Wanda Fuller, Wayne Barrett, Gene Barron, Robin Rockett, and Tim Hudson submitted these photographs for the
Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives, 2004 – 2007

Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm


The Rockett Family
of
Spearsville, Union Parish Louisiana

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        The Rocketts of Spearsville all descend from one of the three brothers, Hosea, Joe, or Tom, who all settled near Spearsville with their mother and younger sister in the fall of 1858. The Rockett brothers were sons of James William Rockett (4 June 1792 – 22 Oct 1857) and Eudocia Holcombe (30 Oct 1809 – 23 Feb 1879), who married in Jefferson County Alabama in 1831. James Rockett was born in Lincoln County North Carolina, where his ancestors had lived since the 1760s. His family became acquainted with the Holcombes about 1811, when Eudocia's father, Baptist minister Rev. Hosea Holcombe (20 July 1780 – 31 July 1841), moved his family there from Union District South Carolina. In 1818 the Rockett and Holcombe families moved to Jefferson County Alabama. By 1841, the families had intermarried, and they again migrated westward, this time to northern Mississippi. Joe Rockett was born in Lafayette County Mississippi. After his father's death in 1857, Eudocia Rockett took her family in an ox-drawn wagon to Spearsville, where her sister Teresa Holcombe Hunt (1 Apr 1807 – 6 Apr 1871) and her husband, Rev. William Hunt (11 Mar 1806 – 18 Aug 1897), had settled in 1854.

        James and Eudocia Rockett had many children prior to James' death in 1857. Several of the older ones remained behind in Mississippi when the widowed Eudocia decided to follow her sister to north Louisiana. The three youngest Rockett boys, Hosea, Joe, and Tom, all lived their lives near Spearsville, leaving numerous descendents:

  • Hosea Holcombe Rockett (30/31 May 1842 – 16 Apr 1914) was born soon after his parents arrived in Mississippi from Alabama. He moved with his mother to Louisiana in 1858, but when the War Between the States broke out in 1861, he returned to Mississippi and joined the same Confederate infantry regiment as his brother, William Henry Rockett. Their unit went to Virginia for the summer and fall of 1861, but Hosea and Bill Rockett were both discharged that winter and returned home. Hosea returned to Spearsville, and in the spring of 1862, he and his first cousin Alva Jackson Hunt enlisted in the Sparrow Cadets, a unit that subsequently became Company I, 31st Regiment Louisiana Infantry. Hosea's unit served in the swamps of northeast Louisiana during the summer and early fall of 1862, where numerous soldiers, including Alva J. Hunt, died of disease. Hosea later saw service at the Battles of Chickasaw Bayou and Grand Gulf. He was captured at Grand Gulf, and sent north to a Yankee prison. Either during the fighting or in captivity, Hosea lost an eye. After several months in prison, he was released, returned home, and served with his unit at Pineville and Natchitoches between July 1864 and May 1865. Hosea married on 26 April 1866 to Anna Mae West (31 Jan 1843 – 2 Oct 1881), the daughter of John West and Elizabeth Cooper. After Anna's death, Hosea remarried on 3 September 1882 to Martha Ruth Etta Breazeal Groves (29 Sept 1851 – 27 Nov 1935), the daughter of Hosea Bright Breazeal and Sarah Elizabeth Mayfield. After his military service, Hosea lived the rest of his life on his farm near Spearsville. He remained a Democrat throughout his brother Joe's Populist candidacy in the 1890s, and the brothers appear to have maintained a friendly relationship.


  • Joseph Cannon Rockett (14 Nov 1847 – 11 Apr 1929) married about 1869 to Rebecca A. Upshaw (7 Apr 1851 – 10 Apr 1882), the daughter of Alexander Wilson Upshaw and Zilleann Frances Barron. Rebecca died soon after the birth of her youngest daughter in 1882. On 23 July 1882, Joe Rockett married Mary Elizabeth Howell (23 Feb 1857 – 13 Mar 1945), the daughter of James Monroe Howell and Mary Ann Belcher. Joe Rockett settled in the Camp Creek neighborhood several miles south of Spearsville. He worked as a farmer, blacksmith, and loaned money to many people in the region. Following in the Rockett and Holcombe family tradition, he was a staunch Baptist, helping to found the Camp Creek Baptist Church in the 1870s or early 1880s. At various times he served as president of local Baptist organizations, as well as on the Union Parish School Board and as a jury commissioner. He broke from the Democratic Party in the 1880s and became a Populist. In the 1890s, Rockett ran for the state senate on the Populist ticket. Although he won Union Parish by a substantial margin, he was unsuccessful in his bid to become a state senator.


  • Thomas Martin Rockett (15/18 July 1849 – 19 Nov 1893) married Julia Corner West (Nov 1851 – 1933) on 7 November 1873 in Drew County Arkansas. She was the daughter of John West and Elizabeth Cooper, and her sister Anna had married Tom's brother Hosea in 1866. Tom and Julia purchased a portion of his mother's farm located about one mile north of Spearsville, and in the 1880s and early 1890s they lived there. Tom Rockett died prematurely in 1893, and for several years afterwards, Julia and her children lived on the farm of her brother-in-law, Joe Rockett, several miles south of Spearsville near Camp Creek.

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Rockett Family Photographs
Eudocia Holcombe Rockett
(30 Oct 1809 – 23 Feb 1879)
Joe & Rebecca Rockett
about 1870
Rockett brothers
about 1900
Martha Ann Rockett Royal
(8 July 1838 – 29 Jan 1934)
Hosea Rockett Family
about 1891 – 1892
Hosea Rockett Family
Dec 1902
Joe Rockett Family
about 1900
Joe & Homie Rockett
taken 1905 – 1910
Tom Rockett Children
about 1918
Tom Rockett Family
1918
John T. Rockett Family
about 1910
Joe B. Rockett Family
1914
William Lafayette Rockett
(7 May 1872 – 17 May 1953)
Willie & Bettie Rockett
about 1910
1909 Rockett Marriage
5 Dec 1909
1913 Rockett Wedding
16 Nov 1913
Ela Rebecca Frances Rockett
(18 Feb 1882 – 8 May 1923)
Ela Rockett's Marriage
16 July 1902
Robert & Ela Barron
1910s
Ela Rockett Barron Family
1915
Ela Rockett Barron
c1920
Iva Jane Rockett
(1 Oct 1888 – 10 Jan 1969)
Homie Rockett
(25 July 1890 – 18 Sept 1986)
Lettie Rockett
(9 Dec 1897 – 19 Jan 1916)


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