Jacob Garst's Family
By Dwayne Wrightsman

Jacob Garst was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on October 10, 1766, and died in Roanoke County, Virginia, on February 25, 1854, aged 87 years, 4 months, 15 days. He married three times. He first married Christina or Christiana (last name unknown), her name appearing in six Botetourt County deeds of sale by Jacob Garst and wife between 1798 and 1804. This first marriage may have taken place in Pennsylvania as there is no record of it in Virginia. Marriages two and three were recorded in Botetourt County. The records indicate that Jacob married Eve Minter, on December 3, 1805, and the widow Mrs. Magdalena [Landes] Hinkle, on June 16, 1807. Remarkably, Jacob outlived all three of his wives.

Jacob Garst had many children by his three wives. Thirteen were listed in his will, written March 26, 1850, and probated in Botetourt March Court, 1854. Their names, in order of appearance in the will, were written as follows:

Son Jacob
Son Philip
Daughter Elizabeth Hannon
Son Abraham
Daughter Catharine Hartman
Christena Acres my Daughter
Daughter Anna Clark
Rosena Hinkle
Son Nicholas Garst's Heirs
Son Christian Garst
Daughter Eve Shewey (Shuey)
Daughter Mary Lockett
Daughter Lydia Mason

Quite a few of these children were living in Putnam County, Indiana, near to the time of Jacob's death. Jacob lived out his adult life in the Roanoke, Virginia, area. He was a miller. He applied to build a water grist mill on his land, receiving permission in February 1803. The Jacob Garst mill was the namesake for the present-day Garst Mill Road in Roanoke, Virginia.