Eliza Sisk

Eliza Sisk was born in 1821 in Kentucky. In the censuses, she initally said she didn't know where she was from, then she was from Tennessee, then Kentucky. She married Alfred Rockhold on March 3, 1836 in Carroll County, Missouri. (Her name was misspelled Fisk on her marriage license. Later, she named her last son Richard Henry Sisk Burgett, clarifying the issue.) She was 15, he was 17. They had six children in 18 years. They were pioneer farmers in NW Missouri at a troublesome time for the area. Indians were living amongst them, the Mormons caused much local strife, and there were strong opinions on whether to allow slavery or not. Family folklore states that her husband Alfred died of Yellow Fever by the Snake River on the Oregon Trail in 1856 as he, Eliza and the children emigrated to CA. Her son, William, may also have died during the trip. (He was listed in the 1850 census but never afterwards.) No records of the family's journey over the Oregon California trail have been found. Research continues. Arriving in California as a widow, she remarried twice - the first time to Henry Burget in 1858; they had one son. The Burgetts and Rockholds apparently knew each other in Missouri. Henry Burgett may have accompanied the group west. This branch of Rockholds became Rockholts in California. The 1860 census had Eliza, Henry and 3 children, including their son Richard Henry Sisk Burgett, living in the Butte township of Sutter county, which is known to be Meridian. Her daughter Lucinda and her husband Milbury Burget and family lived nearby. Henry was a farmer, she was "domestic". Henry was a very dynamic farmer known for his efforts in making the Butte Slough usable as farmland. In the 1870 census Eliza and Henry are listed in the same home in Meridian, but divorced in 1873. The Burget farm was large and very busy. Possibly, Eliza decided that she'd had enough of farm life and the non-stop hard work it required. By this time, her youngest three sons were teenagers. [They may be pictured in the Old Slough School photograph in Memories, if the date is correct.] Richard remained close to his father, the Rockholds did not. A continued relationship between Eliza and Richard is also not documented, but she and John Wesley often lived near each other over the years. Eliza married Robin Flowers in ~1875 - no children. She was 54. In the 1880 census she was living in Meridian, CA with Mr. Flowers, a ferryman. Her son John Wesley and his family lived nearby. At that time her youngest son, Richard, 21, was living with his father. Over time, she and Mr Flowers and her two sons John Wesley and Thomas Franklin moved north along the Sacramento River. Her son Reuben stated in a later census that his mother's maiden name was Parker. She was elusive about her background in some of the early censuses - but included Sisk in the name of her last child. Eliza died in 1887 in Red Bluff, California, at the age of 66. [Ex-husband Henry married Mary Jane McGahan in 1875 - she brought several children into the home.] http://fortvance.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Burghardt_Burgett_Family_in_America-1625-1995.pdf