Where did James Grantson Holliman Live? (1750-1836)

 by Glenn N. Holliman and Sally Campbell

Background

James Grantson Holliman’s great-grandfather, Christopher Hollyman (1618-1691), gave up his home in Bedfordshire, England, and sailed the dangerous Atlantic with his sister, Judith.  They arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1650.  Judith married and disappeared from history.  Chris farmed, married, and, by his death, had accumulated over 1,000 acres in Isle of Wight County.

Christopher divided his land among his four sons.  One of them, Richard, chose to stay in the area and expanded his share of the family's legacy by acquiring land in Surry County.  His son, Samuel Holliman (1707-1789), inherited his grandfather’s adventurous spirit and relocated to Edgemore County, North Carolina.  Years later, possibly due to the depletion of his land from years of tobacco farming, Samuel moved again, this time to Johnston County, North Carolina. 

This map was passed along to this writer by the late Rhodes Holliman, Ph.D. It shows in yellow and purple markings where James Grantson Holliman performed his militia service during the American Revolution when he lived in Johnston County, North Carolina. For a copy of his pension application, one may visit Hollyman Tree (Holyman Heritage Group) at Ancestry.com or www.bholliman.com, a virtual archive of associated family materials.

Either in Edgemore or Johnston County, James Gantson Holliman came into this world in 1750 and died in 1836. After service in the North Carolina Militia during the American Revolution, he followed in his ancestors' footsteps and moved to newer, richer farmland. 

James purchased property in what is now Union County, North Carolina, and Lancaster County, South Carolina. There, he prospered. His sons Charles, Warren, and Cornelius married, but like their father, other ancestors and tens of thousands of young Americans, continued the westward movement. Their destination was Fayette County, Alabama. Warren would move on to Arkansas after a few years in Alabama.

Cornelius received a free land grant for his service in the War of 1812.  Perhaps the other brothers migrated in order to establish larger, more productive farms.  Sally reminds us that in order to move family, stock, tools and supplies in a wagon train, migrants had to have a certain amount of cash or trade goods. One did not start a new farm and house penniless.  The people left behind were either financially established, impoverished, or elderly like James Grantson Holliman. His daughters did not move to Alabama.  They stayed in the Carolinas most probably to care for their father in his final months.

New Research

Sally Campbell, a descendant of James Grantson Holliman, has searched land records and traveled the countryside of Lancaster, SC and Union, NC counties to discover precisely where he farmed and raised his family. James owned properties on both sides of the state borders, which confused his descendants as to whether they were South or North Carolinians. 

He took an oath in Anson County (now Union County) for his Revolutionary War service.  In his 80s, it appears that James had a disability, and he went to Monroe (Courthouse), NC, rather than Lancaster (Courthouse), SC, because there were fewer creeks to cross by cart and horse. Does this research clarify the location of his legal residence?  Perhaps his descendants can claim citizenship from either state!

 Sally’s research reveals:

 1. James owned property along Lynches Creek, the boundary between Lancaster and Chesterfield, South Carolina counties.  Anson County, North Carolina, was divided later, and James' property was in what is now Union County.

 2. James also owned land in South Carolina adjacent to Paul Plyler at the fork of Wild Cat Creek, on the south side of Great Lynches Creek, and on the south side of Pole Cat Creek.

 3.  Paul Plyler, a major property owner, had possession of South Carolina land on both sides of Otter Creek and Little Otter, a branch of Lynches Creek, and Wild Cat Creek.

 This map prepared by Sally shows Monroe, NC where James took his Revolutionary War service oath.  Underlined in red in North Carolina is the Pole Cat Creek property area.  In South Carolina underlined in red is Otter Creek. 

This is a close up of the map.  Tradesville, nearer than Monroe, NC, to Holliman property, probably was the village of choice to purchase supplies.  Pole Cat and Otter Creeks are underlined west of the Lancaster and Chesterfield County lines—the county line defined by Lynches Creek.  

Building on the thoroughness of Sally’s research, I pulled up a map that the late Walter Holliman did in the early 1990s before the internet era. Walt, whose family donated his research to this writer, reinforces Sally’s work. He, too, identified South Carolina creek branches where Hollimans and Plylers lived. At the top of Walt’s map, he also shows there were Holliman and Blakeney properties on the North Carolina side.

All three of these families, or at least some of their offspring, moved to Fayette County, Alabama, where some of descendants live to this day.  Cornelius Holliman received his Alabama land as a grant from War of 1812 service.

I want to thank Sally for reaching out to provide this information, her interpretations and catching typos. Not only was James Grantson my fourth GGF, but his neighbor Paul Plyler is also my fourth GGF because his daughter, Elizabeth, married Cornelius Holliman, my third GGF. This story affirms what historians have written: neighbors married neighbors, and neighbors often migrated in families in America’s westward movement. It appears that the Carolina neighborhood caught ‘Alabama Fever’.

Sally Campbell is a descendant of both Cornelius Holliman and Charles Holliman, double-descended from James Grantson Holliman.  Below is her story. - GNH

My parents were from Texas and stationed in Washinton DC during WW2, and that is where I and my twin sister were born.  After WWII, they moved to a suburb of Philadelphia PA, where I grew up.  I graduated from Simmons College in Boston, and married and moved to NY state for 10 years.  Then my husband and I moved  to Charlotte NC, with our three children.  I worked in Computer Services for UNC-Charlotte for about  fifteen years, then my husband and I bought a cruising sailboat which we sailed to the Bahamas and back for 3 or 4 winter months almost every year for 20 years.  

I have always been interested in family history then was started in researching names, dates when I interviewed my paternal grandmother about her 8 siblings. I wish I had interviewed all my grandparents.  I knew my maternal grandfather Elijah J. Holliman was born in Fayette, Fayette County,  north western Alabama.  I discovered Newells' History of Fayette County, which mentioned that Cornelius and his wife Elizabeth Plyler were from South Carolina. I found 'The Plyler Genealogy'  by Monroe, NC.author Herman Starnes.  With the Internet it was easy to communicate with the late Maxine Wright of Arkansas. - Sally Campbell

The sources for this article are based on land abstracts from the book 'Some South Carolina County Records Vol. 1 by Brent Holcomb, printed in 1976, pages 143 through 195, and 'Lancaster County South Carolina, Union County North Carolina metric Topographic Map' by the US Geological Survey printed in 1986.

 

Jeff, Richard and Don Holiman, Part 2

In my last blog, I focused on the fascinating life of my distant cousin, Richard Holiman (b.1946), a pioneer American businessman in an emerging China the 1980s. Richard's own father, Don (1916 -1985, born in Benton, Arkansas) led an even more iconic life of travel and achievement which is high lighted below.  My thanks to Richard and his son Jeff (b.1971) for sharing details on their ancestor. - Grace A. Holliman

“My father was prone to spontaneous wandering….” – Richard Holiman on his father, The Rev. Don Holiman

When he was a teenager, Don Holiman rode the rails as a more-than-less vagabond, but he was a vagabond on a mission. In 1932 the L.E. Waterman Company, one of the leading fountain pens manufacturers of the day, launched an autograph collecting competition. The Waterman Company supplied young people with a special book and gave them six months to collect as many autographs of famous people as possible. When the six months were up, the participants had to mail their book back to the company in hopes of winning one of the 333 prizes with the grand prize being $1,000. Don Holiman was in the top 33 and won ten dollars!  

The clipping below articulates his venture.

By age 27, Don was living in San Antonio, Texas and was concerned about the number of homeless and abandoned boys he saw sleeping in Travis Park. Don knew that the local police placed these boys in detention to give them shelter despite their having committed no crime. To help these young men, Don founded Boysville. Boysville started at a large home on Avenue A and eventually moved to a pastoral area where the residents could learn skills such as tending crops and raising animals.  The home continues to this day in Converse, Texas!

Above: a story on Don's home for boys in Texas.

Below: 1943, Don, wife Sibyl, with the legendary Father Flannigan at Boys' Town in Nebraska.

Don eventually parted with Boysville and hit the road again as a traveling salesman. “My father was prone to spontaneous wandering,” recalled Richard with a smile.“ He went from San Antonio to Oakland to Atlanta to Dallas and would send letters back to my mother. More often than not, those letters contained his poetry instead of money.”

Left: Sibyl, Richard and Don, ca 1958 

Don was also a hellfire and brimstone Baptist preacher who, for a time, had a church near a military airfield. One Sunday morning the military was practicing a raid at the same time Don was preaching. As the story goes, the moment Don slammed his hand down on the pulpit, a bomb went off. Richard laughed as he spoke and said, “A lot of people were saved that day!”

Below: Don Holiman behind the pulpit. 

Jeff was ten when his grandfather passed in 1981, but he still has vivid memories of Don. “He made me a slingshot and taught me about toys and games of his era. He also woke me up at three in the morning to go fishing. I remember thinking, ‘Who in the world goes fishing at three in the morning?’” 

Jeff recalled going down to the train tracks with his father and grandfather and putting pennies on the tracks. “It was like a treasure hunt,” Jeff said, “trying to find the pennies after they had been flattened by the train and shot off the track.”

Above, Don in later years looks on a picture of one of the original Boysville buildings in Texas.

As our interview wrapped up, Jeff added that his grandfather was a mesmerizing storyteller. “He was an adventurer.” Richard added, “My father would say, ‘Trust in the Lord and He will provide.'

After saying “goodbye” to Richard and Jeff, I felt gratitude and admiration - grateful that these two distant relatives were comfortable enough to share their stories with a stranger, and admiration of their connection to each other and their passion for not only researching the past but asking questions in an attempt to understand humanity.  - Grace A. Holliman

For information on Hollimans (various spellings) and their many associated families, visit www.bholliman.com, a virtual archive of over 3,500 folders on Hollyman genealogy, their history since 1347 and many maternal families.

Jeff, Richard and Don Holiman, Part 1

 Last spring Jeanette Holiman Stewart, my wife Barbara and I had the joy of visiting the multigenerational family of Richard Holiman in Florida.  It was really a genealogical fest as we compared notes on the Hollyman paternal line from England to Virginia in 1650 and the diaspora throughout America.  Along the generations, the name has been spelled several ways. The Holiman spelling largely emerged when the Warren Holliman family in the late 1830s moved from the Carolinas first to Alabama and then to Arkansas, dropping an ‘l’ along the way.

This blog also introduces a new genealogist of our shared lineages, my daughter Grace A. Holliman, pictured right, an English major from Virginia Tech gifted with story writing skills. As with me, she appreciates how our families have lived and moved through history.  In this article, she interviews our distant cousins. – Glenn N. Holliman

The Richard S. Holiman Family Story, Part 1 by Grace A. Holliman

“He wasn’t afraid to go off the beaten path….” – Jeff Holiman on his father, Richard Holiman

As I began my virtual interview with Jeff Holiman and his father, Richard, the first thing I noticed was the genuine connection between the two generations. Jeff (b.1971) and Richard (b. 1946), were at ease sitting next to each other at a table in Jeff’s home in Clearwater, Florida. As we began our introductions I had the pleasure of meeting Gina, Jeff’s wife, who has been an important contributor to Jeff’s Holiman family research. Jeff also credited his aunt, Lynda Holiman Jones, with sparking his interest in genealogy over twenty-five years ago.

Left to right, Richard S. Holiman, Kimberly D. and Jeff Holiman, children of Richard and Ryan B. and Jayden S. Holiman, children of Jeff.

“I was in college when my parents lived in Hong Kong,” Jeff, now a mortgage banker,  said. “While most people went home for spring break and Christmas, my sister and I flew to China. It was the late 1980’s and China was changing, opening to the western world by making and selling products that Americans wanted to buy."

Richard was part of this process. He began as a buyer for Eckerd Drugs and had a firsthand look at the role that factories played in small Chinese communities. “Entire villages were employed by these factories,” Richard said. “Children would come by after school in search of work. Often there were jobs they could do, like placing stickers on a package to keep it closed.” Richard reflected and continued, “These were poor people trying to make a living. All they wanted to do was work to get ahead and take care of the older generation.”

Gina (left) wife of Jeff with Jeanette Holiman Stewart, author of the Ancestry.com Hollyman Family site. They stand in front of a genealogical map produced by the Richard Holiman families. 

Jeff recalled a trip to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. “On one corner there was a solider with a machine gun and on another corner, a Kentucky Fried Chicken. The KFC had a long line wrapped around the building. Because we were Westerners, our guide took us to the front of the line where we were served quickly. It was uncomfortable. As we ate, I watched our guide consume every morsel of chicken off the bone. I compared his bare chicken bones to our pile of bones with bits of meat and gristle still on them that we were going to throw away.”

 Jeff remembered how Richard would take him down streets where guides didn’t take tourists. “Dad would take us to see everything. We would walk around the block and see men squatting in alleys playing Mahjonng or Go. He wasn’t afraid to go off the beaten path to show us what life was really like.” Jeff paused and added, “I have deep respect for the vast, rich history of the Asian culture and appreciation for the life my parents gave me in the U.S.”

Richard Holiman in the 1980s in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China

Richard, the well dressed western businessman in China at a factory four decades ago.

As this part of our conversation ended, Richard quietly added, “People in Asian cultures are amazing.”  With that, the three of us paused and I realized how profound Richard’s career had been for him and his family. As our conversation continued I began to understand where Richard, the youngest of three sons of a Baptist preacher, inherited his proclivity for exploration and learning and caring for others.  - Grace A. Holliman

Note: the story will be continued in the next blog.  To learn more about Hollyman and associated families, please go to the comprehensive archive of over 3,500 items at www.bholliman.com.  This site also contains information on the parental Hollyman lines (various spellings) as far back as the 1300s in England.

 

 

 

 

 

Reflections Concerning Isaac Holleman, Part 3

by Glenn N. Holliman

This continues the saga of Isaac Holleman, born in 1818 into slavery at the Josiah Holleman plantation in Mill Swamp, Isle of Wight County, Virginia.  This time line prepared by Susan G. White, direct descendant of Josiah and major historian of the life and times of Isaac Holleman and his wives.  The words in italics are mine, reflecting on the confusion of the Civil War era.- GNH

A picket fence stands before the current house at Stawberry Plains, the original Urquhart plantation in Isle of Wight County, Virginia.

1848    Josiah Holleman died.  Isaac Holleman sold back into slavery for $355 by executor Isaac Cofer, to Richard A. Urquhart, a wealthy slave owner who lived at Strawberry Plains, about 6 miles from Josiah’s home.

            Malinda Pretlow’s father, Moses Pretlow, is on a list of Josiah Holleman’s debts, in Josiah’s handwriting, of being owed $2.76.  Malinda was the mother of Isaac's first three children.

           Moses and Malinda were free; Isaac was enslaved.  The nuances of Virginia society in the antebellum South are fascinating and puncture the 'Gone with the Wind' concept of a static society.  Free African-Americans lived side by side with enslaved persons and European-Americans, some slave owners, others yeoman farmers working the land with family members or hired hands.  

1850       One black male slave, age 30, Richard Urquhart’s slave schedule (believed to Isaac)

1852       Birth of Isaac’s son Robert Holleman, to mother Malinda Pretlow

1854       Birth of daughter Ada, to mother Malinda Pretlow

1858       Birth of son Moses to mother Malinda Pretlow

1860       Richard Urquhart dead.  His widow continued to own slaves.  Census schedule shows 133 slaves, of whom 2 males are ages 45 and 40.  Isaac would be 42 by then.  He would know the domestic slave quarters still standing on Strawberry Plains Farm.

            Census records reveal that Stawberry Plains was the second largest community of enslaved persons in Isle of Wight County prior to the Civil War.  Enslaved plantations of this magnitude were the exception in American slavery.  One can scarcely imagine the sub-cultures within a population of this size.

                Free Negro Malinda Pretlow is listed on the 1860 census, shown a few dwellings down from R. Pretlow.  She lived on Proctor’s Bridge Road, in Southampton County, west of Proctor’s Bridge.

           During the Civil War, Fortress Monroe located on the north side of the James River, some miles east of Isle of Wight County, became a haven for 'contrabands', former enslaved persons who escaped to the freedom of the Union Army.  One of these persons was Isaac.  There is a mystery here because his three children of Malinda Pretlow, all born free, either went with him or joined him at Fortress Monroe.  At some point in the Civil War, Malinda, who lived long after the war, and Isaac separated.  Isaac must have met Ann Gray during the confusion of this turbulent period and made her his second wife while at Fortress Monroe.

1866       Freedman’s Bureau records show Isaac petitioning for money October 1866 to return home to Nansemond County, along with Ann Gray Holleman, Robert, Ada, and Moses Holleman, to “escape destitution.”  He also petitions for money due his son Robert for work son did for Mrs. Binford, who lived just west of Proctor’s Bridge in Southampton County.

            Nonnie Holliman and Sandi Royal, descendents of Isaac and Ann Gray at the Stawberry Plains farm March 2022 where their ancestor worked and from which he escaped to freedom during the Civil War.                                                               

 1867       Birth of daughter Luzerne.  Mother is Ann (Gray) Holleman

 1870       Malinda Pretlow listed on Southampton County 1870 census.

1871       January 1.  Isaac and Ann buy farm from Nathaniel P. Phillips, made payment of $50.  Farm previously owned by Cary Eley. This farm located a few miles south of Windsor.

1873       November 11.  Isaac pays remainder of farm money, 194.01, to Phillips’ executor, John R. Kilby, and receives deed to the 50-acre farm.

1876       Birth of son Nonnie

1878       Birth of son Jeremiah

1879       Birth of son Joshua

1880       Isaac, Ann, and children on census

Census farm schedule identified Isaac’s farm and its assets

1881       Birth of son Joseph, who died in infancy, about age 1 yr

1883       Birth of son Joshua

1885       Birth of son John Henry, Sr.

1888       Birth of daughter Joanna

1889       Dec. 23 document of Isaac and Ann paying $50 to trustee George T. Atkins, presumably for a debt to neighbor Richard F. Eley.  Debt was satisfied.

1890       U. S.  census burned.  No records.

1897       Last time Isaac paid taxes on farm.

1898       Farm then in name of “Holleman, Isaac, estate”.

1900       Wife Ann on census, with children living with her.  She owned her own home/farm. The date of her death is unknown.  Both Isaac and Ann are buried on the farm, now in unmarked graves.  The property has been part of the Norfolk Southern Railroad since the 1950s.

So here we have the incrediable, tragic, heroic story of Isaac Holleman who born a slave, freed, taken back into bondage, escaped to freedom, became a land owner during Reconstruction, raised children from two wives and whose descendents today are scattered across the USA.   

Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address spoke of a 'new birth of freedom' in America.  Isaac perservered in conditions and circumstances unimaginable today.  He bears the name Holleman.  And all, descendants and those of the same surname, salute him for his courage and steadfastness in adversity.  - GNH

Reflections Concerning Isaac Holleman, Part 2

 by Glenn N. Holliman

This reflection continues our exploration into the life and times of Isaac and Ann Gray Holleman, a biracial couple who challenged the strict norms and laws of post Civil War Virginia.  In my previous article I acknowledged and do so again the serious research by Susan G. White, a descendant of Josiah Holleman (1771-1848), who has discovered new facts about this amazing story.  

Susan has prepared a valuable timeline of the events in the life of Isaac.  With this information, I have integrated photographs from a visit of Isaac descendants and several of us in the lineage of Christopher Hollyman (1618-1691), the ancestor of most Hollimans (various spellings) in the United States.  

The parents of Isaac are not known.  At least one Federal census records him as of a mixed race.  Was his mother an African American held in bondage and his father, a man, perhaps a slave owner?  DNA tests have not yet provided us that information.  As early as the 1680s, Virginia law forbade sexual relations between those enslaved and White persons.  As historical and DNA records show, numerous White males through the generations ignored this restriction.

Timeline for Isaac Henry Holleman (1818-1897 ca) by Susan G. White, Hollyman Family Historian

1810       Josiah Holleman owned 9 enslaved people

1811       He bought 2 more, woman Harty and girl Lavinia

1818      Birthdate of Isaac Henry Holleman, according to Freedman’s Bureau record

1820       Josiah Holleman owned 15 enslaved persons, including 9 males

Isaac was born on the original property purchased by Christopher Hollyman in 1684, land that remains in the Holleman family to this day.  The current owner, Billy Joe Holleman, opened wide this ancestral property to a large gathering of Hollemans in 2016 and again he graciously welcomed our group in March 2022.  Josiah Holleman was a 4th great grandson of Christopher's.  One of Josiah's sons, Joel, served as a U.S. Congressman.

Left to right, Tammy Hunt, Susan White, Billy Joe Holleman and Isle of Wight historian, Jim Henderson, on the Holleman farm near the Mill Swamp Baptist Church in IOW county.  This stop one of several on March 12, 2022.  

 

1823      Malinda Pretlow born, Free Person of Color, daughter of Free Black parents             

1830      Josiah owned 14 enslaved persons, including 8 males, 3 ages 10-23

The Holleman House constructed in the 1830s by Josiah Holleman on original land of Christopher Hollyman (1618-1691). It is not unrealistic to imagine young Isaac Holleman had a hand in constructing this federal period structure.     

 1836       Isaac, age 18, emancipated, via Josiah’s petition to the court.  

1840       Josiah’s census listing shows 1 male Free Person of Color, age 10-23, 1 female Free Person of Color under 10, and 8 enslaved beings.   

1848      Josiah died with many debts.  Isaac sold back into slavery for $355 by executor Isaac Cofer, to    Richard A. Urquhart, a very wealthy plantation owner who lived at Strawberry Plains,  8 miles from Josiah’s home.  Malinda’s father, Moses Pretlow, is on list of Josiah   Holleman’s  debts, in Josiah’s handwriting, of being owed $2.76. 

            Fear and Stress in Pre-Civil War Society

            A decade before Josiah's death, the 1831 Nat Turner slave rebellion occurred in nearby Southampton County resulting in the death of any many as 55 persons.  This incident terrorized the White south as it fulfilled the greatest fear of slave owners!  Night patrols of anxious local authorities road at night insured no enslaved persons stirred from their homes without permission.

            A generation prior to the Civil War, the tobacco economy of Virginia suffered as the soil worked in earlier generations was exhausted of nutrients.  Josiah's indebtedness at death is a vivid example of the increasing economic challenges of Virginia enslavement plantations to be profitable.  Nearby Richmond had become a slave trading mecca where tens of thousands of human beings were sold at auction.  

            In many. many cases persons were separated from their families and homes and literally in chains marched hundreds of miles to the newer, soil rich plantations in Alabama and Mississippi. This nefarious system shattered the unity of African-America families, their security and fragile culture.  The ramifications of this evil institution ricochet through American society to this day.        

          Questions and Thoughts to be Considered

                                                   Nonnie Holliman and Sandi Royal

            On our way back to Richmond, Susan White, Sandi Royal, Nonnie Holliman and I speculated  on several issues in this story.  As I wrote years ago (click on name of Isaac Holleman in left column), pre-Civil War IOW of Wight County was an uneasy, largely agrarian, society of slave plantations, yeoman White farmers with no persons held in bondage and numerous Free Persons of Color. 

         1. Why, when Isaac received emancipation in 1836, he was again enslaved by 1848 and sold to pay Josiah's estate debts?  Had Isaac, who as a Free Person of Color with very limited civil rights after legal emancipation, violated a law, a slave code of the time, and as punishment forced back into to bondage?  There are cases of this happening.

            2. We noted Josiah owed money at his death to Moses Pretlow, a free person and father of Malinda, Isaac's first wife.  There then was some integrity in a system that recognized contract law even with free African-Americans who navigated a precarious legal and societal existence.

            3. Moses was the father of Malinda Pretlow, who 'jumped the broomstick' with Isaac and bore him at least three children, perhaps two others.  'Jumping the brook stick' literally was the folk custom of marriage of enslave persons prior to establishing legal rights after the Civil War.   

            Left to right at the Pretlow farm near where Malinda Pretlow lived are Doris Knox and Tammy Hunt, direct descendants from Isaac and his first wife Malinda.  Far right is Nonnie Holliman, descended from Isaac and Ann Gray Holleman.  The empty house in the background was constructed ca 1870 during the Reconstruction Period.

               Malinda lived approximately a mile (as the crow flies) from the Holleman plantation eventually living separately from her father.   This couple had three children before the Civil War which evidently led to their separation. 

At the Pretlow farm, current owners Mary Leatherwood and Adrian West shared an aerial photograph of the property as it looked in the early 20th Century

How did the couple sustain a relationship that resulted in children, separated as they were by some distance and legal status?  At age 30, Isaac had to move to Strawberry Plains, a farming community of over 100 enslaved African-Americans, miles away from Malinda.  Perhaps this doomed the marriage?

Next article more information and yet more questions on this story of 19th Century America, an America that had yet to live into its creed of liberty and justice for all. Only a Civil war would give Isaac and millions of others 'a new birth of freedom.'-GNH

 

Reflections concerning Isaac Holleman, 1818-1898 ca

 by Glenn N. Holliman

Daffodils tell a Story

On March 12, 2022, a Holleman/Holliman family group, all descended from ancestors of Isle of Wight County, Virginia, finished a late lunch in Windsor, Virginia. It had rained 'cats and dogs' that morning but after the sky had emptied several inches of rain, a nasty, windy cold front moved in, and later a wet snow fell.  We were a three, sometimes a four, car convoy visiting Holleman ancestry sites, on a blustery day in late winter.

Above, at an earlier stop before lunch near Windsor.  Susan White, our leader, shivering in blue, Tammy Hunt, Sandi Royal, Kimberly Holliman and her father Paul Holliman listening to a lecture at a century old country store by Jim Henderson (not visible) of the IOW Historical Society.  

Refreshed by a quick meal, our convoy headed east on Old Suffolk Road. The rain eased, although not the wind chill.  We turned south on Tyler Road, drove a half mile or so, stopped at the Tyler Cemetery.  

Here we visited the resting places of the African-American Hollemans, often spelled Holliman, many descendants of Isaac Holleman.  

Isaac Holleman was our reason for this trip.  He had been born a slave into the household of Josiah Holleman of Mill Swamp, IOW, in 1818.  His story has intrigued me since I heard it in 2012 from Sandi Royal, a descendant of Isaac.

Isaac's great grandson, Nonnie Holliman, pictured here visiting his grandfather's resting place, was in our group, as well as others who descended from Isaac.  Nonnie, retired from Federal service,  drove all the way from his home in Syracuse, New York to make this pilgrimage to the town in which he grew up.  

The genealogist who had arranged the trip, Susan White, of Richmond, descendent of Josiah, has gathered in the past year a monumental amount of research on Isaac and his two wives, Malinda Pretlow and Ann Gray. 

Susan has written the past three blogs on Isaac and his incredible story.  She is an often visitor to the Library of Virginia, the Virginia Baptist Historical Society Library, and the archives of IOW county.  Those of us studying the Hollyman families in Virginia owe her a great debt of gratitude.

Utilizing her research and that of historian Jim Henderson of IOW Historical Society who also accompanied us, I add my own reflections and tip my hat to both of them.

At the Tyler Cemetery, Kimberly Holliman, Sandi Royal, this writer, Tammy Hunt and Doris Knox

The water table in this part of southeast Virginia is close to the surface hence the concrete tablets to secure the grave sites.  

Isaac escaped bondage during to the Civil War and found sanctuary at Fortress Monroe, a Union outpost. There he must have met and married the mysterious Ann Gray.  Destitute after the war and with children from his first wife, Malinda, and now children with Ann, somehow he was able to purchase a 50 acre farm in 1871.  Susan believes he died there before 1899 and his wife, a few years later.  In her research Susan discovered the location of the farm near Tyler Cemetery.

Are this biracial couple buried in Tyler Cemetery?  No, that is not their resting place.  Nonnie, who had spent time on the farm in childhood (it stayed in the Holleman family until 1954), believes the couple is buried on their farm.  

We boarded our automobiles, studied our maps and headed further south along Tyler Road, past the turn off at Dunston Road, and drove a bit further.  The farm had been purchased by the railroad and now the land along Tyler was now brush, trees and shrub.  We could find no entrance into where we knew from the map that the farm had been located.

And then we spotted the daffodils.

 

Daffodils are not native to North America.  They have to be planted.  According to author Kelly Gamey, who photographs and writes of forsaken southern properties, a clump of isolated daffodils in the spring are 'ghost gardens', bulbs buried in previous decades by former inhabitants of abandoned sites.  You might check out her site at kelly@theforgottensouth.com.

There were no other daffodils along the road.  This had to be the lost entrance to the Isaac and Ann Gray farm.  Somewhere in the bush probably lay the foundations of a home and graves.  But we were not equipped for an exploratory hike in the marshy woodlands that cold afternoon. 

We stopped, took photos, and chilled as we were, called it a day.  I rode with Susan, our driver and historian, and Sandi and Nonnie, all of us returning to Richmond.  We said goodbye to Tammy and Doris of Southampton County.  And also Paul, Teresa and Kimberly Holliman, residents of Williamsburg and alumni of our 2019 Hollyman excursion to England.  They ferried across the James River, coming and going to be with us that day.

On the way back it snowed several inches and the temperature kept dropping.  But our hearts were warmed by what we had seen and heard that day.

And more on the trip in the next blog as we explore further the life and times of Isaac Holleman.....

The Saga of Isaac and Ann Gray Holleman, Part 3

 

The story of the biracial couple of 19th Century Isle of Wight, Virginia continues, written by Susan G. White (pictured right), a family historian known for her research and careful conclusions. We are grateful to her for sharing her insights and gathering information thoughtfully from the ancestors of this courageous couple. - Glenn N. Holliman

Enter Ann Gray, a White woman. Ann has been the subject of much speculation and interest in current-day Holleman researchers.  For generations, Black Hollemans have told of Isaac and Ann’s complicated relationship in their oral history, that Isaac and Ann fled from her angry family in their initial love.  

White Holleman researchers have tried to connect Ann with Gray ancestors who were closely connected with Josiah Holleman, or to other Ann Grays in Isle of Wight, but to no avail.   Sandi Royal, a descendent of Isaac’s son Joshua, Denise Keeter Goff, an excellent Holleman researcher, and I worked hard this past summer of 2021 to track down Ann’s parents.  

Sandi finally summed it up perfectly, “We will probably never know who Ann’s parents were.”  Be that as it may, somehow, Isaac and Ann met and found a life together.

Above, Glenn N. Holliman and Sandi Royal discussing the Isaac and Ann Gray Holleman story in 2012 in Chester, Virginia.

We know of Isaac and Ann’s life first by way of Freedman’s Bureau records.  Isaac petitioned the Freedman’s Bureau in October 1865, from Fort Monroe, Virginia, to request money for him, Ann, and his three children Robert, Ada, and Moses, to return to Nansemond county, Virginia, to “escape destitution.”  

He also requested help from the Bureau that his son Robert Holleman be reimbursed for the money owed to him for working for the “Widow Binford.”  Mrs. Binford and her husband lived one dwelling away from Malinda Pretlow in the 1860 Southampton County census.  Isaac was working to get what he felt he was due after the war, in order to survive.  

We can wonder how it was that Isaac, Ann, and the 3 children ended up at Ft. Monroe?  The fort was under Union control during the Civil War, and commanded by General Benjamin Butler.  

The general famously would not return slaves who had fled to Ft. Monroe to Confederate owners; he called the slaves “contraband of war.”  Large numbers of slaves found the destination of Ft. Monroe to be sanctuary, and we can guess that Isaac and family were no different. 

In her famous book on the history of Isle of Wight County, Helen Harverty King wrote the following:

'The county was in desperate circumstances by the end of 1863. The season had been bad, almost the entire slave population was gone, the call came for more recruits for the army, the insecurity of persons and property was made greater by frequent enemy visits and there was a great scarcity of necessities for life on the home front."

 Isaac’s three children with his first wife Malinda Pretlow were Robert, Ada, and Moses, all who have been well documented.  Robert married Cassandra Daughtry, and had 10 children; he stayed in the Isle of Wight area.  Ada  married Jacob Ely, and after she died, Jacob married her half-sister Lucerne Holleman, a daughter of Isaac and Ann.  Moses married first Eugenia Randal/Randolph, and after she died, he married her sister, Ann Eliza Randal/Randolph.

Above on an excursion in Isle of Wight County, Virginia in 2012 are left to right: Tammy Hunt, Cyndi Barnett, Doris Knox, Robert Royal and in the background, Sandi Royal. Tammy is a descendant of Isaac and Malinda; Cyndi, Doris and Sandi all are descendants of Isaac and Ann Gray Holleman. Robert is Sandi’s husband.  They are all standing on Proctor’s Bridge overlooking the Blackwater River, not far from the ancestral farms of the Binfords, Pretlows and Hollemans.

Census records have been fruitful in uncovering Isaac’s story, with one exception.  We cannot find Isaac and family anywhere in the 1870 census that would explain where they moved to after Ft. Monroe.  

Why did they request transportation to Nansemond county, southeast of Isle of Wight, instead of back to Isle of Wight?  

All comes well, though, in the 1880 census and farm schedule, where Isaac, Ann, and family owned a 50-acre farm in the Windsor district of Isle of Wight.  They had a total of 10 children:  Luzerne, Roxanna, or Roxie, Addie Lou, Nonnie James, Isaac Thomas, Sr., Jeremiah, Joseph, Joshua Sr., John H. Sr., and Joanna. 

Recent examination of Isle of Wight land tax records revealed that Isaac paid tax on his farm located 9 miles south of the county courthouse until 1897, and we know that he fathered daughter Joanna, also in 1897.  His land entry was entitled “Holleman, Isaac, estate” in 1898, so we can safely assume he died in 1897 or 1898.  Ann shows on the 1900 census as a farmer, owning her home, and widowed.   Further land tax records continue to refer to the farm as Isaac’s estate.

This story of Isaac Holleman and his remarkable life in Isle of Wight county, Virginia, shows resilience, persistence, and honor in achieving his freedom in ways we find difficult to fathom.  

He survived slavery twice, gained emancipation, survived the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow.  Isaac’s proximity to Fort Monroe, Virginia and Isle of Wight, Virginia illustrate the geographical, political, and historical connections of slavery in our Holleman family.

Isaac’s children’s stories continue, with descendants Black and White uncovering and sharing them.  Perhaps we can share them later. -Susan G. White