Christopher Hollyman's Plantation - 332 Years On

by Glenn N. Holliman

Cousin Joe Barlow, whose mother Gladys Holleman Barlow was born at the 1830 Holleman House on the site of Christopher Hollyman's 1684 plantation, kindly has sent me this clipping from the April 13, 2016 edition of the Smithfield Times.  His sister, Sarah Barlow Wright shares information on the home.

Christopher Hollyman (1618-1691) first settled along the Cypress River in Isle of Wight County, Virginia in 1661 according to early deeds.  As an older man of age 66, he patented the 1,020 acres along Mill Swamp bordering Surrey County and built a home and tobacco barns.  He left the land and improvements to his four sons.

Below a photograph of Gladys Holleman Barlow and her 1996 obituary sharing information on her life in Isle of Wight County, Virginia.  Picture and obituary courtesy of the Barlow family.

For additional information on the Holleman House, Gladys Holleman Barlow and Isle of Wight Hollemans, please review my postings of autumn of 2013.  

Again our thanks to Billy Joe Holleman, his wife and son and all the Barlows for their many kindnesses during the early April 2016 Gathering of Hollymans from all over the United States.

A Holyman Gathering in Virginia

by Glenn N. Holliman

A report on the First National Gathering of the Descendants of Christopher Hollyman (1618-1691)....

They came from Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia - direct descendants of the Englishman who migrated in 1650 from Bedford, Bedfordshire to Isle of Wight, Virginia. This picture taken at the Smithfield, Virginia Hampton Inn were many stayed and sessions were held.

Christopher Holyman (or Hollyman) settled in 1661 along the Cypress River and in 1684 nestled his family in northern Isle of Wight County along the Surrey County border.  He left his four sons over 1,000 acres to be divided amongst themselves.  Direct descendants - the Barlows and Hollemans still live in the county and in southeast Virginia and provided hospitality for those who traveled back to the community where the American venture of this extended family began.

Right, Steve Holleman of South Carolina and Allen Holleman of North Carolina.

Counting spouses and significant others, over 50 individuals from March 31 to April 2, 2016 enjoyed visiting and sharing research on our various lineages.  Organized by Allen Holleman of Raleigh, North Carolina and coordinated with the great assistance of Joe Barlow and Billy Joe Holleman of Smithfield, Virginia, cousins explored early home sites of 17th century Hollymans.

Below, after first sessions and an afternoon stop at the Isle of Wight Museum (a gem of a museum), the group traveled to the original plantation of Christopher Hollyman.  Billy Joe Holleman, owner and steward of the Hollyman plantation, explained who is buried in the family cemetery adjacent to the 1830 Holleman House and other older out buildings.  After a tour of the grounds and farm, Billy Joe and his wife hosted a late afternoon 'feast' of gourmet Smithfield ham and rolls at the Mill Swamp Baptist Church fellowship hall.

Many expressed their deep feelings at being able to walk the ground where Christopher Hollyman and family had girded virgin timber, cleared the first fields, raised livestock, corn and a cash crop and thrived in the New World.  And from this place, our ancestors lived and eventually began the western movement across what became the United States of America.  

Below, Sarah Barlow Wright, whose mother was raised in the Holleman House in Mill Swamp, shared her knowledge of the 1830 colonial style residence.  On this property Hollemans have lived and continue to live since 1684.

Billy Joe Holliman even provided a 'hay wagon' to take cousins deep into the former plantation fields to share the site of the oldest cemetery known to hold the remains of ancestors. Right in red, Laurie Sherrod and in white top with black dots, Jeanette Holiman Stewart.

Below in light green, Brenda Holloman of of Wake County, North Carolina, shared her thoughts as the group gathered at the oldest cemetery located on original Hollyman land. In living memory, a house of unknown age, but old, was located near this location.  Is this then the unmarked grave of Christopher Hollyman and some of his 18th century descendants?   We may never know.  Then again, what if?

 At the Hampton Inn community room, sessions were held on our English heritage and research papers and booklets distributed by Lynn Holliman, Steve Holleman, Allen Holleman and Glenn Holliman.  Importantly consensus emerged to formally organize a Christopher Hollyman Families Historical Society with future memberships and gatherings.  Among the goals of the Society will be to conduct scholarly research and share and preserve that research and family documents and photographs.

Below center in light blue, Joe Parker, acknowledged 'dean' of Hollyman family history, donated a volume of his research to be scanned and uploaded to the family's new virtual archive at www.bholliman.com/ .

Development of a Society web site is to be explored that would link or fold into the site current assets.  These being the Yahoo Hollyman group chatroom and Hollyman Facebook page developed and administered by Tina Peddie (who can be reached at desabla1@yahoo.com) and the Hollyman Ancestry.com Tree administered by Jeanette Holiman Stewart (who can be reached at htreekeeper@outlook.com).  Other assets include two administered by this writer - http://hollimanfamilyblogspot.com/ and a virtual archive at www.bholliman.com/ .

Additional photographs of this emotional and important Gathering can be found at the Hollyman Facebook page. Photographs on this page provided by Alice Holliman Murphy of Texas.

Please continue to watch this space not only for more items of family history, but information on the emerging Christopher Hollyman Families Historical Society....

Join the Hollyman Gathering in Virginia!

by Glenn N. Holliman

Above Allen Holleman of North Carolina, direct descendant of Christopher Hollyman, Jr. at the 1830 Holleman House in Isle of Wight, Virginia. 

THE CHRISTOPHER HOLLYMAN, SR.

 HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Executive Committee

Tina Peddie (California) Jeanette Holiman Stewart (Texas), Allen Holleman (North Carolina), Glenn N. Holliman (Pennsylvania), Lynn Holliman (Texas) Glenda Norris (Alabama), Sue Jones (Wyoming), Joseph Parker (Texas), Denise Goff (Virginia) and Sandra Torbert French (Florida)

CORDIALLY INVITE YOU

TO

The Inaugural Meeting of the Society

at

SMITHFIELD

ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY

VIRGINIA

MARCH 31- APRIL 2, 2016

FOR

A ONCE IN A LIFETIME TOUR TO THE CHRISTOPHER HOLLYMAN'S PLANTATION CA 1682

AND

OTHER HISTORIC HOLLYMAN SITES

AND

TWO DAYS OF SEMINARS

and Round Table Discussions

ON

THE HOLLYMANS of ENGLAND

AND

SUBSEQUENT MIGRATIONS

THROUGH OUT THE USA

PLUS

SESSIONS ON HOW TO TRACE YOUR HOLLYMAN DNA, THE MASSIVE FAMILY TREE (at www.Ancestry.com), HOLLYMAN WEB SITES, THE JAMESTOWN SOCIETY AND THE NEW HOLLIMAN ARCHIVES FOR HOLLYMANS (ALL SPELLINGS) AND ASSOCIATED FAMILIES!

Our Isle of Wight Greeters are:

Billy Joe Holleman (owner of the Holleman House on the site of the original plantation!), Janet Wright Moore, Joe Barlow and Sarah Barlow Wright 

Below, Joe Barlow and Sarah Barlow Wright, 

direct descendants of Christopher Hollyman, Sr.

If you trace your ancestry to Christopher Hollyman, Sr. (1618-1691) you will not want to miss this national gathering of his descendants in the ancestral home of almost all North American Hollemans, Hollimans (and various spellings).

Our Registration Center and Gathering Place for Seminars and Dinners will be the Smithfield Inn, 112 Main Street, Smithfield, VA (757-357-1732).

As the Smithfield Inn is sold out for lodging, a special rate has been secured at the near-bye Hampton Inn.  Guests may book individual reservations under the name of Holliman Family Reunion.  One may call the hotel direct at 757-365-4760 or go to www.smithfieldsuitesva.hamptoninn.com.

·       Enter the dates ranging from March 31-April 2, 2016.

·       Click on Add Special Rate Code and enter the Group Code (HFR).

·       Click on Check Rooms and Rates.

Guests will be able to select their room type and proceed to make their own reservation using a credit card to guarantee their room.

The rates are as follows:

·       Standard King room at $109.00 plus tax.

The cut-off date is March 1, 2016 for this special rate.

The program begins with a Meet and Greet, Thursday, March 31, 5 pm - 6:30 pm, Smithfield Inn followed by order-from-the-menu dinner.  Sessions and field trips held and/or originated at the Smithfield Inn on Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2, 2016.  Please call your lodging choice directly BUT let us know if you plan to attend as space is limited. Location could be moved subject to enrollment. 

The Holleman House and Smithfield are located approximately 1 hour from Jamestown (by ferry across the James River) where Christopher and his sister, Judith Hollyman landed after their long and weary sailing from England, May 1650!  Williamsburg and Yorktown are near Jamestown, making it possible to treat yourself and family to a delightful spring vacation while learning more about your English and Virginia roots.

For information and a complete schedule of the program and times, email Allen Holleman, Program Reservations, at jallen.holleman2@gmail.com or call (919-210-6862).

Above, Allen Holleman in the historic section of Smithfield, Virginia

Agenda

for the Christopher Hollyman, Sr. History Society

March 31-April 2, 2016

March 31, 2016

5 pm – 6:30 pm registration, meet and greet, Smithfield Inn, Smithfield, VA

6:30 – 8:30  pm – Dinner, Welcome, Announcements, Group Photo and Review of the Agenda  (order from the menu)

Distribution of Materials: “The Hollymans from England to Virginia and Beyond”

April 1, 2016

9 am – Noon

"Getting to Know You" - Share your lineage with the group and what do you wish to learn?"

"Where to Find your Cousins - Facebook, the Yahoo Group, The Hollyman Family Tree, the Holliman Virtual Archive and the Jamestown Society”

As time permits - “England to Virginia” and "The Virginia Experience"

 Noon – Lunch on your own at one of Smithfield's many dining venues

1:30 pm – Visit to Isle of Wight Museum (across from the Smithfield Inn)

2:30 – Field Trip 1830 Holleman House at Christopher Hollyman 1682  Plantation including loop tour of Smithfield Hams and Ivy Hill Cemetery. Group photo at Holleman House! Optional extended 30 minute visit to possible site of Christopher Hollyman’s grave (Wear old clothes and shoes as old burial place in woods)

Below, Sarah Barlow Wright, Allen Holleman, Billy Joe Holleman, owner of the original 1682 Hollyman plantation and Joe Barlow, exchange questions October 2015 at the Holleman farm in Isle of Wight, Virginia.  Also, in the picture is a Holleman dog!

5 pm – Return to Smithfield and Dinner on your own

7:30 pm Business Meeting of Christopher Hollyman, Sr. Historical Society Executive Committee; open to all

April 2, 2016

9 am –  Noon

Break Out Sessions  on Topics that interest You! – Whether more information on DNA, Ancestry.com, your lineage or problems in tracing your family, Hollyman genealogists will be prepared to lead discussions on ancestors and issues.  Floating round table discussions available .

11 am – Sixth and closing Session – ‘Creating Structure for the Christopher Hollyman, Sr. History Society”

Noon – Close of Hollyman Seminar – Participants encouraged to visit Jamestown on their own, site of Christopher and Judith Hollymans 1650 arrival in the New World!

And don't miss Williamsburg, founded in the 1690s, a marvelous Colonial towne preserved and celebrated.

Today, the lands (see below) patented by Christopher Hollyman, Sr. in the 1680s grow cotton.  Three hundred and twenty-five years ago, the crops were a few acres of tobacco and many of corn.

PLEASE JOIN YOUR COUSINS IN OLD VIRGINIA NEXT SPRING!

Exploring further Holleman History in Old Virginia - Part 7

by Glenn N. Holliman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Exploring further Holleman History in Old Virginia - Part 6

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

Exploring further Holleman History in Old Virginia - Part 5

by Glenn N.  Holliman

 

We continue our series of articles on the descendants of Christopher Holyman (d 1691) who have remained in Isle of Wight County, Virginia and vicinity for hundreds of years. My continued thanks to Sarah Barlow Wright, Janet Wright Moore and Susan Holleman Brewer for their kind help.

 

 

Above, a portrait of Gladys Holleman Barlow (1895 - 1996)

 

In the 1986 Many Voices, a treasury of Isle of Wight County, Virginia personal memories, Gladys Holleman Barlow spoke of her life of the early 20th Century on the family home, the Holleman House at Mill Swamp adjacent to the Surry County border.  We continue...

 

"My parents were farmers, and my husband and I were farmers.  One of my earliest memories is riding around in the horse and cart with my father when he was measuring up peanuts.  The peanut pickers would pick up peanuts, and my father would go around late in the afternoon to measure them and pay the pickers ten cents a bushel for having picked them up.  Hardly anybody picked over three bushels a day."

Below, the Holleman House and farm in the 1980s ca.  To the right of the main 1830 structure is possibly the oldest structure on the property, a wood frame building that was the home of the Wilson Holleman family prior to the construction of the two-story imposing red brick structure.  Approximately 100 acres of the original 1691 plantation of 1,020 acres still remain in the Holleman family.  Photograph of Gladys Holleman Barlow and the below plantation courtesy of Sarah Barlow Wright, her daughter.

 

 "Another thing that was done then, but wouldn't be done now, was to burn corn stalks on cold winter nights.  My father would go around with a fire brand and have these piles of corn stalks about the field to light.  I loved going around with them doing that.  Another time, they would have corn shuckings.  All the neighbors would come and shuck corn.  We would have a long row of it in the backyard, and I always had a girl come home with me so we could walk in the shucks.

 

There was an old brick house on our farm that was said to be haunted.  My father stored peanuts there without fear of anyone stealing them because the neighborhood people were afraid of ghosts.  Some strangers came one time and asked him if they could dig around the house for treasures, and he told them he felt sure there were no treasures, and he didn't want them digging up his field, so he didn't give his permission.  But the next day, he went there, and they had during the night, so they must not have been afraid of ghosts.  We don't know whether they found treasures or not."
 

 

 Above, the 'haunted' abandoned brick house in a former Holleman field in Mill Swamp approximately a half mile from the 1830 home.  One Holleman cousin believes this may have been the site of the original 1690s Christopher Holyman house; another cousin disagrees.  

Shown above, soybeans are often the crop of choice for Isle of Wight farmers in the 21st Century and of course, peanuts are still grown.  In the 1600s, farmers such as the Hollemans would have grown several acres of tobacco as the cash crop, and acres of corn for the table and animals. 

Hogs would have roamed freely in the woods until frost eating the mast. In the 1670s, according to a Surry County court case, Native Americans stole and butchered some of the Holleman hogs.  A year later Bacon's Rebellion broke out in the colony due in large part to continuing friction between the two cultures.

Next posting, more on Isle of Wight and the Holleman farm....

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!).

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

Exploring Further Holliman History in Old Virginia, Part 4

by Glenn N. Holliman

We continue our series of articles on the descendants of Christopher Holyman (d 1691) who have remained in Isle of Wight County, Virginia and vicinity for hundreds of years. My continued thanks to Sarah Barlow Wright, Janet Wright Moore and Susan Holleman Brewer for their kind help.

A portion of Christopher Holyman's 1,020 acre plantation still remains in the Holleman family to this day.  On that farm in 1895 Gladys Hortense Holleman came into the world, the daughter of Josiah James and Augusta Hannah White Binford Holleman, the then owners of the property.

Gladys would marry Gordon Eugene Barlow in 1921 and live most of her life at the Barlow farm, Oak Crest, in Isle of Wight County, but she retained many memories of her childhood in Mill Swamp.  The photograph below of Gladys is courtesy of her daughter, Sarah Barlow Wright of Smithfield, Isle of Wight, Virginia.
 

 

 Below around 1907 (at Holleman House), Gladys stands to the far left wearing a black hat and white dress.  Walking in front of her is her brother,  Joseph Howard Holleman, Sr. Standing in front of the white picket fence is another brother, Algernon Hardy Holleman,  and their mother, Augusta Hannah Holleman.  Sitting on the porch, obscured, is Josiah James Holleman.  Sarah Wright believes this picture was made as the children were going off to school.

 

 

 

 

 In 1986, an oral history of Isle of Wight County was published and included several pages of memories by Gladys.  The work, Many Voices, is available from the Isle of Wight Museum and Historical Society in Smithfield, Virginia.  The following two paragraphs are  from the book:

"When I was young, our entertainment was centered around the home, church and school.  I admired the ministers' families and the school teachers; they were the educated people of the community, and we looked up to them.   
 

I went to a one-room school in Mill Swamp, and when I was fifteen, I came to Smithfield High school and graduated there in 1913.  I went to Westhampton College of the University of Richmond."

Below, a later version of the school at Mill Swamp, adjacent to the Holleman plantation and the Mill Swamp Baptist Church.  The date is unknown. This picture also courtesy of Sarah Barlow Wright.

 

 

Sarah Barlow Wright remembers her mother's story of her first day at school in the one room school house -

"The one room school house was next to Mill Swamp Baptist Church.  On my first day in the first grade, I thought the little recess was lunch time, so I took my lunch outside when we went to play.   When we went back inside, I forgot my lunch.  At lunch time, we found that hogs had eaten my lunch!  I began to cry.  The teacher, who was the preacher's daughter, took me across the road to the parsonage for lunch."

That traumatic day of school in 1901 did not deter Gladys Holleman from continuing her education.  After graduating from college in 1917, she taught school in Wakefield, Virginia and became principal of that same little school at Mill Swamp before her marriage in 1921. 

Next more on Isle of Wight history and the Hollemans....
 

 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Exploring Further Holliman History in Old Virginia, Part 3

by Glenn N. Holliman

We continue to report on the descendants of Christopher Holyman (1618-1691), who live in the Isle of Wight County and Richmond, Virginia.  My thanks to the distant cousins - Sarah Barlow Wright, Janet Barlow Moore and Susan Brewer -who kindly shared their time and photographs and proof read the article.  There will be several more postings on Isle of Wight County, which to most Holymans (and  its many various spellings) is our American ancestral starting point.

 Above, the Holleman House at Mill Swamp, Isle of Wight, Virginia in 1921.  The family gathering was being held at the home of Josiah James and Augusta White Binford Holleman. Picture from the collection of Sarah Barlow Wright.

Below, Sarah Barlow Wright in her Isle of Wight, Virginia home with treasured family photographs of her grandparents, Augusta Hannah White Binford Holleman (1859-1941)and Josiah  James Holleman (1851-1937).  Sarah's grandfather gave the land for the cemetery at the Mill Swamp Baptist Church adjacent to the historic Holleman House near the Surry County border.

 

Now retired, Mrs.Wright was a teacher or principal for over 35 years.  She grew up in Isle of Wight County at Oak Crest, the Gordon Barlow Farm, five miles north of Smithfield, close to the James River.  Her mother, Gladys Hortense Holleman Barlow (1895-1996) was born at the Holleman Farm at Mill Swamp, and later married Gordon Eugene Barlow (1891-1973).

Sarah Wright's lineage in Isle of Wight extends from  at least 1661 when Christopher Holyman purchased land from George Smith along the Cypress River.  Smithfield, Virginia takes its name from this family.  Arthur Smith, a descendant of George, was the founder of the town in the 1750.

Augusta Hannah White Binford Holleman had two children by a first marriage and three with Josiah J. Holleman.  Their children were Gladys Hortense Holleman Barlow (mother of Sarah Wright), Joseph Howard Holleman, Sr. (written about in earlier posts, he is the father of Caroline Holleman Thomas and Joseph H. Holleman) and Algernon Hardy Holleman (father of William Joseph Holleman, current owner of the Holleman House).       
                                                    

Right , Augusta White Holleman

The lineage for this branch of the Holleman family

flows as follows:

Josiah James Holleman (1851-1937), son of

James Henry Holleman (1819-1858), son of

William H. Holleman (1795-1836), son of

Josiah Holleman (1771-1848), son of

Jesse Holliman, Sr. (1737-1824), son of

John Holleman (1688-1751), son of

Christopher C. Holyman (1660 ca - 1731), son of

Christopher Holyman, Sr. (1618-1691), the immigrant from Bedfordshire, England who arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1650.

The 1684 plantation, patented by Christopher Holyman, Sr. eventually descended  to Wilson Holleman (1803-1873).  The current house was built by Wilson and Ann Nicholson Holleman.  Wilson left it to his son, Algernon Sidney Holleman (1838-1906), who died childless.  The House and farm then went to Josiah James Holleman, a first cousin.

Josiah left it to his son, Algernon Hardy Holleman (1902-1963), who passed the property to his son, William Joseph Holleman, who owns the home today.  His son, William Joseph Holleman, Jr. now lives on the farm, continuously occupied by Hollemans for almost 350 years.

Next posting, more on the Holleman descendants who have remained in Isle of Wight, Virginia since the Christopher Holyman arrival in Jamestown, Virginia in 1650.

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.