Hans Adam Costner (abt. 1709 - 1767)

Born about 6 Jun 1709 in Edenkoben, Sudliche Weinstrasse, Kurfürstentum Pfalz, Heiliges Römisches Reich

Ancestors

Husband of Maria Anna (Kraus) Costner — married 29 Dec 1732 in EdenKoben, Kurfürstentum Pfalz, Heiliges Römisches Reich

Descendants

Died Jan 1767 at about age 57 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina

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Biography

Note that Adam Costner is linked to Andreas and Anna Margaretha (Neu) Costner as their son. The accuracy of their kinship is not validated. The mother is said to have died in 1710, which is the same birth year alleged for Adam Costner.

At an earlier date the website of the Philadelphia Evangelical Lutheran Church (present-day Dallas, Gaston County, North Carolina) stated that "Adam Kastner, at the age of thirty-eight, presumably with his wife and five children, sailed on the ship Patience from Rotterdam, Holland, and arrived at the Port of Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, in September 1748."^[1]

The passenger Adam Kastner signed the required abjuration oath with an "H" signature mark.^[2] If the Patience passenger (who was born circa 1710) was the same as Adam Costner of North Carolina, then he was too young to be the father of Jacob Costner who, according to The Descendants of Adam Kastner (1698-1767),^[3] was born 1726. If the Costner publication is accurate, son Jacob would have been age twenty-two in 1748 and would have been required to sign the emigration oaths. The conflicts between the two resources result in three choices:
a) The Patience passenger was the same man as Adam Costner of North Carolina and the Costner publication is incorrect;
b) The Patience passenger was not the same man as Adam Costner of North Carolina and the Costner publication is correct; or
c) Neither source applies to the North Carolina Costner family.

Other than a crude tombstone, no contemporary source names Adam Costner in North Carolina. The first known North Carolina record created by any of the Costner family is the July 1763 purchase of 350 acres in Mecklenburg County by Adam's son Jacob Costner from John Armstrong. The tract was "On the South Forke of the Catauba [Catawba] River below the great Shoals."^[4] Jacob had to be at least age twenty-one to execute a valid purchase deed, establishing only that he was born no later than 1742.

Mecklenburg County was created in 1763 from part of Anson County. In 1769, Tryon County was created from part of Mecklenburg County. In 1779, Lincoln County was created from part of Tryon County. In 1842, Gaston County was created from part of Lincoln County.

Tradition published by Laban Miles Hoffman (see following) is that Adam Costner held religious meetings in his home. It is assumed a log church was eventually constructed on Costner property. The congregation also began the burial ground known as Kastner's. The earliest marked tombstone there is Adam's who died in 1767 (the geographical area then was still known as Mecklenburg County).^[5] The original stone inscription is faintly decipherable in the Find A Grave photograph and reads "G Adam Costner . . . 1767." A new stone was later installed, which reads "Pioneer Adam Costner Died 1767."

Laban Hoffman, author of Our Kin, wrote:

Adam Costner was the pioneer of the Costner family in this section of the country. When first he came to America, and to the south from Germany, the name was spelled "Kästner" with the broad sound of the "ä," making the name not much different in sound from the later and present spelling. I regret very much that I have been unable to ascertain the family name or even the Christian name of his wife. These, like most of the other German fathers, who settled here, came from the upper or southern Rhine country of Germany. Following a current of emigration from that country, started many years before by the religious persecutions of the Protestants, who were given refuge in England by Queen Anne, they went from Germany to England.

These pioneers were Lutheran people and soon set up a place of worship. It was known as Kästner's Church. Philadelphia Church is the successor of Kästner's. I have been unable to fix the date of the organization of this church, though I have exhausted all probable sources of information. I have been able only to rescue a fragment of the old German records from 1809 forward several years. Jno. Smith conveyed the land where Philadelphia Church now stands to the congregation in 1798. The earliest grave in what is now used as the cemetery of the church is that of our good old pioneer. A marble slab stands bearing this brief inscription: "Adam Costner died in 1767." There is no mark or sign of the grave of his wife.

So far as I can find his children must have come with him. So far as known they were:

Peter Costner, m. Mary Magdalene Dellinger, sister to Henry Dellinger, and to Margaret Dellinger, wife of Michael Hoyle. [Comment: the maiden names of these two women have not been established. Neither of them were sisters of Henry Dellinger, who was the son of Dellinger-10 Philipp Dellinger. See also Unknown-284836 Margaret (Unknown) Hoyle.]

Jacob Costner, m. Elizabeth Brooks Hoyle, widow of Jacob Hoyle, whose maiden name was Brooks. [The maiden name of Jacob Costner's wife is unlikely to be "Brooks"; see Unknown-253083].

Andrew Costner—thought to have died single. I think it probable that he had a family but I can't trace him. May 2, 1775, he bought 300 acres of land on Lick branch from his brother, Peter, and adjoining Peter and the Laboon land.^[6]

Thomas Costner was the fourth son of Adam Costner. He married Jennie Lowe. [This is incorrect; see Costner-55. Thomas Costner Jr. is the man who married Jane "Jennie" Lowe in 1809; see Costner-59 and Lowe-536]

Margaret Costner, who married John Hoyle, and,

Mary Costner, who married Philip Rudisill^[7]

German Church Records

The original Edenkoben Reformed Evangelical church records are digitized and can be studied on site at a Family History Research Center. The FamilySearch index to baptisms at Evangelisch Reformed Church, Edenkoben, Pfalz, Bavaria, can be consulted online via personal computer. It indexes the following baptisms of what appear to be two different families: one family headed by Hans Adam Kastner and wife Anna Maria and one family headed by George Adam Kaster and wife Maria Anna.

Children of Hans Adam Kastner and wife Anna Maria
A male child baptized 30 May 1726, son of Hanss Adam Kastner and wife Anna Maria^[8] [Comment: this is the same date that a Costner genealogy attributes to the son Jacob Costner.]^[9]

Eleonora Friderica Kastner baptized 24 January 1734, daughter of Hans Adam Kastner and wife Anna Maria^[10]

Children of George Adam Kastner and wife Maria Anna
A female child baptized 15 December 1737 [same date as the next child], daughter of George Adam Kastner and wife Maria Anna^[11]

A male child baptized 15 December 1737 [same date as the female child; apparently twins], son of Georg Adam Kastner and wife Maria Anna^[12]

Philipp Peter Castener baptized 7 April 1744, son of Georg Adam Castener and wife Maria Anna^[13]

Research Notes

• Find A Grave gives an unsourced birth date of 28 Apr 1709 for George Adam Costner and WikiTree suggests a conflict. Since they are two different people, let's try to find which is which and get them straight. Does anyone have a source for the birth date of either men?
• There is a record of H. Adam Kastner having married Anna Maria Krausin on 29 Dec 1722 in Edenkoben, Bavaria.^[14] This is too soon for either of our Adam Kastners.

Sources

1. ↑ The Church's website no longer includes the Kastner history. Jeanne Hicks. Ancestral Tracker (http://www.ancestraltrackers.net/nc/gaston/church/philadelphia-lutheran-church.htm : accessed 31 August 2017) quotes some background from the church’s history.
2. ↑ Ralph B. Strassburger, compiler, and William John Hinke, editor, Pennsylvania German Pioneers (1934; reprint Camden, Maine: Picton Press, 1992), vol. I: 383 (passenger list), vol. II: 419 (signature replica in Strassburger-Hinke as "Cassnar" but clearly written by the Philadelphia Clerk as "Kassner"). "Adam Kassner age 38" [born circa 1710]. The passengers swore to the immigration oaths at Philadelphia County Courthouse on 16 September 1748.
3. ↑ Charles L. Costner and Melanie Costner Snyder, The Descendants of Adam Kastner (1698-1767) (Privately printed, 1997), pp. 1, 3.
4. ↑ Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, deed book 1: 584-86, John Armstrong to Jacob Costner.
5. ↑ Find A Grave Adam Costner Cemetery, memorial 25118829 created 7 March 2008 by Mark Kaylor.
6. ↑ 2 May 1775, Tryon County DB 2: 203. Peter Costner to Andrew Castner, both of Tryon County, for £20 proclamation money ... 300 acres on the West side of the South fork of the Catawba River adjoining Peter Laboons line ... Signed: Peter his PC mark Costner. Witnesses: Vallentine Mauney, Peter his P mark Seites. Recorded at October 1775 court; Lincoln County Register of Deeds, Lincolnton.
7. ↑ Laban Miles Hoffman, Our Kin: Being a History of the Hoffman, Rhyne, Costner, Rudisill, Best, Hovis, Hoyle, Wills, Shetley, Jenkins, Holland, Hambright, Gaston, Withers, Cansler, Clemmer and Lineberger Families (1915; reprint, Baltimore, Maryland: Gateway Press, Inc., 1984), pp. 396–98; digital images available at Ancestry. Mr. Hoffman (1846–1934) collected oral history from about 1908 until his 1915 publication. Mr. Hoffman conscientiously analyzed the information. Another value of his publication is that some of his informants were people with first-hand knowledge of recent generations. However, as was the custom of the day, Mr. Hoffman’s publication cites no sources, and, being human, he did make mistakes.
8. ↑ Index to "Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898," FamilySearch; citing FHL microfilm 193,822.
9. ↑ Charles L. Costner and Melanie Costner Snyder, The Descendants of Adam Kastner 1698-1767 (Privately printed, 1997).
10. ↑ Index to "Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898," FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V4PS-JLK : accessed 24 February 2016); citing FHL microfilm 68,853.
11. ↑ Index to "Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898," FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NRB5-JPV : accessed 24 February 2016); citing FHL microfilm 193,822.
12. ↑ Index to "Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898," FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NRB5-VHR : accessed 24 February 2016); citing FHL microfilm 193,822.
13. ↑ Index to "Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898," FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NP7B-D6P : accessed 24 February 2016); citing FHL microfilm 193,822.
14. ↑ "Deutschland Heiraten, 1558-1929," database, [https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J4Y5-N8W FamilySearch: 11 February 2018), H. Adam Kastner and Anna Maria Krausin, 29 Dec 1722; citing Evangelisch, Edenkoben, Pfalz, Bavaria; FHL microfilm 193,823.

See Also:

• Kurt Kastner, Kastner in Edenkoben / Kastners in Edenkoben last updated 26 November 2015. This source provides no new information and appears to rely upon the 1997 publication The Descendants of Adam Kastner 1698-1767, cited previously.
• web edition, FamilySearch James Earl Chostner and Doris Brennecke Davault, Kestner Kastner Costner Chostner 1550-1991 (Marble Hill, Missouri: 1991). Andrew Costner, son of Thomas Costner, is the main focus. Other than discussion of Andrew, this volume provides no new information and relies upon Our Kin, cited previously.

Acknowledgements

• Source citations and explanatory comments by Kathy Gunter Sullivan.
• WikiTree profile Costner-10 created through the import of HAYER.GED on May 29, 2011 by Larry Hayer.
• KNOX.GED knox17032011.ged imported 18 March 2011.