I read with interest information you have collected on the Wilson and Rosco families. I am interested in any wills or estate inventories that list slaves owned by your ancestors. I am doing slave genealogy research and would appreciate the names of any slaves you have seen. Thanks, Tom Miree > Nia Peeples > Kathy Peeples Kemp > > I saw your posting on the Dallas County Alabama Rootsweb mailing list > concerning information about Ezekiel B. Wilson. I too would like additional > information about him. He was one of my great, great, great, grandfathers. I > believe you have a couple of mistakes in your message. First, I do not think > he died in Clarke County Mississippi but rather in Clarke County Alabama. The > final settlement of his estate dated July 7, 1870 is recorded in the Probate > Minutes, Book "N", page 92 at the Courthouse at Grove Hill, Alabama. I do not > have a copy of this settlement but did take some notes. According to what I > found E.B. Wilson died at least 60 days prior to October 16, 1863. The heir > named in the settlement in July 1870 were: Washington Wilson, James M. > Wilson, Ezekiel Wilson, and Mary E. Rasco. > > There is also indications of a settlement in the estate of N. Burdine Wilson, > (Nathaniel Burdine Wilson) eldest son of Ezekiel B. Wilson, recorded in Book > "L", page 286 dated February 15, 1866. At that time the record show that > James Wilson was living in the state of Iowa. N. B. Wilson also died in > Clarke County Alabama per the probate records of that County. > > The other error in your posting was that Mary Ann Elizabeth Rasco was a grand > daughter of Ezekiel Burdine Wilson. She in fact was a daughter of his and my > great, great, grandmother. Mary Ann Elizabeth Wilson was born December 12, > 1834 and died April 27, 1874. Her first husband (my great, great, > grandfather) was William Ephraim Rasco who she married in Dallas County > Alabama on October 10, 1852. William Ephraim Rasco died November 2, 1866 and > on April 5, 1869 Mary Ann married Joseph S. Drapers. They moved to Kemper > County Mississippi where Drapers ran away leaving her and her six Rasco > children. Mary Ann may have briefly returned to Alabama but was listed in the > 1870 census of Neshoba County Mississippi, page 375, family number 1286 as > Mary Ann Rasco with children: William T. Rasco, Wilson E. Rasco, James M. > Rasco, Martha T. Rasco, and a negro servant named Jackson Rasco. Living on > the near by farm of William J. Gentry, was another son, my Great grandfather, > John H. Rasco. On the farm of James Wilson was another son, Ezekiel B. Rasco. > This census was taken on June 24, 1870. On August 31, 1870, Mary Ann > Elizabeth Rasco married her first husband nephew, James Lafayette Rasco and > they moved to Scott County Mississippi where they had two children: Richmond > Austin Rasco born July 5, 1871 and James Rasco born April 24. 1874. Both > mother and infant died three days later. Mary Ann Elizabeth Rasco is buried > in the Contrell Methodist Church Cemetery just south of Lena, Mississippi in > Scott County. > > Ezekiel Burdine Rasco (1800-1863) was married to Sarah H. Rasco a daughter of > Jesse Rasco and Elizabeth (possibly Harrison). I have not been able to locate > a record of their marriage but I am sure it was in Dallas County Alabama and > is one of the unrecorded marriages of that county. That Ezekiel B. Wilson was > married to Sarah H. Rasco is proven in the will and estate settlement of her > father, Jesse Rasco who died in Dallas County in 1840. Ezekiel and Sarah with > their children were listed in the 1850 census of Dallas County Alabama. They > had moved away by 1860, apparently to Clarke County Alabama. I believe > Ezekiel and his son Nathaniel or Nathan, ran a hotel there. Apparently Sarah, > Ezekiel's wife died before he did possibly in Dallas County. > > Nathan Burdine Wilson married Mary Jane (Fisher) Rasco the widow of John > Alton Rasco a brother of William Ephraim Rasco. John Alton Rasco died in > Dallas County Alabama on July 4, 1865 and sometimes between then and whenever > Nathan B. Wilson died, she married him. She moved back from Clarke County > Alabama to Dallas County and was living with some of the Wilson. She then > married a man named T. D. Booth and they moved to White County Arkansas. > > It is true that two of Mary Ann Elizabeth Rasco's sons lived and died in > Clarke County Mississippi at Stonewall, Mississippi. There were also other > relatives there as well as Scott, Leake, and Nashoba Counties. I believe that > the son Ezekiel Burdine Wilson jr. was also in Mississippi, perhaps Kemper > County. I have not tried to trace these Wilson children or descendants. > > As for who the parents of Ezekiel Burdine Wilson was or exactly where in > South Carolina he was born, I do not know. I would like to know however so if > you find out please let me know. There was a military officer in the > Continental Army from South Carolina named Ezekiel B. Wilson. Our Ezekiel > Burdine Wilson may have been his son or a nephew. > > That is about all I know at this time. How are you related or connected to > Ezekiel Burdine Wilson? > > > James R. Rasco >