I typed it "oe" because I don't know how to type an umlaut! How did you do that?

That is how it was spelled in the church records from 1865, as Most with the umlaut. That was the only place it was spelled that way, all the official records after show the name as Mest. Johannes Most (with umlaut) always went by John Mest, even in his will. But the old church records were written in German. In our case it is definitely the same name.

Well, maybe the Mests in PA are not related after all, but I was told that they were. Thank you again.