BUSTER.
A family named Buster, occasionally spelled in the records
Bustard, was settled in the county at, or soon after, its formation.
Its head was William, who lived in North Garden
on the north fork of Hardware, near where the old White
mill stood. He was one of the signers of the call to Rev.
Samuel Black. A bridge called by his name spanned the
stream near by, and was a landmark in the vicinity up to the
end of the last century. As early as 1749, his wife Elizabeth
was left a widow. He had certainly two sons, John and
Claudius, who were the owners of more than three hundred
acres on the Hardware. Both also bought land on the head
waters of Mechum's River. John was for a time a citizen of
Augusta County. About 1785 he established himself on
Moore's Creek, a mile or two south of Jesse Maury's residence.
He was a ruling elder in the D. S. Church, and died
in 1820, aged eighty-three. He was twice married, first to
Elizabeth Woods, and secondly, to Alice, daughter of John
Gilliam. His children were Ann, the wife of John Wingfield,
Martha, the wife of Matthew Wingfield, Sarah, the wife of
Dixon Dedman, Margaret, the wife of William Foster, Elizabeth,
the wife of George Moore, Patience, the wife of Levi
Wheat, Claudius and David.
Claudius about 1785 purchased the D. S., where he kept
tavern until his death in 1807. He and his wife Dorcas had
eleven children, John, Mary, the wife of James Hays, the
founder of New York, William, Claudius, Thomas, Benjamin,
Patience, the wife of Charles Bailey, Nancy, the wife of
William Garland, Robert, Charles Franklin and Elizabeth.
Claudius, whose wife's name was Ann, and Thomas removed
to Kanawha, where Thomas was a Justice of the
Peace in 1819. Another of the sons, thought to be Charles
Franklin, removed to Loudoun County, whence his descendants
afterwards went to Greenbrier, of which county one of
them was recently the Clerk.
A Buster, no doubt another son of William and Elizabeth,
married Mary, daughter of Thomas Smith, and had two
sons, John and David. These brothers in 1784 bought a
tract of land on the old Richard Woods Road southwest of
Ivy Depot, part of which they sold to William Gooch. John
also owned the land in North Garden east of Israel's Gap,
which he sold in 1799 to Thomas Carr, and which was the
home of his son Dabney Carr for more than three score years.
John Buster in 1786 married Lucy, daughter of Mask Leake,
and about the beginning of the century removed to Charlotte
County.
