Exploring further Holleman History in Old Virginia - Part 7

by Glenn N. Holliman

Our exploration continues of the Hollemans who remained in Isle of Wight, Virginia after a diaspora sent generations of Hollimans (and various spellings) surging to the Carolinas, Alabama, Tennessee and across the Mississippi into Arkansas and Texas in the 18th and 19th Centuries.  My thanks as ever to cousin Sarah Barlow Wright of Smithfield, Virginia who provided valuable information and photographs on the Hollemans.

Helen Haverty King, a historian of Isle of Wight County, Virginia, has left two books that capture the past and present of this American homeland of immigrant Christopher Holyman (1618-1691).   I shared, in my previous article, information on her Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County, Virginia.  In this posting, below, is the cover of another of the late Mrs. King's volumes, Historic Isle of Wight (2007), which contains two pages and three photographs of the Holleman House.  This exquisite book is available from the Isle of Wight Historical Society in Smithfield, Virginia.

Land and legal records demonstrate that the founder of most American Hollimans, Christopher Holyman, patented land along the Blackwater River and adjacent to the Mill Swamp in 1684. A descendant of Christopher, Josiah Holleman, deeded in 1826, 80 of the original 1,020 acres to his son, Wilson.  Wilson constructed a large, L-shaped brick house well back from Route 621 that connects Mill Swamp Baptist Church with Proctor's Bridge Road.

Wilson patterned this Federal style dwelling after his wife Ann Nicholson's home in Sussex county, between Wakefield and Courtland, Virginia. We are told that the Hollemans needed 100,000 bricks to construct the house, and they were "burnt on the place".  The walls are 18 inches thick.  As Wilson Holleman is recorded in the 1830 Federal Census as owning 16 slaves, one can postulate that their labor fired the bricks.

Below, the home before 1917, when a white picket fence enclosed the front and before the porch was widened to include a second floor balcony.  The late Mrs. L. William Ballard, a Holleman descendant, provided Helen Haverty King this picture as well as the one below it of Wilson Holleman.  They appeared in her Historical Notes of Isle of Wight County, Virginia, which also is available from the Isle of Wight Historical Society at their web site.

Below, Wilson Holleman (1803-1873) in old age.  As a result of the Civil War, the 17 slaves which he owned in 1860, were freed.  As actual fighting in Virginia largely missed the interior of Isle of Wight County, the Holleman House survived.  The home has stayed in the Holleman family to this day, and is currently owned by William Joseph Holleman.

Next posting, a look at some Holleman political leaders in Ante-Bellum of Isle of Wight County and Virginia.... 

Have questions about Holliman family history? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).

Exploring further Holleman History in Old Virginia - Part 6

by Glenn N. Holliman
We continue our series of articles on the historic 1830 Holleman House which rests in Isle of Wight County, Virginia on part of the original plantation of Christopher Holyman (1618-1691), the founder of most Hollimans (and many spellings) living in the United States today.  My continued thanks to Sarah Barlow Wright, Janet Wright Moore and Susan Holleman Brewer for their sharing of information and critique of these articles.  This series could not have been done without their generous participation.  GNH

Descendants of Christopher Holyman (d 1691) who reside in Virginia to this Day.....
From the memorabilia of Gladys Holleman Barlow, courtesy of her daughter, Sarah Barlow Wright, are some additional photographs.  Below, is the extended family of Josiah James (1851-1937) and Augusta Hannah Holleman (1859-1941) gathered for a picture in 1921.  They are sitting on the front steps of the house.  Wilson Holleman (1803-1873), builder of the house, had given it the name of 'Mayfield' and for a number of years the post office in the vicinity was called Mayfield.

Fifty-four years later another family gathering was photographed on the same site on a cold day in February 1975.   As with all families new generations are born as the old depart.  This was a celebration of Gladys Holleman Barlow's 80th birthday.  She is on the far right with the purple corsage.  Of interest to the historian, the names of Cofer and Gwaltney, families who lived in the Mill Swamp area in the 1600s with the original founder, Christopher Holyman, still are living in the vicinity and marrying 20th Century Hollemans.

 

Below, present in 1975, just as they were on a summer day in 1921, were brother and sister, Joseph Howard Holleman (1897-1979), about whom we have written previously,  and Gladys Holliman Barlow (1895-1996). Howard, a long serving member of the Virginia House of Delegates from neighboring Surry County, also is pictured as a young man on the left, below.  Gladys, Howard and their brother, Algernon Hardy Holleman ((1902-1963) were born, not at the Holleman House, but at another house on the farm.

 

 Gladys Hortense Holleman Barlow (1895-1996), lived a long and generous life in Isle of Wight County serving, among other activities, as a teacher, school principal, active leader in her Baptist Church and numerous civic organizations.  In 1921, she married Gordon Eugene Barlow, a member of another prominent and early family of the County. They had five children: Gordon Eugene Barlow, Jr., Hannah Barlow Bain, Joseph Holleman Barlow, Sarah Barlow Wright and William Kyle Barlow.  At the time of her passing there were eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

 

 

Both the Barlow and Holleman family contributions to the community are recorded in Helen Haverty King's 1986 work, Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County, Virginia, a must read for the serious student of James River history.

 

Next posting, using Mrs. King's historical writings and the Federal Censuses of the middle 1800s, we shall learn more about the Hollemans who remained in Virginia....

 

Have questions about Holliman family history? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).

Join your many cousins at MyFamily.com and view an expanded Holliman family tree and many files on the history of the family.  Just write to glennhistory@gmail.com for an invitation. 

Or go to the HOLLYMAN GENEALOGY MyFamily site at http://myfamily.com/group/hollyman . 

Then click on "Request to Join" in upper righthand corner!