The following letters were written by Rollin John Bestor (1842-1899) and his twin brother, John Rollin Bestor, Jr. (1842-1891). They were the sons of John Rollin Bestor, Sr. (1813-1867), a Baltimore book-keeper, and his wife, Jane Eliza Brown (1820-1885). The couple married in Baltimore in October 1835. In 1860, they resided at 97 South High Street—a dense, bustling, enclave that had been the heart of Baltimore’s German-Jewish community but was transitioning to a working class society of Irish and Italian emigrants. Their home was most likely a two or three-story row house on a gas-lit cobblestone street frequented by horse-drawn omnibuses that daily transported passengers to the inner city. A few blocks to the south, within walking distance, was the harbor basin, lined with wharves, packing houses, and tobacco warehouses. By 1863, the Bestor family had moved to 166 North High Street, in an older established neighborhood almost in the shadow of the Fayette Street Phoenix Shot Tower.
Father had a presence in Baltimore in the 1830’s, advertisements offering flute lessons and selling a one horse buggy. Son JR also trained in music—gave concert at Masonic Hall in 1853. Won award for penmanship in 1852.
Twins—both stood 5 feet 8.5 inches tall, with dark hair and eyes.
Obituary of John Rollin Bestor, published in The Sun, 18 May 1891. Burial was at Loudon Park Cemetery. “Mr. Bestor was born in Baltimore 48 years ago, was graduated from a college at Chillicothe, Ohio at the age on 19 years, and became a civil engineer… [He worked in City Surveyor’s office and later for the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company.] At the outbreak of the late war, he enlisted in Col. J. Lyle Clark’s regiment, was captured, and after being imprisoned at Fort McHenry for a short time, was exchanged and served till 1865.” [Died of a brain tumor]. Note: The only possible colleges in Chillicothe at that time would have been John Allen’s Ohio Militaty Academy that operated from 1857 to 1860, or the Chillicothe Academy (not technically a college).
After the war, Rollin Bestor was listed in the 1870 Baltimore Directory as a bookkeeper for the N C. Railroad. His obituary states that he was at one time on the private staff of stonewall Jackson. He died in 1899 of Bright’s Disease at his home at 19 Washington Avenue in New Rochelle, Westchester county, New York, when he was 57 years old. He was married to Lucy Maria Tuller (b. 1847).
The following pages are from The Maryland Line in the Confederate army, 1861-1865, pages 160-162.
