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Descendants of Sebastian "Boston" Ollis




Generation No. 1


1. SEBASTIAN "BOSTON"1 OLLIS was born Abt. 1743 in Wales, Great Britain, and died March 09, 1835 in Morgan County, Tennessee. He married BARBARY1 November 04, 1781 in Orange Co. NC. She was born January 1759 in North Carolina, and died 1862 in Reynolds Co, MO.

Notes for SEBASTIAN "BOSTON" OLLIS:
AVERY COUNTY HERITAGE
Volume II
BIOGRAPHIES, GENEALOGIES AND CHURCH HISTORIES

Complied and edited by
Avery County Historical Society
Newland, North Carolina 28657
Puddingstone Press

THE OLLIS COGNOMEN

      It is inherent in each of us to be proud of the name we bear. A personal spirit of pride shows it self as we relate to our children the origin of our ancestors evidenced by the name we have and a knowledge of the names of others that course our veins.
      If we were to compile all the names we know of the early settles of the Southern Highlands, it would be most noticeable that there would be very few, if any, Latin, Slavic or Oriental names among our known ancestors. The emerging fact from this is that they would be mostly Celtic and Germanic names. The Celtic races would be the Scotch-Irish, Welsh and English, probably more English names than any of the others.
      My interest here is Welsh names and in particular the Welsh name of Ollis. So many of the Welsh names are characterized by their use of double L's, like Wallace, Lloyd, Illtud, Lligwy, Llewelyn, Llandaff, Wells, William’s. Some names have four L's together in a name. If your name is Ollis, be sure of one fact -- you wear one among the rarest names in America! You may have to get away from Avery County as I did to learn this. Consider the following facts:
            1. There are more Smiths in greater Detroit than there are Ollises in North America!
            2. I have never met another Ollis in my 41 years traveling around the State of Michigan and working in several of its major cities and towns, excepting our own North Carolina Ollises.
            3. No one that I have met and worked with has ever heard our name before.
      So far as I know, mine was the first Ollis name to have entered the Detroit phone directory years ago. Later came 3 or 4 more, one of them from Illinois, the others our own North Carolina natives. Today, there are two names in the directory among two million population of greater Detroit. I believe there are a couple in Flint of 200,000 population. There are two in Baltimore, MD. There are none in the major cities of Saginaw, Lansing, Bay City or any of the smaller cities I have looked up excepting my family in Midland and my brother Ivan's in Holland. I had straight information four years ago that there were less than 700 Ollis families presently in all the United States of over 200 million people.
      I do not know when the first Ollis came from Wales. If the John Ollis who hid out in the laurel thickets near Banner Elk during the Revolutionary War because he was a Loyalist (or Troy) was the first one, then his arrival to America must have been just before or during the early part of the war. I know of no one who has researched this matter for definite answers; hence, a lot of speculation comes into play of the subject before us. I have learned that there seems to have been several Boston Ollises in the past. Why the name Boston? Could it have been that the first one arrived in Boston and named his first born after the city and it then became a favorite name in the family lineage? According to records in the Mormon Church, a Boston Ollis applied for a war pension, presumably the Revolutionary War, but was turned down.
      The matter of a pension is interesting here at this point. According to the Encyclopedia Britannic, after the Revolutionary War, England paid over $3,000,000 for pensions and land grants to those who had been loyal to their cause during the war. Because John was a Troy, there must have been a father-son relationship between John and this Boston. I personally feel that John was the son. After the war ended, John came out of hiding, married and settled in the Linville Falls area.
      The named of the older Ollises I have heard or read of from my Grandfather Boston are Soonsy, James, Rev. William, Nelson, Gusher, Joseph Taylor and another Joseph, Harston, Dock, Haden and a couple of other Boston’s.
      One Boston was the father of Joseph, who reared a large family at Altamont. This Boston left North Carolina and went to Missouri when Joseph was a lad. Rev. Will and Nelson were brothers and were very likely the grandsons of the Troy John. Both of them were officers in the Civil War. Nelson married the daughter of a Colonel from South Carolina to where he moved and lived his lifetime there. My great Grandfather James was an officer in the Cavalry in the Civil War and was killed at Cumberland Gap and was buried there. While he was away in the war, his oldest son (my Grandfather Boston) worked as a lad to help support the family on Ada Wiseman's farm for a peck of corn per day. He remembered the soldiers coming through and taking every pig, chicken and cow on the farm. Soonsy Ollis died at the age of 84 in 1871 and lies buried in The Whitaker Memory Garden on the Whitaker Branch. Accounting for the years, he had to be a son of "hiding out" John and the father of some of the men herein mentioned. Rev. Will was appointed to the first Board of Commissioners of the newly formed Avery County in 1911. He was the father of Harston, Robert, Lula Burleson and Lottie Wiseman. They are all known as the "smiling Ollises" because they have a natural facial expression that leads you to think they are perpetually smiling.
      I can remember my grandfather pronouncing certain words the way that he had heard either his grandfather or great-grandfather speak in the Welsh language.
      There is a branch of Ollises in Illinois that our family learned of around 1920. A lady wrote our family from there that they had thought they were the only Ollises in America until she read an article in the Grit that my Uncle Horton Cooper had contributed. She wrote that they were Welsh and her inquiry was to learn our ancestry. From this, we had assumed that there were two branches of Ollises in America. Three years ago, by a chain of incidents, I and two families there began a telephone and letter correspondence and the Surprise was that they have traced their lineage to the North Carolina Ollises. One old Ollis gentleman died there 4 years ago at the age of 107.
      By tradition, the Welsh have a special feeling for beauty in poetry and music. In all major cities, you will find Welsh singers with their organized choirs and glee clubs. The above mentioned Nelson was a great singer and song writer. The Arcus Ollis families of years ago was famous for their love of singing. The tradition is still evident in families of the Boss Ollis and Jane Ollis Buchanan s generations of today in Avery County.

Submitted by a Welshman,
Baxter Ollis, Midland, Michigan

Baxter's lineage is given in Volume I of AVERY COUNTY HERITAGE, as the first child of Luther and Margie Cooper Ollis.

This is an update of the on going research by the Michigan Group. (Baxter Ollis)


THE OLLIS STORY: A GENEALOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH

      General notes. As of the date of the publication of this Heritage Book III, the subsequent amassed information indicates that this is a true record and account of the Ollis family lineage in the Heritage Volume II, the information I gave them centered on a Boston Ollis being rejected of this pension application and one, John Ollis, a Loyalist or Troy, who had hidden out during the Revolutionary War near Banner Elk. The object of my research then was to identify and connect these two persons with respect to reaching a breakthrough in our roots. The story presented here is an amendment to Volume II.
      Margaret (Ollis) Gordon of Greensboro entered the search and Larry Biddix of Asheville was also searching. We were at an impasse over this John Ollis and could not and have not as yet penetrated beyond the statements of local history, in any census records or otherwise, any reference to this John. It appears that it may be a mixed up story. We also could not find Boston, hereinafter revealed, until his complete pension application was found in the National Archives, contained in a legal document executed by a Justice of the County Court of Morgan County, Tennessee in 1834 and of his widow, Barbary in 1839. The only John that we can find who settled in the Crossnore Linville Falls area is Boston's son, John Swansea Ollis, described in the ensuing story. He was born 6 years after the Revolutionary War ended.
      Should further research reveal a person or persons that would in any way change the following record, we will amend the record accordingly and it will become a final and permanent history of the Ollis family.
      I am pleased to present the following update of our combined research, which is most surprising in its revelation. Besides the above named Margaret Gordon and Larry Biddix, others have helped in putting the story together, namely, Roy Ollis of Newland, Mrs. Dimple Pollygus of Newland, the Bill OLLISES of Marion, Mrs. Annie Reed of Detroit, and the Glenn Buchanan of Maryland.
      I have lifted the story out of its legal jargon and have written it in the first person as Boston told it to the Justice of the Court 147 years ago. Because Boston was 90 years old and from his age and bodily infirmity, he could not get to a court of record. Andrew Derrick, Justice of the Morgan County Court, Tenn., went to his home May 1, 1834, to record his statements of service, first being duly sworn to an oath. His age and infirmities had caused some loss of memory and he could not remember first names of some of his military officers and dates. Now, the story.
      History is the record of man's upward march on earth. All history, including the genealogical aspect of it, is a vast avenue narrowing down t one individual -- yourself. Your tomorrow's, all that will happen to you, and your descendants, must flow out of someone's past. You are who you are and where you are because someone of another time, born with a restless soul and a spirit of high venture, could not be confined to his or her natural habitat.
      During the 18th century, people from all over Europe heard exciting stories of a new world beyond the seas. Thousands of the restless ones streamed to their embarkation ports to this new land of promise. One among them was a Welshman, Boston Ollis, born around 1744, now 30 years old, added to those who wanted to see what this young America was all about. He set his foot on the New World around 1774 or 75, his port of entry most likely being Charles Town, South Carolina, later renamed Charleston. He was probably named at birth for the city of Boston, England, Wales being a part of the English system.
      Our story of "Big Daddy" Boston begins with the time of his arrival in which the thirteen Colonies were on the edge of revolt against the Mother of Great Britain. In April 1775, the first blood was shed for the liberation of the Colonies from English rule. The last shot would not be fired till October 1781.
      This is how Boston told it, "After living about two years in Charleston, the war having spread to the South, I joined the South Carolina State line of troops at Charleston around 1777. I joined the 5th infantry regiment under the command of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, my immediate officers being Captain Davidson and Ensign Moore. I was later taken from this regiment and attached to the artillery service to manage the cannon. I continued in this service under the command of Gen. Lincoln until Charleston was captured by the British Army in 1780. When Charleston was taken, I with others made our escape to keep from being taken by the British as prisoners. I and the company with me went by Georgetown, on the East coast of South Carolina and headed to Orange County, North Carolina. On this escape march, we were followed by a company of Troys from Georgetown and was overtaken at a causeway in the road, where each side of the road had been ditched and the dirt thrown up. An engagement with the Troys ensued in which one of our own was killed. We in turn killed four Troys, then completed our escape to Orange County, N. C. The length of this time in service was about 22 months, serving as a Private. I received no discharged for this tour as Charleston was captured by the British and I would have been a prisoner had I remained in Charleston.
      I remained in Orange County, NC for some time, then reentered the service of the United Sates, a substitute for Henry Cook under the officers of Captain Lillared, and CO. O'Neal. We marched to Salisbury, and was stationed there a short time, then marched to Rudgley's Mill, South Carolina, was there a short time, then joined General Horatio Gates, marched a couple or so miles and had a battle with the British Army. The Americans had lain on their arms all night and at day break, a very fierce was fought till about 9:00 o'clock. Gen., Gates was defeated, this being near Camden, South Carolina. It was a decisive battle and is well recorded in history as a great setback for the Colonies. Many were killed and many taken prisoner. I again escaped from this defeat and made my way back to Orange County, North Carolina. I served this time about two months as a Private.
      Being of a restless nature I could not stay home long, so again, I substituted for a certain Aaron Sharpe and entered the service under a Captain Trace ? (or Brace), and Col. O'Neal and marched to and joined the army at Charles Ford on the Catawba River, was stationed there for some time, then marched up the river to Beatty's Ford and there engaged in a battle with the British army in which the Americans were again defeated. My fellow soldiers told me that the American General Caswell was killed in this battle. I was marched back to Orange County and there honorably but verbally discharged by Captain Trace. This tour of service was less than 3 months as a Private.
      Again, after a short stay at my home, I again volunteered and joined General George Washington's Army near Hillsborough, North Carolina, and entered the service under Col. Rose. I was artillery man during the siege. The British were thoroughly beaten at Yorktown, and Gen. Charles Cornwallis, the British General, surrendered on October 19, 1781. I was an eyewitness to the surrender and saw Cornwallis surrender his sword to General Washington in this manner. Lord Cornwallis took his sword by the point and handed the hilt to Gen. Washington. Gen. Washington received it in his hand and in a few seconds, handed it back to Lord Cornwallis in the same manner as he had received it. After the surrender, I was marched as a guard over the British prisoners from Yorktown to Winchester, Va., where I was honorably but verbally discharged by Col. Rose. To the best of my remembrance, I was in service of this tour at least seven months as a Private.
      I do not know the date of the year in which I was born as I have no record of my age but I do know I was born in January. I came to America at 30 or so years of age and was living in Charleston, South Carolina about two years before the war started. I lived in Orange County, North Carolina, at and before the entering of the several other tours of duty as I have already described. I have lived since the Revolutionary War in the States of North Carolina and Tennessee and presently live in Morgan County, Tenn.
      In my tours of service, I was acquainted with Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, Gen. Butler, Gen. Gates, Gen. Caswell, Gen. Washington, Col. O'Neal, and Col. Rose. I cannot remember other officer names because of poor memory.
      I know the following citizens of Morgan County, now living in the neighborhood, that can certify as to my character for veracity that I was a soldier of the Revolution - C has. Asher, James Asher, William Clift, George Park, Rolling Kittrelle, Jonathan Deldine and John M. Staple. There is no Clergyman residing in my area, therefore, it is impossible to obtain a certificate of my oath. I absolutely don't know of any living person by who I could prove my absolute service. Because of this, I hereby relinquish every claim to a pension or annuity except the present $26.00 per year I am presently getting. My name is not on the pension roll of any agency in any State."

                        Boston Ollis May 1, 1834


PENSION APPLICATION OF BOSTON'S WIDOW AND FAMILY RECORD

      Barbary Ollis, widow of Boston, was 80 years old on January 1, 1839. On May 29, 1839, she appeared before Thomas Lack, Justice of the Peace in Morgan County, Tennessee, to make a declaration in order to obtain the benefit of a provision of an act of Congress, passed July 7, 1832, granting half pay and pension to certain widows. She stated that she was the widow of Boston Ollis, who was a Revolutionary Pensioner of the United States under an act passed June7, 1832 at the rate of about $26.00 per year at the Knoxville, Tennessee agency. She stated that she was married to Boston December 4, 1781 in Orange County, North Carolina. She said her husband, Boston Ollis, died March 9, 1834 in Morgan County, Tennessee at the house of Charles Asher, who was her son-in-law that married her 8th child, Barbary Ollis.
      She gave the names and birth dates of hers and Boston's children, confirmed by the records of her daughter as follows:

      Peter Ollis was born September 9, 1782, ensuing their marriage in 1781.
      Fredric Ollis was born January 1, 1785
      John (Swansea) Ollis was born July 1, 1787
      Elizabeth Ollis was born March 10, 1790
      Daniel Ollis was born April 24, 1792
      Adam Ollis was born September 15, 1795
      One dead not named.
      Barbary Ollis was born January 1, 1800.
      George Ollis was born February 1, 1802.
      Sarah Ollis was born July 15, 1804.

      She stated that the birth dates of her children as recorded by her daughter Barbary were true, but being blind, she could not read the record. She said she was not married to Boston before he left the service but that it took place at the time she first stated.

      Her signature was an X mark by her name.


FURTHER NOTES OF OUR RESEARCH

      In Barbary's above statement, she says Boston died March 9, 1834. Boston made his pension application May 1, 1834, which means an error here evidently in Barbary's statement. It could have been her loss of memory or an error by someone copying the records at a later time. It could have been in the March just past, which would have moved her to take action quickly to get a widow's pension, in this case, two months away from his death. It was probably not earlier than 1835. We have found in searching that records conflict with other records of the same subject as to dates, etc., and requires a lot of study to form a conclusion, some of them speculative in nature.
      We are most fortunate to have found Boston's application, which is a revelation of our roots in America. It started from one simple clue from a lady in Illinois that an older Boston had been turned down in his application for some kind of pension. One lady in California started searching in 1969 for this story, spent much time and money and finally gave up about four years ago.
      It is most interesting that Boston chose to cast his lot with the Colonies struggle for freedom, in the face of the strong Loyalist and Tory sentiments that were so evident in North and South Carolina. It is more impressive when it is realized that he was a new immigrant from the Mother country and it would have been most natural to have defended her against the Colonies.
      It is regrettable that we have no details of Boston's movements after the war. The story reveals an adventurous, restless type of man and we have to rely on historical statements of the area of those times and persons involved to draw conclusions, whether they be true or circumstantial. Horton Cooper's History of Avery County tells of Samuel Bright bringing families from the Piedmont and Yadkin River valleys into the mountains that would include the Orange County area. Then before 1810, Bright disappeared westward across the mountains and was never heard from again. There are other references from various sources to a migration of families to points west of the mountains and we have to conclude that among them was Boston taking his family to an area beyond Knoxville.
      The 1830 Census of Roane County, Tennessee lists Boston as between 80-90 years old and Barbary between 70-80 years old. Then four years later they appear in adjoining Morgan County where they died. I recently corresponded with a 90 year old John Ollis from Roane County.
      Boston was about 38 years old when his first child Peter was born and 60 when his last child Sarah was born. We see a Peter in Illinois in 1850 which is probably Boston's son and father of the Illinois Ollises. The story of Boston's Tennessee descendants is a blank chapter to us at present, while we pursue further the records of our local lineage.
      Our interest is in Boston's 3rd son, John Swansea (Swansey), called "Soonsy" (So-onsy) by Jake Carpenter in his records. Jake recorded that John died in 1871 at 84 years of age, which agrees with his birth date in 1787 as given by his mother. He is buried, according to records, in Pisgah Cemetery and his grave is identified by a little concrete marker No. 10. His wife's grave is either No. 9 or No. 11.
      While John was alive, he was locally called "Swansey", which some have thought was a Dutch or German name for rank, meaning "three" or "third". I thoroughly researched this angle and it is in error. The thinking was that it was a German name because an early Watauga County History says he was "of German extraction". It has come by word of mouth down the line from Swansea's descendants that his mother Barbary may have been German, which would support the above statement.
      It is found that Swansea is the 2nd largest city of Wales, located on the southern coast near the western edge of England. Boston most likely named his son John "Swansea" from this city, perhaps from his native area or his port of embarkation to America. The local name was pronounced with "y" instead of "a" at the end. Swansea served in the War of 1812 and was released after 60 days at Salisbury because of a physical ailment.
      The 1850 census of Yancey County shows that John Swansea's son Boston (II) was born in Kentucky and all the others in North Carolina. This means that he was in Kentucky at this time around 1815 but is back in North Carolina when his 2nd son, John Jr. was born in 1819 proven by the fact that his name shows up in the 1820 Burke County Census. Kentucky is one county away from Morgan County, Tennessee.
      According to historical records, Boston's account of the war is accurate as to names, places and events of the war. Two points of his account are a bit unclear, one, regarding the identity of General Caswell and the other the account of the surrender at Yorktown. The latter has become the most puzzling and ambiguous account in our history that I have looked into. I have read it thus so.
      1. Lord (Charles) Cornwallis, the British General surrendered his sword to General Benjamin
      Lincoln, who gave it back to him.
      2. Lord Cornwallis surrendered to the French General Rochambeau at Yorktown.
      3. Lord Cornwallis was "indisposed" and let his aide Ohara surrender the sword.
      4. General George Washington was asked if he wanted Cornwallis' sword. He answered, "No
      I could not take the sword from such an honorable soldier".
Boston's account would be more accurate to the latter account if indeed Washington took the sword, uttered the above words, then handed the sword back to Cornwallis. Boston, so right on other references could have been right here, or, his memory could have been fuzzy as to whether it was General Washington or General Lincoln. All these versions--who is right?
      It is appropriate that we look into some of Father Boston's illustrious descendants. His son John Swansea gave him 8 grandchildren. Swansea's oldest son, Boston (II) had 8 children, one of them Martha Jane, whose history is given in Heritage Volume II, pages 208-9. Her story is a treasure of how life was lived back in those long ago days. Another of Boston's (II) children was Joseph Ollis. He married Katy Buchanan and they had 10 children. His 2nd wife was Delzie Mace and they had 11 children. Some of Avery County's finest citizens came from this family. Uncle Joe and Aunt Delzie were known as God-fearing, community leaders and church builders. Sometime after Joseph was born in 1847, his father Boston (II) left North Carolina and moved to Missouri and died there.
      Swansea's son John Jr., who later became Reverend John was 6'11" tall and had a booming voice to match his height. He took care of the older Avery's slaves and Avery's cattle and lived on what in now the Lick Log area. He felled two trees and cut notches along their trunks to hold salt for the cattle to lick, hence the name, "Lick Log". He was a soldier and served in the Mexican War around 1846-47. His wife Francis (Fanny) died October 5, 1871, and is buried at Cranberry. He died 20 years later, October 18, 1891, and is buried at the Whitaker Cemetery. Mrs. Pollugus at Newland has a tin type picture of him. It is interesting that after the slaves were freed that Avery let them have land on the south side of Lick Log to build their homes and settle there.
      Rev. John Jr., was also known as being the father of two preachers, namely, Rev. (also Squire) William Ollis and Rev. Nelson Ollis, the latter lived mostly in South Carolina after the Civil War. Another brother, John Leonard went to Georgia and became the "Big Daddy" of the Georgia Ollises. He has a granddaughter living in Detroit who sent me a copy each of two letters Rev. William had written to his brother John, one in 1893, the other in 1900. They are treasures and most revealing of the times and events of the area of those years. Politics was a lively issue in 1900 as it is today. In this letter he said, "For the sake of prosperity and sound money and good government, let us pull for that great and good man, Wm. McKinley, and be prosperous and happy". Both letters reveal a man quite educated considering the lack of educational opportunities of that era. Another brother, Joseph M., settled on Henson Creek and is buried there. A Confederate marker identifies his grave.
      The youngest son of John Swansea was my great grandfather, James, who was an officer in the Cavalry during the Civil War. He died in service and was buried at Cumberland Gap in 1863. Two English brothers buried him with only a flag wrapped around his body. They later, after the war, built the old English Inn at Spruce Pine. One of them may have been Col. J.M. English, who died March 2, 1893.
      James married Eliza Weatherman and they had 6 children. Their oldest son, Boston (a good name in the Ollis line), went to work as a boy to help support the family. He worked on Ade Wiseman's farm for a peck of corn per day. He learned many skills for making tools, shoes, leather, knives, combs, barrels and things that could not be readily bought at stores or found after the Civil War. A comb was made from a cow's horn from which a portion of it was cut and by some process was flattened and then and then teeth was cut by a very fine saw. I still have a small barrel hoop he made from a hickory strip. "Uncle Boss" as he was called was very well known everywhere, even being called upon to settle church disputes. He was one of my heroes, the other one being my other grandfather, W. Isaac Cooper, both men giants in my eyes.
      It would be appropriate for mention that in North Carolina Troops 1861-1865, compiled by Louis Manarin, there are listed 11 Ollises that served in the Civil War, six of them deserted their ranks -- one re-enlisted, while in service. We must consider that the sentiment ran high in the mountains against the Confederate cause. So many of the young men were forced into the service of the Southern army and they probably saw the ultimate defeat of the South and deserted. I would have done likewise at the time. This sentiment ran very deep in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina and is the reason to this day that this region is politically Republican, even to the extent that one lady of recent years had it etched on her tombstone that she died a good Republican. She is buried at Cranberry.
      Old Boston and Barbary would have been proud of the sons and daughters from their ancestry, if they could have looked down the vistas of every generation since his experience at Yorktown. They have been in their places: preachers, business men, church leaders, singers, builders, printers, soldiers, community leaders, craftsmen of every trade. They have made the world a little better place to live. By the same token, recognizing the foible and fickleness of human nature, Boston probably would have seen a few of his lineage that had brought dishonor to his name. Like Shakespeare, in his Welsh dialect, he may have said, "He that filches from me my good name, robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed". Submitted by Baxter F. Ollis; Midland, Michigan


More About SEBASTIAN "BOSTON" OLLIS:
Burial: March 1835, Pisgah United Methodish, Linville, NC, plack only, NO body.

Notes for BARBARY:
Charlene (Ollis) Dodd has provided great news about "Big Daddy" Boston Ollis's wife Barbary. Barbary was found on the 1850 Reynolds County, Missouri, Census, AGE 103. She was living with her daughter Barbary Ollis (b. Jan. 1, 1800, d. 1895) and her husband Charles Asher (b. 1790 d. 1868).

Notes for Boston, not room on his page. Receive the following e-mail from Mark Reed on September 22, 1997:

Ollie:

I've just returned from my trip to England, and I picked up some info from Keynsham. We didn't have time to really research as we only had a couple of hours in town before moving on, but I bought a few books on local history. My mother has them at the moment, but I'll copy the Ollis bits and send them to you soon.

The books indicate that in 1702 a man named Champion established the first brass mill in England in the city of Keynsham. Prior to this time all brass in England had been in ported from the continent. He travelled to Holland and learned the trade, and when he returned to set up his company he brought several skilled Dutch brass workers back with him. The area of Holland from which they came is now in the Belgian state of Limburg, on the border near the German city of Aachen.

One of the immigrant brass workers was Frederick Hollis (with an "H"), from whom the Ollises of Keynsham are descended. The H was dropped from the name in English pronunciation.

Since our Boston was born around 1740, this Frederick could have been his father, but more probably his grandfather. Frederick was a skilled worker and probably had a few years in the trade behind him already. If he was thirty in 1702, he would have been seventy in 1742.

The Dutch workers were famous in the community. They were at first restricted to a "furriners" community, and were denied certain rights and privileges by the locals. Special laws were passed to keep them separate. At Boston's time, these laws were probably still in place. By the 1800s things had changed and they were accepted as part of the community, and were noted for the symbol of their brass working trade: the top hats they always wore to work! When the brass mill closed down in the early twentieth century, the last general foreman was an Ollis.

One of the books has census data on the Ollis family for around 1850. Most were still brass workers at that time, but some were farmers or railway workers.

Mark


     

More About SEBASTIAN OLLIS and BARBARY:
Marriage: November 04, 1781, Orange Co. NC
     
Children of SEBASTIAN OLLIS and BARBARY are:
2. i.   PETER2 OLLIS, b. September 09, 1782, North Carolina; d. Washington Co. IN.
  ii.   FREDERICK OLLIS, b. January 01, 1785.
3. iii.   JOHN SWANSEA OLLIS, SR, b. July 01, 1787, North Carolina; d. June 10, 1871, North Carolina.
  iv.   ELIZABETH OLLIS, b. March 10, 1790.
4. v.   DANIEL OLLIS, b. April 24, 1792.
  vi.   ADAM OLLIS, b. September 15, 1795.
  vii.   STILL BORN TWIN OLLIS, b. September 15, 1795; d. September 15, 1795.
  Notes for STILL BORN TWIN OLLIS:
Baby was Stillborn.

5. viii.   BARBARY OLLIS, b. January 01, 1800; d. 1895, Reynolds Co, MO.
6. ix.   GEORGE OLLIS, b. February 01, 1802, North Carolina.
  x.   SARAH OLLIS, b. July 15, 1804.

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