Posted By:	Jan Farren
	Email:
	Subject:	George Rolison
	Post Date:	May 31, 2009 at 22:00:49
	Message URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/ms/clarke/messages/377.html
	Forum:	Clarke County, MS Genealogy Forum
	Forum URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/ms/clarke/

Hi Jan, Have you found your George E. Rolison yet? If not, I think I might have some info for you. Cathy Cathy Kendrick Cameedobermans@charter.net Cathy, What a surprise to open your email this morning! The George Rolison I am looking for was born in South Carolina between 1800-1820. He is found as a young man on the Bibb County, Alabama records as he married a Pheriby Beals there around 1830. She, too, was from South Carolina according to the Alabama records. George and Pheriby moved to Perry County, Alabama, where they shows up in the census records for 1840. Now they have a young female living with them --possibly a daughter. By 1850 George and Pheriby have moved to Salem, Dallas County, Alabama. This time they are alone (without the female listed back in 1830) and Pheriby is ill since she dies a short time after the census was taken. Within four months George Rolison remarried my great, great grandmother Martha Elizabeth Meggs (Meigs) and they started a family. George and Elizabeth live in the Salem, Alabama for the next 9 to 10 years and continue to have a child a year. Elizabeth Meggs was considerably younger than George Rolison --George being in my estimation in his mid-forties, she being in her mid-twenties. Around 1860 George moves his young growing family to Pierce Springs, Mississippi. At that time Pierce Springs was a small farm community, isolate from a big town, but on the railroad route. This is important because George Rolison was a station agent for the railroad back in Salem, Alabama and he returned to his job in Salem, Alabama, leaving Elizabeth and the children back in Mississippi. In late 1861, George Rolison died somewhere in Alabama and was buried. Family lore tells several scenarios of these events but the fact is we know very little more about George Rolison than this. Effie Cora Rolison Kemp, George and Elizabeth's granddaughter, told my sister during an interview back in 1968, that George was buried in Lower Peach Tree, Alabama, after dying from pneumonia while working on the railroad. Since she was the oldest living direct relative at that time, we put a lot of credence in her story. But we have done an extensive research of deaths and burials there and nothing has shown up. My theory, and it's only a theory, mind you, is that George moved his family to Pierce Springs because his brother and/or father lived in Pierce Springs back in 1850 ( a Benjamin Rolison with James and young Lucinda show up on the 1850 Clark County, Mississippi census but are gone by 1860). This homestead was possibly left to George. But let me digress briefly. George worked for the Alabama railroad back in Salem, Alabama during most of his married life with Elizabeth Meggs. That fact has been established. Salem in 1860 was a hotbed for the Confederate Army since the largest arsenal in the south was located there and the environment would have been unsafe for most citizenry at that time. The Confederate Army was on the verge of seizing the railroads for troop and arms shipment and George would have found himself working for Uncle Sam. The Confederate Army would have surely needed experienced railroad men since railroads were a fairly new phenomenon and a much needed commodity to move troops and arms. Is this why he moved his family to Mississippi and then returned to Alabama?To keep them safe? My theory goes along those lines since we do know he traveled back and forth to Mississippi until his death in late 1861. I believe that George moved his family to Pierce Springs to keep them secure and safe. That the homestead probably belonged to George (possibly through the Benjamin Rolison found on the 1850 Clarke County, Mississippi census), so Elizabeth would not have to worry too much about that expense. No small matter when you have nine hungry mouths (the oldest being eleven) to feed. I also feel he knew there was a chance he would not make it through the war and was preparing his family the best he could. Anyway, I like to think George was that kind of man, be what it may. The truth thus far has eluded the many Rolison researchers and has been the major brick wall for some thirty-forty years' research. I hope that we are writing about the same George Rolison and would welcome any help with his research. I have had many Rolison kinfolk pass in the past five years and with each one I send a message and prayer to George asking that he send us a sign or clue --so far nothing ---maybe, now, my prayer has been answered. Or, just maybe George isn't where we think he is.... I am sincerely, Jan Rolison Farren Indy