Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Descendants of Sebastian "Boston" Ollis

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Descendants of Sebastian "Boston" Ollis

28. LOUISA ELLEN⁴ DOAN (MARY³ OLLIS, PETER², SEBASTIAN "BOSTON"¹) was born September 1857 in Washington Co., Indiana, and died March 30, 1910 in Bedford, Lawrence Co., Indiana. She married JOHN BLACKWELL LYNN November 06, 1873 in Indiana. He was born July 26, 1849 in Indiana, and died January 16, 1899 in Washington Co., Indiana.

More About JOHN LYNN and LOUISA DOAN:
Marriage: November 06, 1873, Indiana

Children of LOUISA DOAN and JOHN LYNN are:

81.	i.	CHARLES OLLIS⁵ LYNN, b. October 10, 1890, Livonia, Washington Co., Indiana; d. February 25, 1962, Indianapolis, Marion Co., Indiana.
	ii.	CORA MAY LYNN, b. 1874; d. 1945.
	iii.	FANNIE ELLA LYNN, b. 1876; d. 1899.
	iv.	PURLEY GREEN LYNN, b. 1878; d. 1878.
	v.	JOHN BIRDIE LYNN, b. 1879; d. 1943.
	vi.	ELBA ENOCH LYNN, b. 1884; d. 1953.
	vii.	MARY LOUELLA LYNN, b. 1892; d. 1970.
	viii.	RAY RUSSELL LYNN, b. 1894.

29. JAMES MCKINNEY⁴ OLLIS (JOHN W³, PETER², SEBASTIAN "BOSTON"¹) was born 1848 in IN, and died 1890. He married MARTHA A. ROLL. She was born April 10, 1842, and died April 13, 1889.

More About JAMES MCKINNEY OLLIS:
Burial: Kay's Chapel, IN (Washington, Co IN)

Child of JAMES OLLIS and MARTHA ROLL is:

BOSTON⁵ OLLIS, b. March 28, 1874; d. September 20, 1883.

30. PETER⁴ OLLIS (JOHN W³, PETER², SEBASTIAN "BOSTON"¹) was born 1851 in IN., and died in Logan Co IL. He married (1) HANNAH LOCKENOUR. He married (2) MOLLIE KIRKLIN⁴⁸ December 26, 1897 in Roane, Tennessee.

More About PETER OLLIS and MOLLIE KIRKLIN:
Marriage: December 26, 1897, Roane, Tennessee

Children of PETER OLLIS and HANNAH LOCKENOUR are:

	i.		HATTIE⁵ OLLIS, d. November 14, 1878.
	ii.		BRUCE OLLIS.
	iii.		OSCAR OLLIS.
	iv.		NORA OLLIS.
	v.		LOU OLLIS.
	vi.		GLADYS OLLIS.

31. ELIZABETH⁴ OLLIS (JOHN W³, PETER², SEBASTIAN "BOSTON"¹) was born April 16, 1854 in Palmyra, Harrison Co IN, and died May 31, 1916 in New Albany, IN, Floyd Co ⁴⁹. She married JONATHAN PETERS TARR January 07, 1880. He was born November 25, 1839, and died April 20, 1923.

Notes for ELIZABETH OLLIS:
Elizabeth was the daughter of John Ollis and Jane Rippy Ollis. Elizabeth's grandfather, Peter Ollis came to Indiana from North Carolina in 1843 with a land grant signed by President John Tyler. Elizabeth's mother carne with her parents to Indiana about the same time from Sumner County, Tennessee.

She was born and grew to womanhood near Palmyra, Indiana, and was a very beautiful young lady, as attested by the tin-type photos of her at about the age of 20 years in possession of her great granddaughter, Jane Sarles. Her notable features were her dark hair and eyes.

After her marriage to Jonathan Tarr, they moved to a farm at the edge of Palmyra about 1887. They later moved to a farm about 6 miles northwest of Fredericksburg adjoining Posey Church. Here their eight children grew to adulthood.

In 1912 they moved to the the nearby town of Livonia. Jonathan was a stock trader and the family served many traders and acquaintances their meals and lodging. There was a maple grove in front of their home from which they made maple sugar and syrup.

Elizabeth enjoyed travel and took train journeys to Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1908 and Pensacola, Florida in 1910, always bringing each of her grandchildren a glass cup as a memento.

Elizabeth died at St. Edward's Hospital in New Albany following an operation for gall stones. Her obituary noted that she was a highly respected and well-known lady of "near Livonia (Indiana)."

More About ELIZABETH OLLIS:
Burial: Livonia Cemetary, Washington Co., IN

More About JONATHAN TARR and ELIZABETH OLLIS:
Marriage: January 07, 1880

Children of ELIZABETH OLLIS and JONATHAN TARR are:

82.	i.	JAMES P⁵ TARR, b. October 21, 1880; d. January 31, 1974.
83.	ii.	LOUZENA TARR, b. May 24, 1882.
84.	iii.	MINNIE CLEVELAND TARR, b. September 19, 1884; d. May 29, 1965.
85.	iv.	MYRTLE A TARR, b. February 22, 1886.
86.	v.	NANNIE F TARR, b. 1887.
87.	vi.	OMER TARR, b. August 19, 1889.
	vii.	LESTA MAE TARR, b. August 07, 1891; m. ELMER CRANE.
88.	viii.	RAYMOND TARR, b. February 07, 1894.

32. MARTHA JANE⁴ OLLIS (BOSTON³, JOHN SWANSEA², SEBASTIAN "BOSTON"¹) was born September 18, 1840 ⁵⁰, and died April 15, 1936. She married WALTER AARON THOMAS 1857, son of AARON THOMAS and MYRA. He was born September 15, 1820 in Mitchell Co., NC⁵⁰, and died September 04, 1924.

Notes for MARTHA JANE OLLIS:
Below is an article on Aunt Jane Ollis Thomas, which appeared in The Asheville Citizen, 22 Dec. 1934.

Mitchell Woman, 94, Has 290 Descendants
Pioneer Days In W.N.C. Are Described By Mrs. Thomas

Bakersville, Dec. 22. (Special) -- Mrs. Jane Thomas, of Lunday, Mitchell county, has written no book, she can barely read and write; she has won no athletic contest, she is an old woman; she has gained no fame as a traveler, she has never been out of the State; she is not noted for the purity of her spoken language, she uses the mountain dialect in a form undefiled -- for none of these could she get her name in the paper. But, nevertheless, she holds a unique record, perhaps the greatest of its kind in Western North Carolina; She has 290 living descendants.

      She has eight children, 53 grandchildren, 169 great grandchildren, and 60 great-great grandchildren. Twenty-one of her grandchildren are grandfathers and grandmothers and more than two score of her great grandchildren are uncles and aunts.

      Mrs. Thomas, or Aunt Jane, as the neighbors call her, was before her marriage Jane Ollis. Ninety-four years old, she was born September 18, 1840 near the headwaters of Toe river, in what is now Avery county. In 1857 she married Aaron Thomas, who died in 1924 at the ripe old age of 104 years.

Recalls War With Mexico

      It is almost unimaginable to think how far back Aunt Jane's life reaches. She was born during the administration of Martin Van Buren and remembers every president since the time of Polk. She recalls the war with Mexico, the gold rush to California, and the days of Clay and Webster. She can remember when the train was an unknown factor in the lives of the people of Western North Carolina, and when the towns of Bakersville and Spruce Pine were unheard of and un-thought of.

      When she was a girl, she said the country was so thinly peopled that days would pass without one seeing a neighbor. Most of the fields were then in virgin forests and inhabited by deer, bears, wolves and wild turkeys. Toe River was without a sand and rock bar, as clear as crystal, and alive with speckled trout.

      Aunt Jane tells people who ask her that all her life has been hard, but the hardest part of all, as she looks back, over it, was during and immediately after the War Between the States. Her husband joined the army of the Confederate States at the opening of the struggle and served until its close. She was left alone with three small children to care for, and with no place to make a living except on rented land. It was a hard struggle to keep soul and body together. Many nights, she said, she would get the children to sleep and steal out and hoe corn by the moonlight.

Money Was Worthless

      During the war her husband sent his pay home, but she never spent a dollar of it. As fast as it came in, she would hide it in a place of safekeeping, saving it to buy them a home with, if he were fortunate to come back alive. Then one day he returned, bringing her the good news that the war was over, but the ill news that the money was no good, that all her savings were only worthless scraps of paper. The hard struggle at home began then. All the Federal money had leaked out of the country, and it was a long time leaking back in, she said. It was many years later before her dream of a home of her own was realized.

      Aunt Jane despises to hear farm boys and girls of today talk about having to work so much when they ought to be thankful they have so much time for rest and recreation. The modern girl, she said thinks about a new dress one day, buys the cloth the next day, and makes it the third day. But not so with her in her girlhood. She had her clothes to plan from six months to a year ahead. If it were a woolen dress, the sheep had to be sheared, the wool picked and carded on to rolls, the rolls spun into, thread, and the thread woven into cloth before she was even where the modern girl begins. If it were a linen dress, the labor was more and longer, for the flax had to be planted, grown, and the fibers broken before the carding and spinning could begin. And every piece of clothing the whole family wore had to be made in the same way from the raw material to the finished garment. All the clothes were woven and made by the woman, and mostly at night, she said, for during the day they had to take their places in the field by the men.

      The modern boy and girl, Aunt Jane declared, gets out of bed at morning and switches on the electric light or lights a lamp without ever giving the matter a thought. But before she could have a light, tallow had to be made, candles run, and lighters made out of paper or splinters with which to light them from the fireplace. If the fire had gone out at morning, someone would have to hike to a neighbor's two or three miles away, maybe through snow, to borrow a chunk of fire.

Did Cooking On Fireplace

      How many girls of today, Aunt Jane asks, could ever get a meal prepared the way it had to be prepared in her girlhood. All the cooking was done on the fireplace. Bread was baked in an oven, potatoes roasted in the hot embers, and meats and vegetables cooked in a pot hung on the cross-bar over the blaze. Every meal was cooked in this fashion, week days and Sundays, alone and with visitors, for at that time the people in the mountains did not have cook stoves. In order to get breakfast early enough for the men to get out to their work or hunting, the women had to get up long before day. She was a middle-aged woman, she said, before she got a cook stove.

      The diet was simple in those days, Aunt Jane related. Wild game, milk and butter, corn bread, pork, and a few fruits and vegetables formed the staple diet. Corn bread was baked without either soda or salt. Wheat bread was served once a week, on Sunday morning for breakfast. In winter a pot of lye hominy always was in the chimney corner, and in summer the bread was varied by grating roasting-ears into a soft meal and baking it into a pone called gritted bread.

      A hard time, the visitor who is talking to Aunt Jane will perhaps say, and she will reply, with a chuckle in her reminiscences. that this isn't the half of it. Hides were to tan and shoes to make; ashes to save from which the lye was dripped to make soap, hominy, and soda; corn to grind into meal; gunpowder to make, and a thousand and one other things that people now never have to do. But she is glad, she declared, that those things are in the past.

      Interested in Chickens and Cows

      In later years, Aunt Jane's chief interest in life was her chickens and cow. she usually kept about a dozen hens, and everyone of them was named, such as Old Yaller, Feather Legg, and so on. Every time a hen cackled Aunt Jane could tell by the sound which one it was, and when night came she would tell by the color and shape of the eggs which hens had laid them.

      She always kept her cow sleek and fat. One of her favorite duties in summer was cutting grass and weeds, she called it "truck" for her. And woe unto the boy who threw stones at or spoke unkindly to her cow.

      About three years ago Aunt Jane fell and fractured her hip. for a long time she hovered near death. But she refused to die. Now she is able too sit in a chair most of the day, but she cannot walk. She still talks about the time when she will be able to get out again to care for her chickens and cow.

      When people ask Aunt Jane why she has always kept her health so well and lived so long she says she does not know. But if there is anything to the theories advanced by medical science there is a reason. It is a simple diet of milk and butter and a life spent in the open.

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From: NancieHytt@netscape.net
Date: 2002/10/21 Mon PM 09:01:40 CDT
To: pollis@mail.tds.net
Subject: Martha Jane Ollis and Walter Aaron Thomas

Hello Prentis, let me introduce myself "I am Nancie Hyatt" a decendent of Martha Jane and Walter Aaron Thomas(Aaron Thomas). In the family of Martha(Jane as she was called) and Aaron as he was called are a few children you did not have listed. They had a Daughter Delia Thomas b abt 1860-65 who m a Franklin Presnell of Yancey Co NC.

In 1880 census of Brush Creek,Yancey Co NC
Source:FHL Film 1254988 National Archives Film T9-0988 Page 579A
Aaron Thomas Self MMW52 NC faNC mo NC
Jane Thomas Wife FMW 35 NC Fa NC Mo NC
Mcdanel Son MSW 18 NC
Nathaniel Son MSW 16 NC
Hetta Dau FSW 14 NC
Huldah Dau FSW 13 NC
Lily Dau FSW 10 NC
James H. Son MSW 7 NC
Zebedee Son MSW 3 NC
Now in 1880 census of Yancey CO NC Film T9-0988 Page 593C
Aaron Thomas Self MMW 58 NC(I think this is Aaron's father-and the birth time wrong)
Myra Wife 57 FMW SC Fa SC Mo SC
Eliza Jane Dau FSW 25 NC
Lydia E. Dau FSW 15NC
Sarah Dau FSW 13 NC
Now I cannot find the birth certificate to state the birth of Delia Thomas
I think she was one of the 3 small children Jane mentioned being left with at the time Aaron left for the Civil War. My Grandmother Delia told me that Jane her Mom saved the confederate money Aaron sent to her to buy a farm. My Grandmother said she hid it in a canning jar and buried it in the garden to keep the Union Soldiers from getting it. After the War Jane was upset to find the money was useless.
Please do let me know if you have any more on Walter Aaron Thomas b 15 sept 1820
Martha Jane Ollis b 18 sept 1840 This is info that came from the Asheville Citizens Times 22 Dec 1934 an artical on Aunt Jane Ollis Thomas
Note Mitchell Woman 94 has 290 Decendants
The paper stated she had 8 children 53 grandchildren 169 ggrandchildren and 60 gggrandchildren. In 1857 she married Aaron Thomas who died in 1924 at the ripe old age of 104 years.
I do hope this info helps with your research and I hope to hear from you.
Til then
Nancie ggranddaughter of Jane Ollis Thomas

More About MARTHA JANE OLLIS:
Burial: Double Island Cemetery, near Toe River

More About WALTER THOMAS and MARTHA OLLIS:
Marriage: 1857

Children of MARTHA OLLIS and WALTER THOMAS are:

	i.		MCDANEL⁵ THOMAS⁵¹, b. WFT Est. 1841-1870⁵¹; d. WFT Est. 1866-1949⁵¹.
	ii.		SAVANNAH THOMAS, b. WFT Est. 1841-1870.
	iii.		HULDAH THOMAS⁵¹, b. WFT Est. 1841-1870⁵¹; d. WFT Est. 1863-1952⁵¹.
	iv.		NATHANIEL P. THOMAS⁵¹, b. WFT Est. 1841-1870⁵¹; d. WFT Est. 1866-1949⁵¹.
	v.		HETTA THOMAS.
	vi.		LILY THOMAS.
	vii.		JAMES H. THOMAS.
	viii.		DELIA THOMAS, b. Abt. 1860; m. FRANKLIN PRESNELL, Yancey County, NC.

More About FRANKLIN PRESNELL and DELIA THOMAS:
Marriage: Yancey County, NC

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