home of his son Lester. He left behind three sons, ten grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Jonathan Kaser Obituary

I am going to follow up on a couple of descendants of Jonathan, because as I was growing up, I heard the name of a man named Kaser. When I asked my father, he did not think he was directly related. However, I have recently met a Kaser cousin through Facebook, and in doing this research on Jonathan, have learned that we were indeed related to Jay Kaser.

How I Am Related

  • Vera Marie Badertscher is the daughter of
  • Paul Kaser, who is the son of
  • Clifford Kaser, who is the brother of
  • Jonathan Kaser

Notes on Research

Census records from 1860 (German Twp, Holmes Co, Oho); 1870 (Clark, Coshocton Co., Ohio);1880 (Village of Bloomfield (Clark), Coshocton Co, Ohio; 1900 (Clark, Coshocton Co. Ohio); 1910, Clark Twp, Coshocton Co., Ohio;1920 (Clark, Coshocton Co., Ohio); 1930 (Clark, Coshocton Co., Ohio).

Ohio, Marriages, 1803-1900,Jordan Dodd, Liahona Research

Coshocton Daily Age, “Winners Announced,”, continuation of front page article,  August 29, 1908

Coshocton Tribune, “Clark Resident Succumbs After Year’s Illness”, front page, October 17, 1932.

Ohio, MOLO Obituary Index, 1811-2012

All of these sources were found at Ancestry.com

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