The Explorations of a Holloman Genealogist, Part 3

by Glenn N. Holliman

This is part three, the last article written by Bob Fusinato describing the genealogical trip he and his wife Lynn Holloman Fusinato took in March 2017.  Sadly Lynn passed away earlier this year, but Bob as a memorial is sharing her family history knowledge with us.  We are grateful to Bob for this remembrance of a devoted, careful researcher of our family and country. - GNH

Research Trip to Missouri Comes to a Close
by Bob Fusinato

Monday, March 27, 2017

We had breakfast at the Arcadia Academy B and B. The proprietors were interested in Lynn's information about her family's connection with original Academy founder, Jerome C. Berryman and about Hinchey paintings, stories, and photographs.

Much of the morning we spent walking around the academy and then re-visiting the location where the A .W. Holloman house had stood before it burned down many years ago.

Later that afternoon we drove down to Rolla, Missouri  area where we were planned  to visit the Missouri Historical society on Tuesday.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

We visited the Historical society office in the basement of the Missouri School of Mines library.   Beth Lane had the boxes of Hinchey papers Lynn requested ready and waiting.  Lynn read through documents and Bob used a scanner app on his iPad to record them.  Bob also worked on the first segment of the travel log.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

We drove up to Columbia, MO where the University of Missouri is located.  On the way we stopped at the Missouri State Archives in Jefferson City, the state capital.

Having arrived around noon, we decided to go up to the break room on the second floor to share a package of peanut butter crackers and a bottle of Diet Coke that we brought with us.  The room had big windows with a view of the state capital.

We then stowed our stuff in a locker and went into the reading room.  Lynn was able to access some information concerning Spanish land grants which she downloaded to her WiFi thumb drive.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Up early to go to the Historical Society Research Center located in the Ellis Library of the   University of Missouri campus in Columbia, Missouri.  They had newspapers from the period on microfilm which Lynn was able to copy to her thumb drive.

In addition to the historical collections of manuscripts and other papers, the society has collections of other art which it displays from time to time.  The hallways were lined with original art for newspaper editorial cartoons.   On the way out, we passed by an interesting bronze statue of the cartoon character, Beetle Bailey. Bob just had to get a few snapshots.

Friday, March 31, 2017

Lynn decided to go back to the state archives in Jefferson City, since they would be closed on Saturday.  We had a reservation at a motel in Jefferson City. So, we packed up our belongings and took them with us.  At the state archives,  Lynn downloaded some additional files of land records from 1848 to her thumb drive.  

I have to say that Lynn does not go on these genealogy trips willy nilly.  She comes with a set of questions and a plan for where she might find the answers.  She originally planned to continue her research through next Monday and drive back on Tuesday.  Sunday would be wasted from the genealogy standpoint since everything was going to be closed.  I think she felt that she would get what she needed after one more trip to the Ellis library in Columbia. So we decided to drive back home on Sunday.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

We drove up to Columbia where Lynn collected some more data and Bob busied himself with taking a few pictures of the cartoons.  

Sunday, April 2, 2017

We got up early, ate some complimentary breakfast at the hotel, and then hit the road for the roughly 8-hour trip back to the DFW area. 

On arrival we found the computer where we stored our data, including Lynn’s family history data, would no longer boot up.  It took some time to get everything restored. But that’s another story.  Lucky she had everything from this trip on her thumb drive.

Such is the life of a dedicated family historian and her loving husband. - Bob Fusinato

The Explorations of a Holloman Genealogist, Part 2

We continue the 2017 genealogical exploration by the late Lynn Fusinato as recorded by her devoted husband, Bob, who kindly wrote this description of their journey.  This is part two of a three part series. -GNH

Lynn Fusinato's Genealogy Trip to Missouri: 
The Holloman Move to Arcadia Valley
by Bob Fusinato

Religion played a large part in establishing sense of community in Missouri. Allan Holloman, 1805-1895, and his kin were largely Methodist Episcopalian. Unfortunately, it also was a source of disagreements and arguments. In the 1840's the Methodist Episcopalians split between North and South.

It was about this time that family friend and preacher Reverend Jerome C. Berryman convinced Allan Holloman to move his family to the Arcadia valley were Allan's children could attend the school Berryman was founding. Allan bought land, established a residence and as a literate man participated in the business of the community. When the area was split off of Madison county to form Iron county Alan served as a surveyor that established the boundaries of the county. A new city of Ironton was formed to serve as the county seat.

For information on A. W. Holloman, born Raleigh, NC, died Ironton, MO, visit http://stegenevieve.net/2009/01/allen-wolford-holloman/ .

Meanwhile the school flourished as a boarding school. An Irish immigrant and artist, named James W. Hinchey began teaching at the school eventually meeting and marrying Alan's daughter Lucinda Holloman. Hinchey was a prodigious keeper of diaries which he wrote in shorthand. He eventually taught his sons to do the same. Much of what Lynn has found out about her Holloman family comes from Hinchey diaries, drawings, and later photographs as his son's became pioneering photographers.           

Drawing by James W. Hinchey from Hinchey-Cochran papers, R1280] The State Historical Society of Missouri, Manuscript Collection.

Sainte Genevieve Missouri's Oldest Town

Settled by French Canadians from across the Mississippi in Illinois in the late 1740's, Sainte Genevieve claims to be Missouri's oldest town. We decided to spend a little time there on Saturday (3/25) (when government offices would be closed) to play tourist and visit Sainte Genevieve. First stop was the welcome center where we saw a short film clip and picked up some brochures of the oldest this and that. Bob was reminded of his visits as a Florida resident to Saint Augustine.

We walked around the old historic district and took the tour of the Felix Valle House, which was both his store and his family home. It was furnished in antiques from the period and was quite interesting. Lynn's ggggrandmother and her children bought land from the estate of Felix's brother back in 1847 and some of Lynn's other relatives apparently shopped at one of Felix's stores in Ste. Genevieve County in the 1830s and1850s.

The Felix Valle house was built in 1818 as an American Federal style residence. It gives visitors a glimpse into Missouri's French colonial past.

Felix's father was governor and referred to as "commandante". The Valle leadership was adept at transitioning from French rule to Spanish rule reflecting changes in European politics rather than anything on the ground here. It even continued past the Louisiana Purchase as English became the official language and Americans began pouring in.

It is likely that many of the newcomers would provision themselves here in Felix Valle's store for travel to the west. Lynn's Holloman's ancestors were apparently among them.

The collage on the left shows Bob standing in front of the welcome center. In the middle picture, Lynn is standing in front of Felix's father's house. The bottom is from a brochure showing the Felix Valle house and store.

Berryman's academy had a rough time continuing through the Civil War. Eventually after the war, the facilities were taken over by an Ursuline order. The original buildings and various successors were destroyed by fire. What is there now was mostly built in the early 1900's. Recently the school cafeteria and dining room have opened as a restaurant and creamery.

There is also a bed and breakfast operation in a section of the building. We spent Sunday night (3/26) there as a way for Lynn to get close to the ancestors who lived in the area.

The interior of the bed and breakfast area was quite nice. They give one a hint of what life might have been like in this area in the early 20th century. (With the exception of interior toilet and steam heat replaced by wall AC).

The Bollinger connection leads to one of the few lines of living relatives that Lynn has been able to trace. Lynn's second cousin once removed, Joyce Bollinger Hale, still lives on the Joseph Bollinger property in Iron county which contains the Bollinger family cemetery where Joseph Bollinger and other members of the family are buried including Lynn's great grandparents, Thomas Edward Holloman and Precia Matilda Bollinger.

We drove down to visit Joyce and her family on Sunday afternoon. Lynn went out to see the improvements made to fencing around the cemetery and take a few pictures to document current condition and in hope of finding new identifying markers. People have suspected that there are more grave sites than are marked, sadly with nowhere to turn to help identify them.

That's it for visiting the areas where Lynn's ancestors lived. Monday we will drive to the Missouri School of Mines at Rolla which houses a branch of the Missouri Historical Society and was our access to the Hinchey collection of papers, drawings, and photographs.- Bob Fusinato

The Explorations of a Holloman Genealogist, Part 1

by Glenn N. Holliman

Lynn Holloman Fusinato of Richardson, Texas passed away in January 2018. Trained as a scientist, she was meticulous and accurate in researching and recording her family history.  In her life's journey and her avocation of genealogy, she was accompanied by her husband, Bob, who now shares with us some of her research.  What follows is a trip Lynn and Bob took in the early spring of 2017, searching for family roots in Missouri.

In the following blog, one will find information on Hollomans, Holmes, Blackwell, Bollinger and Whites.  Our thanks to Bob for recording and sharing this story with our readers.  Later I shall be adding these articles to the family archives at www.bholliman.com.  More of Lynn's work and life can be found in our February 3, 2018 article. - GNH

Lynn Holloman Fusinato's 2017 Genealogical Trip to Missouri
by Bob Fusinato

Wednesday 03-22 to Sunday 03-26, 2017 (Farmington, Missouri and Environs)

We spent Wednesday driving the 600+ miles from our home in the Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas area to Farmington, Missouri. There we were to stay at the Crown Pointe lodge for 4 nights.

Courthouses, Cemeteries and Libraries
These are places genealogists visit to establish facts about family histories. On this trip we did our share of visiting each of them.

Our first stop on Thursday was the Sainte Genevieve courthouse recorder's office where deeds and other records are kept. Lynn's Holloman ancestors and related families settled in an area of Sainte Genevieve county known as the New Tennessee settlement.

We spent almost the whole day at the Court House in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri looking up land records in order to clear up some fuzzy areas in Lynn's earlier research. On return, we stopped at the Sainte Genevieve library where Lynn attempted to clear up a few loose ends. Then, with a few hours of daylight left, we took the scenic route back through Coffman, Missouri where Lynn's ancestors had settled back in the early 1800s.

Lynn traces her Missouri lineage back to her great, great grandfather, Allan W. Holloman whose parents moved from North Carolina to the Cape Girardeau area back in 1810 or 1811 when Allan was about 5 or 6 years old. They did not remain in the Cape Gerardeau area very long however. After the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812, they moved up to Sainte Genevieve county to an area known as the New Tennessee Settlement where they established homesteads along a branch of the Saline River. 

Google Maps 2017 Coffman, MO and environs

This area has been bought up by the Crown Properties Company which has established vineyards and a winery on the site. As a result the land remains largely pristine but inaccessible. We have in the past taken the winery "tour" where we sampled some wines and sat on the hilltop patio overlooking Lynn's ancestral lands. On this trip, the winery was still closed for the winter.

The large part of the story of the westward expansion of the US is written in the land patents, deeds, and other documents to be found at the various county recorders offices in the region. The folks who settled in the New Tennessee settlement must have had a lot in common.  A neighboring patch of land belonged to William Holmes and his wife Mary Blackwell. The Holloman family became forever intertwined with the Holmes' when Alan married their daughter Lucinda Holmes.

Prior to settling in the New Tennessee settlement area, William Holmes farmed a plot of land he had obtained as a Spanish land grant. It was located to the southwest of the New Tennessee settlement along the Little Saint Francis River where the river is crossed by present day highway which runs between Farmington and Fredericktown. We passed over that stream on Friday (3/24) and Lynn just had to stop to take a few pictures.

The Bollinger Connection

Allan W Holloman's son, Thomas Edward Holloman (Lynn's great grandfather) married a girl from a bit further south in Madison county. There is quite a story involving a horse about how Precia Matilda Bollinger became Lynn's great grandmother, but I'm not going into it here. Suffice it to say that she is Lynn's connection to Joseph Bollinger and the Whites who lived along the Castor river. (Elizabeth White Bollinger was Precia Matilda's mother.)

Next, we headed to Caster Hill/Caster Station on Highway 72 to visit the cemetery on the original homestead of John White, Lynn's ggg-grandfather, where John and his wife Preshy are buried.

We then continued on to Patton, Missouri to visit a Methodist cemetery on the original homestead of Missouri pioneer John Bollinger where he and his wife are buried. John was Joseph Bollinger's grandfather which makes the couple buried here Lynn's gggg-grandparents.

John Bollinger was a Lutheran, not a Methodist, but the Lutheran ministers disappeared from the area around 1830-1840 and the local Lutherans joined other Christian faiths in the area which probably explains the Methodist church on the property. We took a few pictures, but the stones are getting harder to identify.

The best picture and write up is in a book called The Bollinger Connection first published in the early 1980's.

We headed back west on Highway 72 to research land records at the court houses in Fredericktown and Ironton. We were able to find a good copy of The Bollinger Connection in the Fredericktown library and Bob made a scan of it.

On our way back to Farmington, we stopped to check on the graves of Lynn's Holloman gg-grandparents in the Masonic cemetery in Arcadia .

Oh, and since Friday was Bob's birthday, we went back to the Colton's Steakhouse in Farmington for supper and to celebrate by overdosing on their sin-sational chocolate fudge brownie sundae.

Next Posting, more on Lynn and Bob's genealogical tour of Missouri.....