The Rusks from Ireland:Information about Rusk
Rusk (d. date unknown)
Notes for Rusk:"The father of John R. Rusk (arrived in U. S. Abt. 1791 from Ireland) is not known.He is believed to be the father of three sons: John, David, and James.It is not for certain that David and James were actually sons of John R. Rusk.Records of these three persons appear in Upstate Carolina records around the turn of the century.All three were born in Ireland--presumably Ulster (northern Ireland).Two, we know were Presbyterians.The first to arrive, about 1791, was John Rusk.He settled for a time on the plantation of the John C. Calhoun who became a Vice-President of the United States.John Rusk was in his forties and apparently single (or widowed?) for he married Mary Starrett about the time that he started acquiring land of his own (1798) or a year or so later.
John R. Rusk was a stone mason and, in 1803, he completed the Old Stone Church (still standing today) and the Pendleton District Gaol (jail).Payment for the latter (authorized on Nov. 21) must have been welcome news to John, for on Dec. 5, 1803, Mary presented him with the son who was to become famous in Texas history.They named him Thomas Jefferson Rusk.
Although, in later years, all except one of their children moved to Georgia or Texas, John and Mary stayed in South Carolina and are buried in the Churchyard of the Old Stone Church which he built. The first record for which we have for David Rusk is a Warrant for Survey of land for David Rusk issued August 15, 1803.The plat drawing of the survey shows David's land adjoining John Rusk on the East and Holcomb on the South.
Thirty year-old David married Jane/Jennett Gourley in 1803 and their first child, Hugh Gourley, was born in April 1804.With no evidence to the contrary, we feel we can assume that the two Rusk brothers lived as neighbors for the next twenty years and that they attended the same church and their children grew up together.
David Rusk moved his family to Georgia around 1826, to property he bought in 1824 located on Jack's Creek in Walton County.The family moved again about 1835 after David was a "fortunate drawer" in the Gold Lottery of 1832--to the south-eastern corner of Cherokee County, Georgia, a district called Lickskillet.There they settled.David, Jane, and all seven of their children are buried in the Rusk Family Cemetery near the old home place.
James Rusk is first mentioned in South Carolina records in the Pendleton District U. S. Census of 1810 ("James RASK" in printed Index!), though a son is reported to have said his father come to America from Ireland in 1803.In the 1810 Census, James is listed as a man between 26 and 45 years with a female of same age group (wife Priscilla ?, we later learned) and two small children.We have not found James Rusk in South Carolina land records, so far, and we are not sure of his occupation.It seems that James moved his family across the Tugaloo River to Franklin County, Georgia about 1811-12 since daughter Nancy was born in Georgia in October 1812 and the older daughter, Susannah, married Jesse Holcomb there in 1814.The next two children said they were born in South Carolina, but Priscilla could have returned across the Tugaloo to his--or her ? family for those events.(Certainly there was much visiting back and forth across the Tugaloo by the John Rusk family after Thomas Jefferson established his law practice in Clarksville in Habersham County, Georgia in 1825.)In 1823 James bought land on Jack's Creek in Walton County, Georgia and moved there about 1824.
By 1826 David Rusk and his family were also living on Jack's Creek.During the years both families were living on Jack's Creek, the names of James and David and those of their older sons (David's Hurh and William J. and James' Thomas and John) appear as parties to or witnesses on various documents for each other and for neighbors.
James and son William "went West" around 1827-28 and, for some reason, James' land was sold at public auction.David was successful bidder--thus assuring Priscilla, Nancy, and the three boys of their home.In the 1830 Census, Jamesand son William show up in Greene County, Illinois--just north of St. Louis, Missouri.
Priscilla is in Walton County, Georgia 1830 Census but apparently left soon afterwards to join James in Illinois.Young Nancy married Enoch ridges in Illinois and, as they grew up, the boys all married and settled in Illinois.
James and Priscilla's older daughter, (we are hazarding a guess here) was the Susannah Rusk who married Jesse Holcomb in Franklin County, Georgia in 1814.
This family was in Habersham County, Georgia at time of 1840 Census. The two older boys, who married in Walton County--Thomas to Nancy Cobb and John to Mary Rogers Johnston--elected to remain in Georgia, though at some time in the 1830's, Thomas moved to DeKalb County (Atlanta).John died in 1840 but his wife, Mary R. and their three children continued to farm their plantation in Walton County until Mary's death in 1858.The eldest son, James Thomas, who married a Morgan County, Georgia girl, Sarah Philip Clemmons/Clements in 1853, eventually moved to Cleburne County, Alabama where he owned a general merchandise store in the small county of Chulafinnee.He died at the age of 82, after outliving two wives and fathering around fifteen children.
One of these children, Joseph William Alonzo Rusk, on a trip to Illinois, met and married Ella Dora Rusk, daughter of Hugh, whosefather James, was the Rusk who "went to the Mid-West and raised corn."
Were John, David, and James bothers?We frankly don't know.Some strong tie, most likely familial, brought these three Rusks to the banks of the Tugaloo River.Strangely, only these three men have proven, so far, to be the Rusks out of all the families who settled South Carolina and Georgia!For many, many year--well over forty-- attempts have been made at varying times to tie in early Rusks of South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas with Rusk Branches in other parts of the U. S.--with no success, to my knowledge, until Harold Chapman and I discovered James.
One rather intriguing "near miss" of a contact, however, has turned up in my research and I must share it with you.Lt. Colonel Jeremiah McClain Rusk (later to become Governor of Wisconsin), as Commanding Officer of the 25th Wisconsin Volunteers, was assigned to General Sherman's Union troops as Sherman made his inglorious (ahm a Georgian, remember!) march across Georgia.On July 17, 1864, in the fighting around Atlanta, Cousin Jerry narrowly missed being captured when some darn Rebel shot his horse out from under him.Might that Rebel have been a Southern Rusk?Who knows?"
Source:
Rusk Family Organization genealogist Dorothy Lee Palmer in Spring 1980 "RuskRoundup," "The Rusk Family Organization Newsletter." 3787 Wilshire Lane, Eugene, OR 97405.A Copy of this newsletter is in the possession of Billy D. Rusk, 628 Wentworth Drive, Richardson, TX 75081 (972) 690-1670.
Children of Rusk are:
- +James Thomas Rusk, b. 1775, Antrim, Ireland, d. February 24, 1841, Jersey, IL238.
- +John Rusk, b. Bet. 1750 - 1760, Ulster or Londerry, Ireland239, d. 1844, Pickens Dist., SC.
- +David Rusk, b. Abt. 1773, County of Antrim, Province of Ulster, Ireland, d. September 02, 1841, Lickskillet Dist, Cherokee Co., Georgia.