Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US, Western) a squatter, a homesteader, a farmer, a small rancher; thus Nestersville n., a small, out-of-the-way settlement.

1880		Fort Griffin [TX] Echo 3 Jan. n.p.: [A sheep man is] a tramp, an ingrate, a ‘Nester,’ and a liar [R].
1891		Wichitae Dly Eagle (KS) 31 Oct. 7/2: He called the farmer who moved in and settled [...] ‘a nester’.
1900		H. Garland Eagle’s Heart 83: He came under the head of a ‘nester’ or ‘truck-farmer’ who was likely to fence in the river somwhere and homestead some land.
1907		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 xix: ‘Ain’t th’ Panhandle full of nesters [...]?’ inquired Red, doubtfully.
1911		J. Lomax Cowboy Songs 198: When the nester came with his wife, his kids, / His dogs, and his barbed-wire fence.
1926		D. Branch Cowboy and His Interpreters 85: The cattlemen annually manufactured an Indian scare [...] to discourage the immigration of ‘nesters’.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 125: I ain’t a ‘nester’ – can’t be bothered with land nohow.
1947		W.D. Overholser Buckaroo’s Code (1948) 10: There was a lot of nesters on this range.
1954		Indep. Record (Helena, MT) 9 Oct. 3/7: Other westerners might be [...] nesters (pioneer farmers).
1968		(con. c.1900) J. Thompson King Blood (1989) 50: All the God damn’ saddle-tramps an’ nesters an’ their God damn’ families for miles around.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 267: nester. A farmer or other homesteader in cattle-grazing region, according to the cattle raisers; also called a landsucker.