Arlene that is a good question. the only thing that I can tell you is that when I looked this information up on ancestory. com last year at my local historical society and the section on the census report that says relationship to the head of house hold every member said daughter or son.

I also followed this family well into the 20th century and I saw Francis living with her brother Rush Patton and his wife on the 1900 census and it said the samething sister to head of house.

I also down loaded Florence, Alabama's historical newspaper and I can't remember what year it was, but it talked about bringing the body of Rush Patton's sister Celeste home on a boat back to Florence to be buried.
I really don't know why they all have different last surnames. I did think about that too when i was gathering this information. I just chalked it up to them being married or maybe different fathers. On the 1900 census when I say Francis living with her brother Rush she listed her father being from Germany. When I saw that it threw me and still does. I was expecting her to say Irish like her brother.

There is one BIG major are other things