THE HOLLEMAN FAMILY MOVES TO WAKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA

by J. Allen Holleman

NOTE FROM GLENN

As I have written at this space, I am taking a time out from blog writing for a while in order to concentrate on building a virtual archive at www.bholliman.com.  In the meantime, cousin Allen continues to produce excellent material on his Holleman branch that left Isle of Wight County in Virginia and migrated to North Carolina in the early 1800s.  Earlier Susan G. White in this space wrote of her maternal descendant from her Holleman ancestors in Isle of Wight, Virginia.  I invite others to utilize this blog to share their research with others.  - GNH


Allen Holleman continues....

Previously I have posted articles on Jesse Holleman, Sr. (1737-1824) and his sons John (my 4th GGF) and Jordan. I had so little on the younger Jesse, only the lineage and a few scant notes that it would have been just a few dull paragraphs.  To the rescue has come a cousin, through 2 or 3 lines (Holleman, Womble and possibly Sims) - Clayton P. Mann of Burlington, North Carolina.  He is a direct descendant of Jesse, Jr. and has researched him very well and provided far more data than I had been able to find to then.  He has to be named a co-author as well.

JESSE HOLLEMAN JR...
...was born about 1768 in Isle of Wight County, Virginia (IoW), the third son of Jesse Holleman Sr. (1735-1824) and Charity Cofer (1735-abt 1810), both from prominent and prosperous families in the Virginia Tidewater region.


Below, Allen Holleman in Isle of Wight County, Virginia
 
The senior Jesse was the GGS of Christopher Hollyman (1618-1691) who had immigrated from

Bedford, England in 1650 and later received a royal patent* of 1,020 acres.  Jesse Sr. had inherited about 200 acres of that from his father, John, and was a planter himself and became a well-regarded citizen, Baptist minister, surveyor and patriot in the American cause.  He and Charity raised nine (or more) sons and two daughters.

(*Royal in that it was granted by the governor who was appointed by the crown.)

Hereinafter, the younger is known as Jesse and any mention of the father will be as Jesse, Sr.

JESSE BEGINS HIS OWN FAMILY
Jesse Holleman, Jr. and Patience Pope (1769-1830) of Southampton Co, Virginia were married 26 February 1795 in that county by the Rev. Ben Barnes. The bondsman was Simmons Gwaltney, his brother-in-law.  Patience was born about 1769 to Nathan Pope and Patience Everett. They didn't wait long to start a family as first son, Zachariah was born within a year in 1796.

The earliest official record we have found of Jesse, is a tax listing in Isle of Wight, VA (IoW) of 2 September 1799.  This shows he had farm property there at the time.  We cannot be sure where that was, relative to the plantation of his father and grandfather and where he was born. Most probably by Mill Swamp in the Newport District of IoW and on the Blackwater River, the far west edge of the county.

The main cash crop was tobacco and that leeched the soils so badly a field was good for only a few years. It took several more years for nutrients to return naturally. Farmers did not have a strong understanding of soil replenishment at the time.  Another issue was that the production of tobacco in Virginia was greater than even the strong demand in England, driving the price and profitability downward.

 Most of the farmland in IoW, Surry and Southampton counties was either owned and in use or depleted as was theirs.  As with thousands of others, it seemed more effective to move on once a farm was no longer productive.

AND MOVE ON THEY DID
About 1804-05 Jesse and Patience, along with his older brother John and wife Nancy (nee Womble) moved to Wake County, North Carolina and settled in the southwestern district, known as Buckhorn. Both couples had children under 5 years old. Nancy's father Thomas Womble and brothers William and Thomas, Jr. also came south about the same time, although it seems several Wombles had migrated up to ten years earlier.   Her older sister Frances, called Frankey, with her husband Frederick Taylor was in Buckhorn at least by 1799.

Some Pope families also had moved to Wake but most seem to have settled in Johnston and the part of Cumberland County that is now Harnett.

From an 1872 map of Wake County.   This is almost 70 years after John and Jesse Holleman and other brothers, Jordan and Jonathan, settled in Buckhorn District, then into other areas as well.  In that later time some land of their children  can be seen:  EHolleman  (Edwin, son of John) underlining the C  and K in Buckhorn and just down the road, WHolleman (Wiley, son of Jordan, arr. 1815).  These are under Harris Lake of today. These are just two of the Holleman tracts.  I  cannot point out Jesse's farms.    Under the B is Shady Grove Church, near New Hill.  Over the Big White Oak Creek on Fayetteville Rd. is where Jesse built the bridge discussed.  That road is the New Hill-Holleman Road of today, and  where it is crossed by the lower Avent Ferry Rd. (shown as J W Collins) is now Holleman's Crossroads.    Chatham Co. is to the west, to the south is Harnett Co. (estb. 1856 from Cumberland Co.) and  Johnston Co. is on the east side.

The cash crops were tobacco and cotton along with vegetables and livestock for meats.

JESSE BECOMES A SOLID CITIZEN OF THE NEW COMMUNITY
In April 1806, Jesse was a buyer at the estate sale of Joseph Betts in Wake Co.

Jesse had learned more than farming from his father, Jesse, Sr., a surveyor also who during the Revolutionary War served as 'Surveyor of the Roads' for Isle of Wight Co. Also showing that he had become a prominent citizen, the younger Jesse was appointed to a similar position for Wake County on 16 February 1807, to "be overseer of the road in the (place) of Willis Hicks, deceased, and that the same hands work on said road as usual".  He certainly would not have been appointed had he not demonstrated skills and experience for the position.

And further on 15 August 1807, he was appointed with several other men "to view the public road leading through by the plantation of Robert Brown and to lay off a new road if necessary".
Wake is a large county and Jesse's home in the southwest corner was over 20 miles from Raleigh, another 25 miles to the northeast corner and over two hundred miles of roads even then.   It took quite a long time by horseback or wagon to cover that territory.

Four years in his position with the county was long enough, and the travel may have been taking too much time away from his farm, home and family.   It probably didn't pay very well, so in the court records of 20 May 1811 it was "ordered that Britain Mims be appointed overseer of the road in the (place) of Jesse Holleman".

It seems that surveying was  his primary profession.  Good surveyors were in demand and  highly regarded.  We will see too that he was also a builder.

His days in public service were far from over however and in May 1811 he was selected as part of a "committee to allot dower lands to Nancy Levins, widow of Jacob Levins, deceased, on White Oak Creek, 55 acres of a tract of 157 acres joining Moses Hicks".  His abilities as a surveyor were still needed.

(A widow's lifetime dower right is to 'life estate' of 1/3 of all real property of her late husband and unless specified by a will, the courts appoint trusted men of the community to decide which part of the lands go to her, the widow and which to the children.  The dower does not convey title and goes to the children per will or probate, at her passing, so no deed was required.)

JESSE IS A BUILDER AS WELL
On 17 February 1812 the Wake County, "commissioners let the contract for building a bridge across White Oak Creek on the road leading from Hillsborough to...Jesse Holleman".

And later: "the Commissioners appointed to let the bridge across White Oak [Creek] reported to this court that the same is completed" and ordered that 23 pounds* be paid for building this bridge by the County Trustee to Jesse Holleman".

*(Even into the 1820's the courts still used pounds, shillings and pence in reference to currency.)

Twenty-three pounds was a substantial sum of money, well over $100,000 in today's dollars for such a project* and it's fair to say he didn't build it alone.  White Oak Creek was rather substantial, navigable by small boats and was a tributary of the Cape Fear River.  And this was on a main road so the bridge had to be very strongly constructed and expected to last for many years.   As the contractor and supervisor he hired a number of competent workers for this major project.

*(The 'relative value' of building that same wooden bridge by hand today would translate to between $150,000-$200,000 or more now in materials and labor.)

On 22 February 1814, he was "drawn to attend" the next County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions* for the May 1814 session, as a juror.

*(similar to District Courts of today, meeting each quarter. Also the court handled adminstrative duties, taxes and estates issues.)

On 17 May 1814 he was appointed to serve on a grand jury along with 14 other men.

TAX RECORDS DON'T MAKE FOR VERY SEXY PROSE
For several years those are most of what we have on Jesse and his children. He is not on the Wake poll tax records in 1805 but his brother John is.   Jesse may have been either still in Virginia or newly arrived in North Carolina. We know from the notations above that he was in Wake by 1806 and likely before as one year is not quite enough to be recognized as a upstanding citizen to be appointed Surveyor of the Roads and serving on a jury.

The 1806-1808 Wake poll tax records have disappeared. The word poll is Old English for head (...count) and was charged to male property owners allowing only them to vote, hold office or serve on juries. It was used to keep free blacks and poor whites from participating in the political process. The word poll has found its way into modern English in several references, mainly in politics still.

He is listed in 1809-1814 as having 65 acres and one slave (most likely a field hand) in Buckhorn District of Wake County. Afterwards no slaves are listed. His boys were getting old enough to help work the farm.

From 1812-1816 records show he served on several juries, was buyer at several estates sales, witnessed a number of wills and estates and testified in court.

In 1815 he has acquired another 100 acres of land as the tax records show. We might presume it was acquired through one of the estate sales but I have  not found a deed or other record to tell us just how. Interestingly in 1817, he is again shown with just 65 acres.  A mistake?  No. On the line just below it shows Jesse paying the poll tax for Zachariah Holliman with 100 acres. As the poll tax is charged to males at age 21, he was most likely born in 1796 in Isle of Wight Co., VA.

The Wake tax listing for Jesse from 1818-1822 again show him with 165 acres.

In 1823 the tax record on the 100 acre farm shows the poll tax was paid by second son, Nathan.  This seems to be about age 24 rather than the more usual 21 as the later census records indicate he was born in 1799. He later moved to Georgia along with Zach and died after 1880.

FOUNDING A BAPTIST CHURCH
Jesse, Patience and John and Nancy along with her brother, William Womble's family, the Johnstons and a few others, were instrumental in founding Shady Grove Baptist Church in the New Hill area in 1823.  The 1872 map of Wake Co. above shows the church near the Hillsborough-Fayetteville Road, that became the New Hill-Holleman Road of today.

By the 1830 census in Wake, youngest son Ezra (1803-1865/'66) and wife Rebecca (nee Womble, 1804-1870) are in Buckhorn near his uncle John and her aunt, Nancy.  Daughter  Zilla (1804-after 1880) and husband William Barker (1785-1862) are also nearby in Buckhorn District.   And the two older sons have moved on.  For more on the children see the addendum on "The Progeny of Jesse Holleman".

JESSE MAKES HIS TRANSITION
Jesse passed away on 8 September of 1829.  It may have been rather sudden or unexpected as he seems to have not left a will.  Youngest son Ezra was appointed administrator by the probate court and he held sales of the personal property items.  Much of that was in farming and building tools but surprisingly it seems kitchen and household items also that we would think Patience would have needed...,  unless she was moving in with one of the children.  She even had to buy the bed and some furniture, her spinning wheel and even the Bible.  I' would love to see that Bible as it surely had a lot of family entries.  Patience died later, in 1830.  *NOTE BELOW on PROPERTY....

I guess nothing is safe when the courts get their fingers into it.  Any wonder these folks had little use for or faith in  government?  And for some reason the final probate wasn't filed into court records until November 1831 - more than two years after his passing.

Jesse Holleman was certainly his father's son. Both were farmers, surveyors and active in their communities without being directly in politics; both served as Surveyor of the Roads in their respective counties.  Both helped found Baptist churches and while the younger likely led services and even preached a few sermons in the formative period of Shady Grove Church, the elder served two terms as the minister of Mill Swamp Baptist Church in IoW County, VA.  Mill Swamp Baptist was the first non-Anglican church in Virginia.

Father and son were highly regarded by friends and neighbors and the community, evidenced by being asked to serve on juries, to witness many legal documents  and to help evaluate and settle many estates.  Both would have served also in the local militias though those records have been lost.   Jesse Holleman and his brothers are all men of whom we can be proud of as ancestors.

*NOTES ON INHERITANCE OF PROPERTY:  Until after the Revolution the colonies were under English law and custom of Primogeniture in which the eldest son inherited all of the real estate.  In that, no wills or deeds were required as the property passed to him at the father's death.  The very practical reason for this was to keep property, mainly farms, as intact as possible rather than having it sub-divided at each generation.  Land was not subject to probate.

Further, unless specified by a will, laws of the time required all personal property subject to probate to be sold and converted to cash for the heirs and any creditors.

In 1784, North Carolina enacted a statute that provided for all the sons to share equally in the land and buildings.  As the two older sons were in Georgia, this seems to have passed to Ezra, subject to the 'widow's dower', a life estate of 1/3 of the land (the 65 acres).  That would pass to the son(s) at her death. This explains why we have no deeds to Ezra for the transfer of the lands.

Jesse Jr. was the son of Jesse (Sr.), my 5th GGF. His brother John was my 4th GGF, so Jesse, Jr. was my 4th Great-Uncle.  Following this article will be one on:"The Progeny of Jesse Holleman" in which tells the story of his children: three sons and one daughter.

-J. Allen Holleman, Jr.: Raleigh, North Carolina and Clayton P. Mann:  Burlington, North Carolina

For information on placing an article, please write Glenn N. Holliman at glennhistory.gmail.com.  For manuscripts and materials on Hollymans and other associated families, visit the growing virtual archive at www.bholliman.com/ .

EARLIER HOLLEMAN/HOLLIMANS IN WAKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA

by J. Allen Holleman

Allen Holleman, organizer of the Hollyman Gathering April 2016 in Isle of Wight County, Virignia, continues his articles on some of the Hollemans who left Virginia and moved south to North Carolina. Allen's direct lineage stayed in North Carolina (but certainly not all), while mine kept moving south and west, eventually in my case to Fayette County, Alabama in 1836. - Glenn N. Holliman

The recent posts I have lately added seem to indicate that John and Jesse (Jr.) Holleman were the first of our ancestors in Wake County, North Carolina; arriving in 1804/05.  They were not.

Wake was created in 1772 in large part from the huge, old Johnston County to the east, as well as from Orange on the west side and a sliver from Cumberland to the south.  Chatham County was created from Orange at the same time.

Far right, Allen at the Smithfield, Virginia Hollyman seminars with cousin Steve Holleman, descendant of Jonathan and Barnett Holleman.

About 1800 Lewis Holleman, son of Jedediah, known as Jeddia, who was brother of Jesse Sr., my 5th GGF, bought property in Raleigh as well as some near-by farmland.  In 1805 he married a widow, Penelope Lane Atkins.  Penny's father was James Lane, brother of Joel Lane, called the "Father of Raleigh".

Penny had a dower right to 1/3 of a large plantation, and the couple were given leave to run the entire plantation by the Atkins family for the benefit of her two children by Thomas Atkins.  In 1812 they had a son, one of several named William Henry Holleman, who in the latter half of the 19th C. became a wealthy businessmen and one of the largest property owners in Raleigh.

In the first US census in 1790, there were two others named Holliman.  One was James Grantson Holliman, a direct ancestor of Glenn N. Holliman, the principal of this website.  Before 1800 he had moved west and amassed huge acreages in Anson and Mecklenberg Counties in NC and Lancaster Co., SC.   He evidently had a large farm in Johnston Co. that became part of Wake in 1772.

The other was Thomas Holliman, with his wife Amelia and two children.  They lived in Raleigh west of the State House.  After he died, before 1800, she remained until her 2nd marriage later.  We don't know where Thomas was from.  A descendant, Lynn Holliman Fusinato, an excellent genealogist herself, has not been able to discover his origin.


For information on placing an article, please write Glenn N. Holliman at glennhistory.gmail.com. For manuscripts and materials on Hollymans and other associated families, visit the growing virtual archive at www.bholliman.com/ .

Please click on 'Older Post' below to see all of Allen Holleman's recent articles and the August 1, 2016 posting by Susan G. White.  A descendant of the Isle of Wight, Virginia Hollemans, she records the various quests of her maternal lineage to acquire a higher education.  GNH

THE PROGENY OF JESSE HOLLEMAN (Jr.) (1768-1829): ADDENDUM

J. Allen Holleman, researcher and writer, continues the stories of his ancestors who migrated from Isle of Wight, Virginia to North Carolina some into Georgia. - Glenn N. Holliman


Descendants of Jesse Holleman, Jr. (1768-1829) by J. Allen Holleman

We tend to focus mainly on the males as they carry the family name forward. We have strong DNA from the female sides of our families as well.  In centuries past, most women did not have direct involvement in the affairs of state and even community, but it was wise men who listened to their wives. Women, as adults, also tended to meld more into the families of their husbands than those in which they grew up.

In the "Hollyman Tree" on Ancestry.com, we have two daughters of Jesse Holleman, Jr. of whom we have little information except names.  George Anders Holleman, compiler of the "Hollyman Family" book in the early 1950s mentions only Patience, but on the Hollyman Ancestry.com Tree  (compiled by Jeanette Holiman Stewart) we have a Mary Ann as well. We have nothing further on either.  We have left them on the tree in hopes that one day someone will be able to find more.  Perhaps they simply 'disappeared' into their husband's unidentified families.   Youngest son Ezra did have a daughter Mary Ann, and someone may have confused her as a sister.

Below, Sarah Barlow Wright, Allen Holleman, Billy Joe Holleman and Joe Barlow on the original site of the Christopher Hollyman plantation founded in 1684 in Isle of Wight County, Virginia.  Sarah, Billy Joe and Joe continue to live in southeast Virginia, not far from this ancestral home. 

We long thought that Nathan (b. abt. 1799) was the eldest of Jesse's sons but recently in examining tax records cousin Clayton Mann and I discovered another: Zachariah who was born in Virginia in about 1796.  On the 1817 poll tax record Jesse has 'assigned' a 100 acre tract to Zachariah and paid the tax to make him, at 21, eligible to vote and serve on juries.  Zach may have been farming that 100 acres.

NEW FAMILIES AND IN NEW LOCATIONS

Zachariah and Mary Howell wed 9 January 1821 as shown in the Wake County, North Carolina records in Book 1, page 224.  As the Wake census records from 1810 and 1820 are no longer in existence, we can not have those as reference.  However, we have tax and census records showing that Zachariah had migrated south by 1822 to  Bibb County, Georgia near Macon and farmed 252 acres. By 1830 they had five children: Westley b. 1822,  Elizabeth b. 1823-24,  Ellen b. 1825, George b. 1826, Mary b. 1829 - all born in Georgia.  We see in the 1840 census, (the 6th) Nathan, Jr., b.1834.

(Jr. and Sr. were not always used the same as we do today, that of father and son but often referred to a younger and older, not necessarily related, of the same name. For example, Nathan, Jr. was named for his uncle.)

Sadly, the children are left without their mother, as Mary died before 1840.  Zachariah could not run his farm and raise the children alone but he did have the help of eldest daughters, Elizabeth and Ellen. And in January 1840, he wed Martha Worsham (b. about 1803), sister of Zach's friend, David Worsham.

 Zach's brother Nathan lived in neighboring Crawford County, Georgia.  And in 1840 Zach was found in Crawford but with the same 252 acres. It is likely with the flux of county lines and new ones being formed that he did not move, but rather the county line did.  The tax record of that year shows not only the Crawford County farm but also 202 acres he owned in Dooly County, quite a few miles to the south. The tax agent was Captain Hortman.  The 1840 tax record shows 7 slaves, but the census lists only the 3 adult blacks.

On Christmas day 1842, Daughter Elizabeth Holleman married John G. Hortman (b. abt 1819) and they had son born the next year named William H. Hortman.  I suspect the middle name was Holleman.   Was John the taxman or a relative?   The year does not go well for Elizabeth, and we can suspect she died in childbirth as she is not named in Zachariah's will written in December of 1843.

 Zachariah must have known the end was near as his will was proved in court in the next month.   In it he named his five living children and the infant grandson William as having an equal share.  Joint executors were brother Nathan and his friend David Worsham.

Martha was left 100 acres, furniture and the seven slaves: one male about 21, two indentured women and 4 children of one of them.  All the rest of his estate was to be sold for the benefit of the children. However, we have found  neither an inventory nor a court record of the disposition. The Dooley County property was sold in December 1844.   It seems likely that the two younger daughters would have remained with their stepmother.

Martha married a 2nd time to Jacob Carraker in Crawford Co. in August, 1847.

CHILDREN OF ZACHARIAH and MARY
Ellen Mary Holleman was born about 1825 and died 11 October 1854. She married Jordan Womack Alsobrook in Talbot County, Georgia in 1852. She likely died of childbirth complications, as her new born daughter, Martha Elizabeth (1854-1915) was only 9 days old.

Mary Patience Holleman (1829-1860) married Alexander King Webster in Talbot County in 1849. They moved to Texas and had four daughters.

Westley G. Holleman, (1822-_?) the eldest was identified in the 1850 census of Madison County Mississippi, as overseer on a huge plantation of seemingly a couple of thousand acres and many slaves.

George Troup Holleman (1826-1909) remained in Upson County,  Georgia and  married Louisa Simmons (1834-1923). They would have four sons and three daughters.  He later served as executor of his Uncle Nathan's estate later.  He was a farmer and postmaster at Lamar's Mills.

Nathan Holleman, Jr. was named for his uncle, who on being appointed guardian for the 10 year old took the boy to live with him.

Map of Central Georgia 1860

(Click on map to expand it for easier reading)

NATHAN and NATHANIEL....

Nathan Holleman was born in 1799 in Isle of Wight County, Virginia and moved with his parents to the Buckhorn District in southwestern Wake County, North Carolina about 1805.  In Wake there are few mentions of him in records but he is shown paying his first poll tax in 1823 at age 24.   He still seemed to be living at home and working the family farm probably along with brother Ezra and their father, Jesse Holleman, Jr. who was a surveyor and builder as well.

We do not know for certain just when Nathan moved to Georgia, as the earliest record we have found is the 1840 census and tax listing for Crawford Co.   But he surely moved away before his father died in September 1829 or he would have been an administrator of Jesse's estate.  Researcher Sue Jones recently found a Nathan Holleman in the 1830 census in Greene County, North Carolina, which is about 60 miles east of Raleigh.  As we do not have any other Nathans that fit the time period, this could well be our distant cousin.  It also fits as he seemed to like moving to new places. And Georgia looked like a good next new place.  It was always about land!

The 1850 census, the first to name all the family members, shows  Nathan and 16 year old Nathan, Jr. in Houston Co.  That might have been a line shift as well as it is next to Crawford.  Nathan is shown with $1000 in farm value, between 250-300 acres and the tax record shows 3 slaves as well.
Young Nathan is listed as a farmer too, not as nephew;  he was pulling his weight along with his uncle. We had long known the young man as Nathaniel (previously shown on the Hollyman Tree as a son of Nathan).  He was young when his parents died and seems to have adapted to being his uncle's namesake but knowing he was from Zachariah took the similar name of Nathaniel, to distinguish himself from Nathan while honoring him.

In the  1860 census both Nathan and Nathaniel were even further south in Mitchell Co., Georgia and on the regular census are shown a couple of pages apart but still nearby.  Nathan, 61, had a large farm valued at $2000.  Also $6000 in personal property,  most likely that would include several slaves to work the farm and look after his house.

NATHANIEL ON HIS OWN...
In 1860 in the earlier regular census, Nathaniel, 26, is listed as having a farm valued at $1000 but no personal property value - possibly just farming tools and likely no slaves.   In the farm census, later in the year, he was 27 by then and had 222 acres and livestock.

Along with this is an interesting finding we researchers have had some lively discussion.   Was it a census taker's error that does not assign a dwelling nor family number to Nathaniel?   Had he not built a house to live in?

Or is it accurate that he is shown as living with a neighbor family: Joseph Crosby, wife Cynthia and their five children.  Crosby had $1500 in farm value himself and slaves.   They must have been very close.   The census taker wrote 'laborer' by Nathaniel but seems to have been corrected, scratched that out and wrote 'farmer'.

 Also, there are two other men shown as living there:  James Evans (40) and Jacob Scott (21) a mulatto, laborers.  It isn't clear but I would suspect they worked for Nathaniel.  And Cynthia seems to have been running a boarding house of sorts with house slaves to handle the work load.   The home cooking would be a compelling reason for a bachelor farmer and allowed him to devote his time and energy to his farming.

WAR...
The Civil War had begun in 1861 and for whatever compelling reason, Nathaniel  leaves his farm life and in May 1862 enlists in the 51st Georgia Volunteers, Company C, the Mitchell Vanguards.  They are sent  to South Carolina and in their first battle, near Charleston, on 16 June 1862, Nathaniel Holleman was killed in action.

HAS NATHAN MOVED AGAIN?
Nathan in 1870 is listed in Worth Co., just north of Mitchell Co. and could also be explained as a line change as both were earlier created from Dooley Co.  At 71, it looks like he may have sold his large farm and 'retired' as a farmer as no real estate is shown.  And Nathan, who never married surely had enough to live on.

Nathan died before November 1872, without leaving a will, when his nephew George T. Holleman and Wm. P. Simmons are appointed by the probate court as executors.  This was back in Mitchell Co., so surely he had property there.  We have three pages from the court on his estate, all stating the executors are required to inventory and file a report on the deceased's lands, tenements (houses and buildings), property and money.  We have not found anything of their filings in the court records nor of the sale and disposition of any property.

As the last living male relative in Georgia, George would have been the likely heir but he remained in Upson Co. as a farmer with 100 acres and as a postmaster.  It doesn't appear he got rich from his uncle's estate.   George died 13 January 1909.

WHY WOULD THEY HAVE LEFT WAKE COUNTY FOR GEORGIA?
Probably for similar reasons their father and other Hollemans had moved on.  To look for better opportunities.  Jesse didn't have a farm large enough to support them all nor enough to provide a sufficient inheritance.

AND THEY WERE NOT ALONE
Two of Zach and Nate's first cousins also moved to the same part of Georgia at about the same time. Children of Jesse's brother Jonathan: Barnett settled in Jones Co. next to Bibb and his sister Charity married Oliver Wellborn, scion of a wealthy family in Houston Co.  They all knew each other and surely saw each other some after migrating.  Barnett's 2nd wife was Caroline Wellborn, Oliver's sister.

In a letter from Nancy, mother of Barnett and Charity, we have (Dec 2015) discovered that Barnett went to GA with his cousin Zach, and it seems likely Charity may have been with them.

ANOTHER SON REMAINED IN WAKE COUNTY.
Youngest son, Ezra (b.1804), married Rebecca Womble (b.1803), a cousin by marriage, on 27 January 1823, was on his own and paid his own poll taxes, even if working the farm with Jesse. You will recall that Jesse had two tracts in Buckhorn District, one of 65 acres and another of 100 acres that Zachariah and Nathan both had used as qualifying for adult citizenship and paid the poll tax on for one year each.  And likely were also farming it as well until migrating south.

Ezra pays the poll tax on the 100 acres in 1824 but also through 1829.  And we can suspect that Jesse offers it to him, probably as his inheritance, if he works it and pays the tax.  In January 1830 Ezra buys 150 acres from Shadrach Cole, for $135.00, on the banks of Big Beaver Creek.  This was just north of Buckhorn and he is on the census that year in White Oak District.  I haven't found anything further on that land but he may well have sold it as he's again shown paying the land/poll tax on the 100 acres in Buckhorn in 1831-1837.

Ezra, at 25 was administrator of Jesse's estate probate (1829-30) as his older brothers were in Georgia by then.  Except, as we saw above that it appears Nathan moved east from Wake to Greene County for a time before moving on to Georgia.  As the only son remaining in Wake, Ezra would have been appointed to the post by the probate court.

Jesse (d. 8 Sep 1829), even without a written will, likely expressed his desire for his property to be passed on to Ezra, and Patience would have received her widow's dower, most likely the 65 acre land and house as a life estate.  A married woman could not own property but a widow could.   A verbal arrangement, supported by witnesses was acceptable in court.   Patience died about 1830.

Ezra appears to have sold the 100 acres on terms to Daniel Olive who seems not to be able to pay the money.  I have not found the deed or court record on that sale but it looks like it might have been about 1836. In January 1837 an indenture (promissory note) was written to sell the 100 acres, "...where he (Ezra) formerly lived," to a Henry Jones, signed by both Ezra and Olive, to cover a debt (the sale price?) of $175 owed to Ezra, with Jones paying Ezra in four yearly installments, plus interest, for the property.

EZRA BECOMES A CITIZEN OF CHATHAM COUNTY...
...just west of Wake. In 1838 he bought 133 acres from Benjamin Tedder for $135, plus a small plot of under an acre, not far away but in the southeast corner of Chatham County.   He became active in the community, serving on juries, on committees to settle estates, as a witness in court and being hired to "work on the roads".  And on the other side of the courtroom, he was found not guilty of some unstated minor charge.

The 1840 and 1850 census showed them in Chatham but in the 1860 he and Rebecca are listed in Harnett County, created from Cumberland in 1856.  Some minor line changes may have put them there.   Ezra died after 1865 and Rebecca in 1870.

Ezra and Rebecca had four daughters: Malinda, Mary Ann, Elizabeth and Adeline  and one son Nathan Pope Holleman, whose line is an interesting story that I'll relate in another posting.

ZILLA, YOUNGEST CHILD AND ONLY DAUGHTER.
Zilla was born about 1804-'05 in Buckhorn, Wake County, the only one of Jesse's children born in North Carolina.  There is little mention of her until her marriage to William Barker on 6 January 1820.  He was a veteran of the War of 1812.   She was granted a widow's pension by the government in 1878.  It took that long before Congress awarded veterans and survivors benefits.

William had a 400 acre farm in Buckhorn amongst his Barkers and her Hollemans and would have provided well for her and their eleven children.  He passed away in January1862, and it was a very hard time for her as she also lost two of her sons in the Civil War. Her oldest son, Zachariah died in 1861.

Quinton (b.1838)  and Lemuel (b.1840) enlisted together in the 1st NC Regiment.  In July 1862 Lemuel was wounded in combat and died in September in a military hospital in Richmond.  Quinton was taken prisoner at the Battle of the Wilderness (VA) in May 1864 and sent to a POW camp in Elmira, NY, where he contracted an illness from which he never recovered, dying in February 1865.

Zilla remained on the farm, perhaps with the help of two remaining sons - William and John.  She was shown in the 1880 census at age 76, with two unmarried daughters: Ann 48 and Rebecca 37.   Zilla made her transition later in that decade.  

Though few of Jesse Jr's progeny remained in Wake County, North Carolina beyond the mid 19th Century, they did move on to Georgia, Mississippi, Texas and Arkansas and still further west to found Holleman and allied families that remain there to this day.

SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I have to credit four cousins in this addendum on Jesse's progeny:  Denise Goff of Pulaski, Virginia (a native North Carolinian), she has a knack for sleuthing out documents and records that have me in absolute awe.   Sue Jones of Laramie, Wyoming - her family line origins are in Georgia but she was in Florida most of her life. Sue's specialty is Georgia genealogy and her knowledge and abilities are fantastic. Also cousin Clayton Mann provided excellent records on his Great-Great-Grandfather, Ezra, providing so much to bring his story and life to light.  Cousin Steve Holleman of Chapin, South Carolina provided letters from Barnett and his mother, Charity which helped clarify their lives. Without all those records I could not have presented as accurate a picture.

I wrote the words and any errors within are mine as cousins presented me with facts and records so that I tried and trust to have presented these ancestors as vivid, living people, just in an earlier time. Bless you all! --Allen Holleman, Raleigh, North Carolina

For information on placing an article, please write Glenn N. Holliman at glennhistory.gmail.com.  For manuscripts and materials on Hollymans and other associated families, visit the growing virtual archive at www.bholliman.com/ .

Please click on 'older posts' below to see Susan G. White's insightful post on her maternal ancestors and their quest for higher education.

Some Descendants of William Henry Holleman of Isle of Wight, Virginia

by Glenn N. Holliman

One of the delights of genealogy is meeting distant cousins whose research adds to the tapestry of one's family story.  Last April 2016 at our Isle of Wight, Virginia Hollyman Gathering, I met Susan Gallier White, a serious student of her Holleman and Faison ancestors.  She offers this insightful tribute on her ancestral grandmothers who all pursued higher education in a time in which women were not encouraged to do so.  - GNH

The Maternal Lineage of 

 Susan Gallier White, 3^rd great granddaughter of Sally Holleman Faison
                                                            by Susan Gallier White

          In my ongoing study of my line of the Holleman family, I have become intrigued by whom I refer to as “my five orphans,” children of William Henry Holleman (1795-1834) and Jackey Peters Holleman (1798-?).  William was a son of Josiah Holleman and Nancy Clark, and Jackey, daughter of William Peters and Margaret Loftin, grew up in Sussex County, Virginia.

                                                                         Susan G. White

  Below, a tintype, unknown date, of  Sally Holleman Faison  (1823-1909). Sally looks like a  petite lady, and isn’t smiling for us.  Not many people did  when the photography process was somewhat tedious.  Family called her “Mammy Sal.”  She married Josiah W.  Faison, who was from Sussex County, Virginia.  She went  to school in Smithfield, Virginia, at Oak Grove Academy.  She is my third great grandmother.

The Holleman children were James Henry (1819-1858), Margaret Amanda (1822-1891), Sally (1823-1909), Mary Agnes (1829-1875) and John Randolph (1830-1913).  William and his family lived near Proctor’s Road and Mill Swamp church, owning two pieces of land, one 50 acres and the other 116 acres.

  Billy Joe Holleman and I met at the Holleman family gathering this past spring, and we have tried to locate the exact site, but we have not to date.It was near William’s brother Wilson Holleman’s home at Mill Swamp, the lovely place we still know today.  William died in February, 1834, and since Jackey was not mentioned in her husband’s obituary, but her children were, one can supposed she had died by then.  Her last child, William, was born in 1831 and lived only briefly; Jackey most likely died between 1831 and 1834. 

This past spring as I was gathering information about William Henry Holleman, provided by Denise Keeter (an intrepid Holleman researcher and contributor to the Hollyman FamilyTree on ancestry.com) suggested I write about his three daughters' educations.  She and I had marveled that the girls were well educated for the time.  William was wealthy (confirmed by his itemized estate) and the two guardians of the surviving five children made payment for clothes, education, room and board that suggest the value they put on on a girl's education.  Rent from William's land and the hiring out of his seventeen slaves provided income.



Left, tintype of Elizabeth Faison (1842-1898), daughter of Sally Holleman Faison.  She looks to be in her early twenties, so this picture was made in about 1860.  I know nothing of her education.  She was born in Sussex County, VA.  She and her sister married brothers, Jacob and James Heath, who were from Duplin County, NC.  All 4 moved to Duplin County, and lived there all their lives.  My mother once told me that this picture was made at her wedding.  I don’t know how she knew that.

Sally, Mary Agnes, and Margaret Amanda Holleman went to school in Smithfield, Isle of Wight, Virginia at the Oak Grove Academy.  Their teacher while there was Julia Elizabeth Benham Hayden, who grew up in Norwich, Connecticut.  Mrs. Hayden had moved to Smithfield in 1826 and taught girls in the home of Archibald Atkinson, probably until 1836, when Oak Grove Academy opened. Helen Haverty King, in her book Historical Notes on Isle of Wight, Virginia, tells us that Mrs. Hayden married Sampson White, and continued her school until 1854, when she was suffered from 'advanced age and physical infirmities.' 1 

Joel Holleman (1799-1844), a brother of William, and uncle to these children was their first guardian.  Joel was a Virginia congressman and later a U.S. Senator.  Joel’s guardian accounts revealed frequent entries of payments to “Mrs.White.” for tuition.  He also bought books, paper, new clothes, both store bought and home sewn by Rebecca Gwaltney, the girls’ aunt.  They were regularly outfitted with shoes, bonnets, and mention is even made of a “corded skirt” for two of the girls, which was a petticoat of the times.  Margaret Amanda and Sally were boarded out with various friends and family while they went to school.

(One can learn more about Joel Holleman and his families in the spring 2014  issues of this blog. - GNH)

Left, another picture  of Elizabeth Faison Heath, perhaps in her forties.  Note picture taken at studio in Richmond, VA.  My family called her “Mama Bet.” She had  3 children, two daughters, Bettie Florence and Sally.  She had one son, Perry.  She was my second great grandmother.  I have a letter written to her by a friend, expressing how glad she was that her daughters were “studying music.”  Mama Bet died before her mother Sally did. 

Bettie Florence Heath (1871 -1959) daughter of Elizabeth Faison Heath, my great grandmother. She married Jordan Horne, and they had 4 living children, 3 sons and one daughter. The family lived in the town of Magnolia, Duplin County, NC.  One son, Ralph, went to jewelers school in Philadelphia, PA.  Another, Herbert, graduated from Blackstone Military Academy in Blackstone, VA.  Her daughter, Bettie Florence, graduated from Stuart Hall Girls School in Virginia, and then from East Carolina Teachers College.


        Joel Holleman died in 1844, and Joseph Pretlow, from neighboring Southampton County, and possibly a family friend, became guardian to the two youngest children, Mary Agnes and John Randolph Holleman.  Joseph is mention several times in Thomas C. Parramore's book, Southampton County, Virginia.  He was a Quaker by faith, taught school, and learned of a Quaker school for young ladies in Philadelphia, run by Harriet Mickle Whitall and her sister Sally.

       Whitall’s family published John M. Whitall, the Story of his Life, in 1879 that contains many entries by Harriet.  The school did very well, she said.  Joseph sent Mary Agnes to Philadelphia for a term there, in 1845, when she was 15.  We even know where the school was located, on the NW corner of Race and Franklin Streets, Philadelphia. Ms. Whitall closed the school that year, so Mary Agnes only went the one term, but she went well turned out.  Pretlow makes note of dresses, a parasol, and gloves.  He made entry of a $34 charge for her return travel expenses home from Philadelphia.

Below, Bettie Florence Horne (1903-1980), daughter of Bettie Florence and Jordan Horne.    She was their only daughter and earned a college degree from East Carolina Teachers College.  She never married.

The two guardians eventually turned over the girls' final estate balances to the husbands of the young ladies.  By 1845, each girl had married and settled nearby.  Mary Agnes even married her husband, John Archer Cotton, in Pretlow's home in 1847. 3

In 1836, William Peters, grandfather of above girls, directed in his will that his “man Jacob” was to be hired out to provide money for the education of his children, one daughter, Jackey, and two sons, James and Matthew.  He also directed that two thirds of his estate proceeds be used to educate his grandchildren.  By 1857, all children and grandchildren had been educated, so  Jacob was sold in a transaction conducted by Peters' executor, his son James E. Peters.4   Margaret Amanda, James, William and Sally with her husband Josiah Faison, each received 1/13 of the proceeds.  Mary Agnes was not mentioned.

Left, Alma Luesta Melvin Horne (1900-1989) married Ralph Coffield Horne, a son of Bettie Florence Heath Horne.  Alma was from Sampson County, NC.  She was my grandmother, and she was a school teacher when she and Ralph met.  She taught school all of her adult life, in NC.  I can remember her working on college home correspondence courses when I was about 10. 

Here is Florence Elizabeth Horne (1925-1993), my mother.  She married Neil Edward Gallier, and they had 3 children, my two brothers Neil Edward, Jr., Frank Wilson II, and me.  She attended East Carolina Teachers College, now known as East Carolina University, for two years.

As we know the land in this region had worn out in the years leading up to the Civil War, and the aftermath of the war tore apart the already exhausted economy.  But as I look back to this series of events, I see that I stand on the shoulders of educated women.  Jackey and her daughters Margaret Amanda, Sally, and Mary Agnes were given schooling that even in their time was a luxury.

My family line is through Sally, and I have a letter a friend wrote to Sally's daughter Elizabeth (Mama Bet in our family lore). In the letter she mentions how glad she is that Elizabeth's girls are “studying music.”⁵   Mama Bet's daughter, my great grandmother Betty Florence Heath, sent all 4 of her children to school, and her only daughter graduated from college. (The boys did not!) 

My grandmother, from Sampson County, NC, was a school teacher and I can remember her studying college home correspondence courses.  My mom, a child of the depression, went to college for 2 years, and always drilled into my head that I would go to college (which I did!).  

I just wanted to share with you the gift my foremothers gave me.  I know that despite the history of backwaters and worn out land of Isle of Wight, Southampton and Sussex counties in my life, I own the value of an educated woman!  - Susan Gallier White, 3rd great granddaugher of Sally Holleman Faison

Footnotes

¹King, Helen Haverty and others. Historical Notes on Isle of Wight, Virginia.  Virginia Beach, VA:  Donning and Company, 1993, p. 115.

²Parramore, Thomas C. Southampton County Virginia.  Charlottesville, VA:  University Press of Virginia, 1978, pp. 60, 147.

3

“Married.”  Mary Agnes Holleman marriage announcement.  The Republican, Petersburg, VA.  January 27, 1847, p. 3, col. 1.

The Oak Grove Academy in Smithfield, Virginia

⁴Loose Court Papers of Sussex County, Virginia, 1754-1870, #1858-22.  Peters, et als V. Peter’s Executor.  These papers were discovered for me by Gary M. Williams, Clerk of the Court. Josiah and Sally Faison’s share of a ¼ of a 1/13 portion was $7.38.  Calculating using that amount, sale of Jacob totaled $383.76.  A note in these papers names William H. Basdorn as charging $1.00 “for crying (calling the auction) Jacob at Public Sale.”  The arrangement for Jacob to be hired and his wages provide funds for education was outlined in William Peters’ will of 1836.

⁵Personal correspondence to Elizabeth Faison Heath, dated 1 July 1884, from Mary Crawford, Reams, Virginia

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