According to his cemetery marker at Lawler Baptist Church in Jefferson County, AL, Elijah Venson Hollis Jr. was born in 1787 and he died in 1865. With his birth in 1787, he was likely born in Fairfield District, SC. Based on the 1836 land sale document, we know that he was the son of Elijah V. Hollis & Alsey Knighton and the grandson of Moses & Rosannah. Most likely he was a Junior but we do not have any documents that show that his father's middle name was Venson.
As noted elsewhere, Elijah's 1st wife was Mary Hollis (b.~1795;d.~1850) the daughter of Moses Hollis, Jr. (brother of Elijah V. Hollis, Sr.) and she was therefore his 1st cousin; He also fathered children with another 1st cousin, Susanna Hollis (b.1789;d.1781) who was the daughter of Capt. John Hollis (also a brother of Elijah, Sr.). He and Susanna cohabitated or married while living in Fairfield District SC and then moved to Jefferson County, Alabama where they raised a large family. All of the children fathered by Elijah are not know with any certainty: For instance, he is said to have fathered a son named Elijah V. Hollis III born about 1812 yet there are no records for this man. Below are the known children. Note that many of the male descendants of Elijah and Mary became prominent men - not only in Alabama but in the USA as well.
The Masonic symbol is engraved on his original stone grave marker.
Known children of Elijah V. Hollis, Jr. + Mary Hollis
(Son Jonathan had a family Bible that listed many of these children.)
1. Elijah V. Hollis, III b.~1812
2. Jonathan Shelton Hollis b. 1815; d. 1872 in Lamar County, Alabama, married Barbara Melinda Webb; Buried Wofford Cemetery, Lamar County.
3. Hiram Hollis b. 1817; d. 1893 in Lamar County, Alabama, married Rebecca Webb and then Sarah Smith or Kennedy.
4. Sena Hollis (b. 1818; d. 1895) in Lamar County, Alabama, married William Henry Johnson
5. Alsey Hollis (b. 1819; d. ?)
6. Martha Ann Hollis b. 1822; d. 1898 in Lamar County, Alabama, married Leroy Kennedy
7. Daniel b. 1832; d. 1865, married Elizabeth Adams
Other researchers claim he also had a daughters Eliza & Mary but there are no records for them - these could be the middle names of Sena and Alsey. The ages shown on the 1850 census (Jonathan Hollis, Marion, AL) do not quite match.
The existence of a son named E.V. Hollis III is speculative: The 1820 census for Elijah only lists 2 males under age 10 (Ostensibly, Jonathan & Hiram). If he had a son named Elijah he may have died before 1820 or the census information is correct.
His wife Mary and several of their children were living in the household of her son Jonathan on the 1850 census (Marion, AL) and it is presumed that she is buried in the same cemetery (Wofford) as Jonathan but her grave has yet to be found.
Known children of Elijah V. Hollis, Jr. + Susanna Hollis
1. Osman/Osborn Hollis b. 1826 SC; d. Civil War death unknown details, married Susanna Robbins and then married Rebecca (lnu).
2. David F. Hollis b. 1832 SC; d. Civil War death unknown details, married Ann M Cannon.
4. John Hogan Hollis b. 1833 SC; d. 1911; buried McCormack Cemetery, Jefferson County, AL, married Rachel Williams.
4. Darling W. Hollis b. 1835 SC; d. Civil War death probably with either the 8th AL Cavalry or 38th Alabama Infantry (see Fold3 for records). Married Sarah Ann Nolen and then married Mary L. Black.
5. Thomas J. Hollis b.1837 SC; d. 1864; Confederate soldier, 28th Alabama, died and is buried at Rock Island POW camp in Illinois. Married Elizabeth Jane Black.
6. Elijah Madison Hollis b. 1845 AL; d. 1905; I found a book that contained his name as being denied a pension as a Southern Loyalist during the Civil War. He would have been young (17-20) and may have decided to fight for the Union instead of following the path of his deceased brothers and dying for the Confederacy.
7. Caroline Hollis b. 1838 SC; d. 1899
8. Mary Elizabeth Hollis b. 1839 SC; d. 1873, married John Green Cumby.
9. Nancy Hollis b. 1841 AL; d. 1817, married Ethel Dred Williams Sr.
We also have a Susanna Hollis, age 24, listed on the 1850 census living in Elijah's household. Who is this woman? She is not listed as his daughter so likely she is a cousin or perhaps the widow of one of his sons?
Regarding the children of Elijah V. Hollis and Susanna Hollis, we have a document dated November 15, 1829 where Elijah affirms that the children of the single woman Susanna are his. The term children is used rather than child so there are likely several children - it is unfortunate that they are not named in the document. So, with the earliest known son born to Elijah and Susanna being Osman/Osborn in 1826 and then the next son born is 1832, we have a discrepancy in the total number of children born to them prior to the document being signed in 1829. There apparently were more than just the one child. Another interesting issue with this document is that there was 50 acres of land and personal property given to Susanna and her children - where are the later records for the sale of this land? Per the 1830 census, it is hard to determine if Elijah was living with Mary or with Susanna: There is a Mary Hollis living close to him but there is no way to determine if it is his wife Mary especially when looking at the number of children living in her household and the lack of any girls - one would think that the girls would have remained with their mother. So, Susanna may have been living with one of her sisters or she may have been overlooked by the census takers. By the time the 1840 census was taken, Elijah and Susanna were already living in Alabama.
(Alabama Archives)
Somewhere along the way, a Hollis researcher posted that the middle name of Susanna was LISBON/LISBORN and this was based on a viewing of her original stone grave marker. I visited the Lawler cemetery in 2015 and it is clear to me that this researcher misread her grave marker.; The top line of her grave marker reads as follows: SUSANNA HOLLIS BORN and the researcher mistakenly read that as SUSANNA _ _ _LIS BORN .
The marker was fairly clean when I saw it in 2015 and perhaps it was dirty when the researcher mistook the name but it clearly doesn't show her middle name as LISBON/LISBORN. It is odd that the engraver decided to put BORN on the same line as her name but if you look close you will see that the lettering is not the same size - SUSANNA HOLLIS is in much bigger lettering than BORN. This of course doesn't prove that she was a Hollis that married a Hollis but based on Peter T. Hollis' letter and the various documents we have found for her, she was most likely the daughter of Capt. John Hollis.
(Author photo - 2015)
(Author photo - 2015)
(Author photo - 2015)
(Author photo - 2015)
Elijah V. Hollis, Jr. is a possible ancestor of Rufus Hollis if he fathered more out-of-wedlock children that are not accounted for in the existing records.
(This page was updated on 12/8/2022)