Some Descendants of Charles Holliman (1795-1842 ) of Fayette County, Alabama, Part 2

In our previous post, Juanita Hendrix Holliman and her Amy Holliman Armstrong provided information and photographs on their Alabama lineage.  This article reflects further on the heritage of her husband, James, and shares more photographs of a family and the times in which they lived. - Glenn N. Holliman, born Birmingham, Alabama


Additional Pictures and Reflections of a West Alabama Holliman and Allied Families
by Juanita Hendrix Holliman


Right, Amy, Juanita and James Holliman in 1985, Marion County, Alabama

A lot of folks left the rural areas of Alabama after World War II, my immediate ancestors included.  By the 1940s many moved to north and the midwest seeking higher paying factory jobs.  Some of these men were veterans who had had traveled to various places on their tours and were unwilling to return to the hard life on small cotton farms which by that time were phasing out anyway.

Of course, many stayed home.  My own father returned from overseas and farmed part time working in a saw mill, and later logging.  Eventually he gave up farming to no one's sorrow!  You have probably read the book 'Now Let Us Praise Famous Men', which describes living conditions of several families in rural Alabama in the 1930s.  There was a sequel of sorts written later describing the descendants of these same families - 'And Their Children After Them'. Both are very interesting in their depictions of their lives and the cotton culture of the South.

James had an older brother, William Garlon Holliman (1927-2013), who did remain in Marion County. He worked in a cotton mill in Winfield for many years, and later drove the book mobile for 20 or more years for the Northwest Regional Library for Marion and two or three other counties. he retired 15 or so years before his death in 2013.  His first wife of many years, Frances Roberts was the daughter of Eula Wheeler and Dewey Roberts. They had one child, Doris Holliman Dannelley who lives in Theodore, Alabama.  For many years, Frances was a dietitian at the local hospital.

  Below, a school photograph of Garlon Holliman in the 1930s and with his first wife Frances Roberts ca 1947.

 Garlon Holliman in 2011

After Frances' death in the mid 1980s, Garlon married Adelle Voce Cantrell, a widow from the Hackleburg area of Marion County.  They were married for about 18 years until her death.  Garlon died December 19, 2013 at Winfield.  Adelle taught school for many years, marrying Garlon after she retired. 

 Below, left to right- William Garlon Holliman, Loudell Holliman Morris, Lela Warren Holliman (Arthur's 2nd wife), William Arthur Holliman, Mildred Holliman Johnson (back), Louise Hollman Baccus,  and James Arthur Holliman on the occasion of William Arthur and Lela's 50th wedding anniversary with their children present at Winfield, Alabama.  The anniversary was in 1980.

Above John and Evelyn (Evie) Abernathy Holliman ca 1930.  The twins on the table are Lois and Lloyd.  John is a brother of William Arthur Holliman and son of Frances Marion Holliman. The picture was probably made in Fayette County, Alabama, their home. John farmed for a living. The other children pictured are Dewey, Oveat, Ector and James, who died as a baby. 

A brother of John was Sydney Holliman, another son of Francis Marion Holliman. Francis married Maud Morris in 1913 and lived in Winfield, Alabama.  Both worked in the Winfield Cotton Mill for many years. They had three sons: Roy, Troy and Edward (called Ed), all now deceased.

Below, Oscar and Ella Holliman Smith, husband and wife.  Ella is a sibling of John and William Arthur Holliman and daughter of Frances Marion Holliman. The couple lived at Winfield and farmed for a living. Their children were Mary Ellen, Ira, Lester, Jennie Lee, Pauline and Flora, all deceased now except Pauline.

Above, Loudell Holliman Morris as a young woman, 1940's.  She is a daughter of William Arthur and Zolena McKay Holliman.  Born in Alabama, she raised three children in Greentown, Indiana. She married James Elbert Morris of Fayette County, Alabama who for many years worked at Continental Steel in Kokomo. Loudell worked at another plant in the area, but mostly stayed home to raise the family. They had three children: James (Jimmy), Linda and Wayne. Loudell, Elbert and Jimmy are now deceased.

Left, Louise Holliman Baccus and her husband, Brady. They lived in Winfield, Alabama where Brady was a county commissioner for about 20 years.  Before that he was an employee of Marion County, and Louise work at one of the sewing plants for several years.  Brady's family was from Fayette County.  They had no children and both are now deceased.  Like her brother, Garlon, Louise was also a daughter of William Arthur and Zolena McKay Holliman.

Below, Mildred Holliman Johnson and husband Harold Johnson, the picture made at Saraland Alabama, 1980's ca. She is another daughter of William Arthur and Lela Holliman. 

Mildred and Harold lived in Marion County for a few years after their marriage, moved briefly to Columbus, Mississippi and then settled in south Alabama near Mobile. Harold died in January 2016. Mildred survives, still living in Saraland, as does one of their daughters, Brenda Johnson Snodgrass. Their other daughter, Barbara Sizemore, lives in Monroe County, Alabama.

Harold held many jobs - a barber early in his life, then a building contractor and finally he opened a saw sharpening shop.  He was a very intelligent, self-taught person with many abilities. In fact, he built the house in which James and I live in now.  Harold's parents, Alan and Susie Benton Johnson Williamson were from Fayette County. Harold lived in both Fayette and Marion Counties as a young person. 

If you would like to have your family's lineage shared with the extended Hollyman/Holliman/Holleman (and various spellings) families, please write me at glennhistory@gmail.com.  There are other resources available for your family research:

Want to know more about your Hollyman and associated families?  Check out the growing virtual archive at www.bholliman.com/ .  This storage unit now has over 700 manuscripts and grows monthly. 

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!).

From the Galaxy of Holliman Cousins and Great Uncles and Aunts, 2

by Glenn N. Holliman

This continues the series on Dr. Rhodes B. Holliman and his ancestors and associated families....I am grateful to him for access to his historic photographs of Fayette, Alabama and family.

Below James Monroe Holliman (1878-1938), third son of Civil War veteran, John Thomas Holliman (1844-1930).  The photograph below is dated 1896, when James was 18, three years away from marriage to Anne Elizabeth Baker.  They would have two boys who lived to maturity - Cecil Rhodes Holliman and Charles Baker Holliman. 

The year before James married Anne Elizabeth Baker, the Baker family which lived in Newtonville, Alabama posed for this photograph which caught the a southern family in 1898 wearing their Sunday best.  Note James Mutius Baker on the far right in wing tip collar and hat.

 

Back row, left to right: Frances Hillman Baker, George Washington Baker, Anne Elizabeth Baker, Belzy Ann Blakeney Baker, Georgia Bell Baker (babe in arms).  Front row,  left to right: Guyton Baker, Pearl Baker, Frederick Coleman Baker, Montie Lea Baker, Allie Mac Baker, James Mutius Baker.


Below, the Fayette County, Alabama courthouse in 1898.  It was destroyed in the town fire of 1911.

 

Fayette in 1898 was still captured by the cotton culture of the old South as this picture taken in front of the Court House suggests.  Family farmers all over the nation suffered in the 1890s giving rise to the Populist movement which flowered briefly and then faded in Alabama. 

 

Two of James's brothers would work as farmers all their lives. Not James. He first practised law in Fayette, Alabama serving as county solicitor in the 1910s. A horrible fire swept through Fayette in 1911 destroying much of the downtown.

The fire, the inability to advance in a political career running as a Republican in the solid Democratic South and the lure of the Magic City of Birmingham, must have moved James to make an important move around age 40. As with millions of other Americans, north or south, James Monroe Holliman would head to the big city. 

In the future more on James Monroe Holliman and his brother,  however, next post, back to England and our European roots....

A Gathering of Hollimans, Part III

by Glenn N. Holliman

This is the third in a series of articles concerning the October 14/15, 2011 family seminar held in Fayette, Alabama, the ancestral location of many Hollimans living today.

At the Georgia-Pacific Railroad Depot in Fayette stands a historical sign.  The Depot is now a visitor’s center and museum where in the 1880s the rail road reached Fayette.  In 1917, this writer's grandfather and grandmother rode this train with their four children to start life over in Irondale, Alabama, a blue collar suburb of Birmingham.  There Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman increased their family by three more children (one my father b. 1919 H. Bishop Holliman).  Their movement during World War I foreshadowed the disapra that the Holliman families and tens of millions of American families would experience from the middle to the end of the 20th Century.


On October 15, 2011, seminar and round table discussions were held at the Fayetteville Civic Center.  Some of those attending were below left to right, David Jennings and his uncle Bill Holliman, both of Picken’s County, Alabama.  Later, after consulting the papers of the late Walt O. Holliman, it was determined they are descendants of Charles Holliman (1795 – 1841 ca), one of the three brothers who immigrated to west Alabama in 1836 from South Carolina.  Bill is a retired college music professor.

Above, same photo on the right, from the Selma, Alabama area were Jimmy and Kathleen Holliman.  Jimmy is a descendant also of Charles Holliman, and is a professor with the University of Auburn Agricultural Extension Service. 

Keeping notes at the meeting was Jeanette Holiman Stewart of Texas, below.  Jeanette has entered over 10,000 Holliman names in her database!  Behind Jeanette, left, is Frank Holliman who still retains some of the original land settled by the pioneering Holliman families in Fayette County.

  Below, Joe Parker flanked on his left by Lynn Holliman delivers a point during the discussions.   Joe provided information on the Holliman lines from Christopher Sr. (1618 – 1691) to the present.  His knowledge of the various Holliman branches through their Southern migrations is encyclopedic in scope.

 At the meeting, we remembered many Holliman pioneers, both living and deceased who could not be present.  Undoubtedly this is only a partial list, and I apologize for not having information to include all.  Additions to this Holliman (and all its spellings) Hall of Fame are welcome.


Recognized were Maxine Wright of Arkansas and Dr. Rhodes Holliman of Virginia.  Both descend from James Grantson Holliman and have accomplished through the decades a mountain of research.  Dr. Sidney Arthur Holleman’s 2003 publication of his branch of the family (Texas) was praised also.  Ron Holliman of Dothan, Alabama, a descendant of James Grantson and John Thomas Holliman, also has compiled significant records but due to business and family could not be with us.

Among those whose earthly  journeys are over and recognized as contributing significantly to our knowledge of this American family are Cecil Rhodes Holliman, Glenda Norris’s grandfather, Walt O. Holliman, also late of Alabama, whose research has been preserved by his children, and Dr. Charles Holliman, late of North Carolina whose work lives on the writings of others. 

Above Glenn Holliman and Tina Peddie in February 2011 near her home in California.  In addition to being an accomplished genealogist, Tina conducts searches for adopted children seeking biological parents.

Tina Peddie’s establishment of the Hollyman Internet chat room in 1999 has been instrumental in the sharing of family information and networking of various Holliman researchers.  Her contributions from her home in California also include the  re-publication, with the just deceased at age 93, Dr. Jeremiah Holliman, of the George E. Holleman 1953 ground breaking genealogical book on the family.  Her achievements and George E. Holliman's tome, the first known publication concerning the family, were recognized with appreciation.

Next posting, more on the Holliman Alabama seminar....