Lot's of work and a new mystery

So it's been a while since my last post.  I'm a bit busy with preparations for the MATC Portfolio Show where I will be exhibiting my photography next month, but I have had a few minutes here and there to do some more research.

I had started on a couple of posts describing how I was working through the keying tools for both Family Search and Ancestry, adding to the indexes of new records that will soon be on both sites (and my frustration on going through one census page from Minnesota that was mostly German and Austrian immigrants).  I also started another post about receiving our own 2010 Census form in the mail recently and that we had saved a photocopy of the form for future generations of researchers in my own family.  Finally, I also started a post on my trials in evaluating Roots Magic and whether or not I will be switching databases any time soon.  But, mostly because I didn't have a chance to fully flesh out my blog ideas on these topics, none of these posts got published.

Now, I've got a bit of a mystery...
I got the email recently that Footnote has opened up their collection of census records for free viewing for a limited time, so I took a look back through what I got from the last time they were free.  I'm trying a completionist strategy of finding my family in every federal census or finding reasons for them not to be listed.  The mystery comes in the 1870 US census.

My 2nd-great grandfather, Orran A. Horne, was born on October 4, 1846.  His father, Orrin Carstarphen Horne (that's always been one of my favorite ancestor names), was born in 1814 and served in Company H of the 10th Georgia Infantry, a group known as the Georgia Rangers, during the Civil War.  He is remembered as "General O. C. Horne" even though he never actually achieved that rank in the military.  In fact, the General O. C. Horne chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was named in his honor, but that's a story for another time.

I have found Orrin C. Horne in the 1850 US census in Macon, Georgia, again in the 1860 US census living in Pulaski County, Georgia, and again in the 1880 US census living in Hawkinsville, Pulaski County, Georgia, but not yet in the 1870 US census.  The younger Orran A. Horne is listed in the 1850 US census in Orrin C. Horne's family, and later in the 1900 US census in Hawkinsville, Georgia.  The years in between 1850 and 1900 are what puzzle me.  In the 1870 US census, Orran A. Horne's family is listed as belonging to the John B. Pollock household of Cuthbert, Georgia.

The record splits a page break in the original source, so here are the two excerpts:

Within Orran's family, there is a Jane Horne listed as just two years younger than Orran, but I don't yet know how she was related (perhaps a sister?).  I am left to wonder now, who was John B. Pollock and how did his family relate to mine?  Was working as a telegrapher and express agent such a low-paying job that Orran had to move his family in with the Pollocks in order to keep a roof over their heads?  Clearly, I'll have to find out more about Cuthbert, Georgia, and will have to dive into some other records for the answers.