Some Descendants of Charles Holliman of Fayette County, Alabama, Part 1

I am grateful to Juanita Holliman and her daughter Amy Holliman Armstrong for this comprehensive sharing of their lineage, descendants of Alabama pioneer Charles Holliman and brother of my GGG grandfather, Cornelius Holliman (1792 -1862).  - Glenn N. Holliman

A West Alabama Holliman Lineage including the Families of Walters, Blakeney, Henderson, Warren and Hendrix

by Amy Holliman Armstrong and Juanita Holliman

      

Three sons of James Granston Holliman (1750-1836), Cornelius, Charles, and Warren, in 1836 brought their families to Fayette County, Alabama from Anson County, North Carolina (later Union County, North Carolina).  After this arduous trip on foot and by wagon, they settled in the Newtonville area. The brothers had spent the previous winter in that area, went home in the spring, and returned with their wives and large numbers of children.

Of these three families, two remained in Fayette County.  Warren Holliman (1801-1876) left about 1840 and led a wagon train of settlers to Arkansas.

Cornelius’ wife, Elizabeth Plyer, died after the family arrived at Newtonville. He later married Elizabeth Lucas Rainwater and the family moved to the Bluff area of Fayette County.

Charles (1795-1842) and his wife, Barbary (Barbara) Walters (1797-1880) remained at Newtonville and raised their children there.  They were the parents of Peter, Asa, Joshua, John, Milly E., Suzanna, James, Jessie, Warren C., Cornelius, Elijah and Aaron.  All except Aaron were born before the family arrived in Fayette County.  Barbary in 1870 lived with her daughter Suzanna.  Charles and Barbary’s burial place is unknown.

Left, a photograph of Warren C. Holliman (1833-1908), the eighth child of Charles and Barbary, was born in North Carolina.

Warren married Mary Blakeney (1835-1896), the daughter of Thomas Blakeney (1800-1892) and Sarah Roberts Blakeney (1807-1861).  Thomas and his family migrated from South Carolina in the early 1830’s and settled at Newtonville.  Sarah is buried at First Shepherd Church Cemetery, established in 1834, at Newtonville.  Thomas is buried at Chapel Hill Baptist Church Cemetery, also at Newtonville.   

                                               Thomas Blakeney, picture on right.

Mary Blakeney was a granddaughter of a Revolutionary War veteran, Captain John Blakeney (1732-1832).  John Blakeney, a native of Ireland, arrived in America about 1750.  He served with Francis Marion during the Revolutionary War.

 Warren and Mary Blakeney Holliman were the parents of John, James W., Francis Marion (1861-1939), Sidney Warren, Moses Jefferson, Sarah, Barbara Elizabeth, and Suzan Kizziah (called Kizzie).

Warren C. Holliman served in Company B of the 41^st Alabama Infantry CSA.  He was wounded in 1864 and discharged at Petersburg, Virginia.  His brothers, Cornelius and Elijah, also served in the 41^st.  Aaron Holliman, Warren’s youngest brother, served in the 1^st Alabama Cavalry, a Union regiment.  (This is one of numerous Southern families whose families were divided by the war. - GNH)

 After Mary’s death in 1896, Warren married Luzia Howard (1848-1901).  Warren died in 1908, and he and his two wives are buried at Chapel Hill Baptist Church Cemetery at Newtonville.

Below right, Francis Marion and Nancy Henderson Holliman with children William Arthur and Ella.

 Francis Marion Holliman (1861-1939), Warren and Mary’s son, married Nancy Jennie Henderson (1860-1913), the daughter of Hugh and Nancy Henderson.  About 1902, Francis Marion and Nancy moved away from Newtonville, first to Eldridge in Walker County, then to Winfield in Marion County.  They were the parents of four surviving children: Sidney Warren (1886-1980), John A. (1889-1970), Ella (1892-1983),  and William Arthur (1899-1983). Ella married Oscar Smith.

 William Arthur Holliman  married Zolena McKay (1903-1930), the daughter of Archibald McKay.  They had three children.  After Zolena’s early death, William Arthur married Lela Warren (1908-1996), the daughter of John Franklin Warren and Emeline Smith Warren.  Lela and William Arthur had two children, the last a son, James Arthur, who married Juanita Hendrix, the daughter of Roy Lee Hendrix and Mary Katherine Wagnon Hendrix.

The 4 surviving children of Francis Marion Holliman and Nancy Henderson Holliman at a Winfield, Alabama reunion in the 1960s -  from left:  Sydney (1886-1980), William Arthur (1899-1983), Ella Holliman Smith (1892-1983), and John Holliman (1889-1970).

James and Juanita have one child, a daughter, Amy Holliman Armstrong.  William Arthur and Lila Holliman are buried at Winfield City Cemetery in Winfield, Marion County, Alabama. 

Right, William Arthur and Lila Warren Holliman on their 50th anniversary in 1980.

Amy Holliman married Brandon Wayne Armstrong, and they are the parents of a son, Aiden James Armstrong. 

The above is a partially revised version of an article originally printed in The Heritage of Fayette County, Alabama, publishers Heritage Publishing Consultants, Inc., 1999.  Sources are family knowledge, tombstones, census records for Fayette County, Alabama; various marriage records; Roster of South Carolina Patriots of the American Revolution compiled by Bobby Gilmer Moss; application for pension made by Warren Holliman; The History of Newtonville and Its Pioneer Citizens by Buren Sullivan; The First Alabama Cavalry, USA, 1862-1865, by William Stanley Hoole; Forty First Alabama Reg’t Infantry Confederate States of America, by George B. Wright; letter from G.R. Holliman dated 1977. Additional edits by Glenn N. Holliman.  Photographic credits are Mrs. Lela Warren Holliman collection, Rhodes B. Holliman and Juanita Holliman.

Appendix

Juanita Hendrix Holliman adds:

John Holliman (1889-1970) married Evelyn (Evie) Abernathy (his first cousin) and lived in south Fayette County until their deaths.  A son, Lloyd Holliman, lived near Birmingham, as recently as 4-5 years ago. Another son lived in the north, not sure where.  The only daughter, Lois, lived in Mississippi and died there, I think.  Dewey Holliman, another son, lived near John in Fayette County.

Sydney Holliman (1886-1980) resided in Marion County, Alabama and had 3 sons.  Ed Holliman continued to live in the Guin/Winfield area, Troy Holliman lived for many years in Tuscumbia, and Roy Holliman lived for many years in Tennessee, but returned to Winfield, Alabama, some years before he died.

Ella Holliman (1892-1983) married Oscar Smith and lived in the Winfield, Alabama area. Some of their children went north.  Pauline and her husband live in Ohio.  Genny Lee and her husband lived at Guin, Alabama.  Flora and her husband, Donald Miles lived for many years in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, then returned to Guin, Alabama.  Ira Smith lived in Ft. Wayne many years then returned to Winfield. Not sure about the other children, but don't think they lived in Birmingham area.

William Arthur Holliman (1899-1983) had 3 surviving children by Zolena McKay, his first wife.  William Garlon Holliman married (1st) Frances Roberts, and (2nd) Adelle Cantrell Voce. He lived with both wives at Winfield.  Loudell Holliman married James Elbert Morris of Fayette County, and they moved to Greenville, Indiana in the 1950's, raised their children there and remained there the rest of their lives.  Louise Holliman married Brady Baccus of Winfield and they lived in Winfield the rest of their lives.

William Arthur had 2 surviving children by his 2nd wife, Lela Warren.  Mildred Holliman married Harold Johnson of Fayette County and they lived for a while at Winfield, moved to Mississippi briefly, finally moved to Saraland (near Mobile), Alabama.  Mildred and one daughter are still at Saraland. Another daughter (of Mildred and Harold) lives near Monroeville, Alabama.   

James Arthur Holliman (1944) (always James, never Jim!) is my husband and we live on his parents' homeplace (which we own), though in a different house which James had built  in 1977.  The old house (in fair condition) is still standing next door to us.  James worked for about 46 years at Continental Conveyor & Equipment Company in Winfield, in 2 or 3 different jobs, but for many of those years as a receiving clerk.  He retired in 2011. About 2 years before James retired, Continental changed owners and became Joy Global.   We cattle farm in a small way.  James has raised cattle since he was in his early 20's.  We presently have about 20 cows, a bull, 11 calves, 8 donkeys, in addition  to 2 dogs (heelers) and an uncertain number of cats.  

I am from Fayette County (which adjoins Marion County).  I've worked in several offices since going to work in 1970, while still in vocational school.  Mostly I've worked for construction companies and for a period worked for an architectural firm. My first job was at Continental Conveyor, where I met James.   Presently, I work at Rebasco Decorators, a retail store in Fayette, Alabama, which sells carpet, paint, blinds, fabric (finish construction products).  My employer's main business is as a painting/flooring contractor, and I do paperwork work required for the contracting business (payroll, billing,  etc.) as well as store work. 

James and I have a daughter, Amy, who married Brandon Armstrong of Winston County, Alabama, and they now live in Winston County.  She graduated in 2003 from University of North Alabama at Florence, Alabama, with a degree in Family and Consumer Science. She is employed by Northwest Alabama Mental Health, and works as a social worker, dealing with intellectually challenged adults.  They have a son, Aiden James Armstrong, born 2009, who is in 2nd grade.

William Arthur Holliman was a farmer for many years, and he also did carpenter work.  For a few years he worked at a pants manufacturing  plant in Winfield.  He was born at Newtonville in south Fayette County, and moved during his early childhood to Eldridge, a community in Walker County, near Winfield, and for a brief period, his family lived in Arkansas.  They returned to the Winfield area and in 1919 he married Zolena McKay.  He and Zolena and two of their children were living on a rented farm near Winfield in 1924 when a farm became available for sale (the property James and I now own).  He purchased the farm and he and Zolena lived there until her death in 1930.  

Later in 1930, he married Lela Warren.  He lived there until his death in 1983. Lela continued to live on the home place until she entered a nursing home a few months before her death in 1996.   Lela and Arthur did leave their farm for 2 years during the 1930's. They moved to Brilliant and truck farmed, selling their produce to the miners who worked in the coal mines at Brilliant, in an effort to earn money to pay for their place (this was the Depression and money was scarce).  In the late 1940's a small church, The First Assembly of God, was established in our community.  Lela and Arthur were early members of the church. The church building was built by a number of neighborhood men, including Arthur, who did much of the carpenter work.  The church remains active today, though it has been re-named.

Francis Marion Holliman (1861-1939), Arthur's father, worked at farming, though I'm uncertain if he actually owned his own property.  Later in his life, after his wife's death lived with his children, different ones at different times.  He spent a good bit of time with Arthur's family. In fact, he died at Arthur's home.  His tombstone, put up long after his death, indicates a death date of 1939. However, he was counted in the 1940 census, so probably he died in either 1940 or 1941.  Unfortunately, James did not know him, as he (James) was born in 1944.  

From all accounts I've heard of Francis Marion, he was a hard worker. He did much work on Arthur's farm (now ours), doing ditching, plowing, and other farm work. His wife, Nancy Jane Henderson, was born in 1860 in Fayette Co. AL (her stone says 1861 but that is an error) and died in 1913. She stumbled and fell while working in a pea patch, and the injury progressed to a point that it killed her - possibly infection, possibly a hernia caused by the fall, not sure of this, but I know the injury was what caused the later problems. She apparently lived only a short while after her accident. Francis Marion was born in 1861 in Fayette Co.  Nancy Jane (Jennie)'s father was Hugh Henderson, who served in the 41st Alabama Infantry, as did Warren Holliman, Francis Marion's father.  Her mother was Hugh's first wife, named Nancy, who was mostly likely a Cook.  

Additional Commentary and Photographs to follow in Part 2.

From the Galaxy of Holliman Cousins - Blakeneys Continued

by Glenn N. Holliman

More on the Blakeneys, a branch of the Alabama Hollimans....

Below, two distant cousins by marriage, Reed Blakeney of Social Circle, Georgia and yours truly, met last springtime.  I am holding a copy of Reed's excellent work, Sipsey, a historical novel based on the life of Thomas Blakeney (1807-1896) of Newtonville, Fayette County, Alabama, a book we examined in our last article.

Unlike a similar work, Margaret Mitchell's famed Gone with the Wind, Reed's tome has not yet been snatched up by Hollywood, but I frankly think Sipsey is a better read.  This too is a story of the Old South, not a romance of fancy, exaggerated fiction, but rather a gritty, sometimes violent, sometimes loving, always anguished and accurate portrayal of the antebellum South that passed slowly from an 1830s Alabama frontier to the turbulent years of a Civil War.

Below, Reed in his working room where the background wall posts photos of his Blakeney ancestors.  The Blakeneys and Hollimans lived on neighboring farms in 19th Century Fayette County, Alabama and intermarried on occasion.

Below, one of Reed's most famed ancestors was Thomas Blakeney, the inspirational character for Sipsey.  Thomas Blakeney entered life 1807 in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, the son of Revolutionary war hero, Captain John Blakeney who rode with Frances Marion.  

He moved to Alabama prior to 1831, and married Sarah Roberts (1807-1861) about 1831 in Tuscaloosa.  This couple had eight children, one being William Blakeney, who died 1863 in the War.  

Thomas remarried Martha Nevins in 1862 from which there were no more children.  He prospered in Fayette County, owning 2,800 acres, a cotton gin and at one time seven slaves.  Thomas died June 2, 1896 in Newtonville, Alabama. However, there is more to Thomas Blakeney's story, a fascinating chapter of passion, cultural turmoil and redemption.  With the research of Dr. Rhodes Holliman, we will take this story further in the next article.

This and the Blakeney's ties to the Alabama Hollimans and descendants will be explored in the next posting. 

 

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!). Mrs. Peddie can assist also in any DNA research.

Since early 2010, I have been publishing research and stories on the broad spectrum of Holliman (Holyman) family history at http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ . For stories on my more immediate family since the early 20th Century, I have been posting articles since early 2011 at http://ulyssholliman.blogspot.com/ .

Let's save the past for the future! If you have photographs, letters, memorabilia or research you wish to share, please contact me directly at glennhistory@gmail.com. Several of us have an on-going program of scanning and preserving Holyman and related family records. Write please and tell us of your items. Thanks to the Internet, we are able to scan, upload to the web (with your permission) and return the materials to you.

A seminar is to be held at the Rose Hill Inn, Fayette, Alabama, October 18 and 19, 2013 for more serious students of Holliman and related families.  Just write me for more information. GNH

From the Galaxy of Holliman Cousins

By Glenn N.  Holliman

From Westminster Abby to the Sipsey River....

Not many Americans can claim a family floor plaque in London's hollowed Westminster Abby, the site of British coronations and stately funerals.  However, one will find there a monument to the forerunner of the Blakeneys in the United States. 

While beyond the purview of this space to provide an intensive history of the lineage of the Blakeneys (they are kin to this writer by 19th Century marriages in Fayette County, Alabama), I do want to proclaim the writing skills of a distant cousin of mine and a direct scion of the esteemed Lord William Blakeney. 

That person is Reed Blakeney, whose American lineage takes his descendants from the Carolinas to Alabama, his home state.  While most of his life he was a  successful businessman, he has found the talent and time to write several page turners on Southern history. Below, Reed with one of his books, A Mulberry Summer, a story based on a true event of racial strife in Georgia in the 1940s.

 

 

 My interest in Reed's handiwork was tweaked by a closer cousin, Dr. Rhodes Holliman, a specialist in Holliman, Blakeney and Baker family histories, all of whom hale in part from the Newtonville, Fayette County, Alabama area.  I wrote Reed, and he mailed me a copy of his work, Sipsey which is based on a true story of one of his descendants in Newtonville.  Earlier this summer, I had the opportunity to visit with him and his wife, Penny, in his central Georgia home.

 

 The work captures the trek of a family from upper South Carolina to west Alabama when the state was little more than a frontier in the 1830s.  One will find an Indian maiden, Mobile brothels, steamboats, cotton plantations, mixed race relationships, Civil War violence and finally human acceptance and reconciliation.  I could not put the book down, and not just because the local farm of the Holloman (sic) family popped up in the story from time to time.

 

In the middle 1830s, the United States Government, led by President Andrew Jackson forcibly removed the remaining Native American tribes from east of the Mississippi to Oklahoma.  Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw land opened in Alabama.  Once again Alabama Fever struck the southeast, and young families from the Carolinas picked up their children, livestock and also their slaves and moved as whole neighborhoods west to virgin lands.

 

Among these neighbors in Anson County, North Carolina and Lancaster County, South Carolina were families such as Holliman, Blakeney, Yerby, Lucas, Pyler, Hughes and others who settled in Tuscaloosa County and in the southeast corner of Fayette County, along the Sipsey River.  At one time primitive steamboats up from Mobile plied the Tombigbee River and steered into the swallower Sipsey transporting cotton and pioneers.

Reed Blakeney's book Sipsey encompasses the frontier spirit and conflicted lives that helped built a state and settled families.  You can find the book and others by the author on Amazon.com.

 And if you are a Holliman, Blakeney or other Fayette County descendant, you will find much more than snippets of the lives of our ancestors.

More on the Blakeneys in the Next Post....

 

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!). Mrs. Peddie can assist also in any DNA research.

Since early 2010, I have been publishing research and stories on the broad spectrum of Holliman (Holyman) family history at http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ . For stories on my more immediate family since the early 20th Century, I have been posting articles since early 2011 at http://ulyssholliman.blogspot.com/ .

Let's save the past for the future! If you have photographs, letters, memorabilia or research you wish to share, please contact me directly at glennhistory@gmail.com. Several of us have an on-going program of scanning and preserving Holyman and related family records. Write please and tell us of your items. Thanks to the Internet, we are able to scan, upload to the web (with your permission) and return the materials to you.

A seminar is to be held at the Rose House Inn, Fayette, Alabama, October 18 and 19, 2013 for more serious students of Holliman and related families.  Just write me for more information. GNH

 

 

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....