EARLIER HOLLEMAN/HOLLIMANS IN WAKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA

by J. Allen Holleman

Allen Holleman, organizer of the Hollyman Gathering April 2016 in Isle of Wight County, Virignia, continues his articles on some of the Hollemans who left Virginia and moved south to North Carolina. Allen's direct lineage stayed in North Carolina (but certainly not all), while mine kept moving south and west, eventually in my case to Fayette County, Alabama in 1836. - Glenn N. Holliman

The recent posts I have lately added seem to indicate that John and Jesse (Jr.) Holleman were the first of our ancestors in Wake County, North Carolina; arriving in 1804/05.  They were not.

Wake was created in 1772 in large part from the huge, old Johnston County to the east, as well as from Orange on the west side and a sliver from Cumberland to the south.  Chatham County was created from Orange at the same time.

Far right, Allen at the Smithfield, Virginia Hollyman seminars with cousin Steve Holleman, descendant of Jonathan and Barnett Holleman.

About 1800 Lewis Holleman, son of Jedediah, known as Jeddia, who was brother of Jesse Sr., my 5th GGF, bought property in Raleigh as well as some near-by farmland.  In 1805 he married a widow, Penelope Lane Atkins.  Penny's father was James Lane, brother of Joel Lane, called the "Father of Raleigh".

Penny had a dower right to 1/3 of a large plantation, and the couple were given leave to run the entire plantation by the Atkins family for the benefit of her two children by Thomas Atkins.  In 1812 they had a son, one of several named William Henry Holleman, who in the latter half of the 19th C. became a wealthy businessmen and one of the largest property owners in Raleigh.

In the first US census in 1790, there were two others named Holliman.  One was James Grantson Holliman, a direct ancestor of Glenn N. Holliman, the principal of this website.  Before 1800 he had moved west and amassed huge acreages in Anson and Mecklenberg Counties in NC and Lancaster Co., SC.   He evidently had a large farm in Johnston Co. that became part of Wake in 1772.

The other was Thomas Holliman, with his wife Amelia and two children.  They lived in Raleigh west of the State House.  After he died, before 1800, she remained until her 2nd marriage later.  We don't know where Thomas was from.  A descendant, Lynn Holliman Fusinato, an excellent genealogist herself, has not been able to discover his origin.


For information on placing an article, please write Glenn N. Holliman at glennhistory.gmail.com. For manuscripts and materials on Hollymans and other associated families, visit the growing virtual archive at www.bholliman.com/ .

Please click on 'Older Post' below to see all of Allen Holleman's recent articles and the August 1, 2016 posting by Susan G. White.  A descendant of the Isle of Wight, Virginia Hollemans, she records the various quests of her maternal lineage to acquire a higher education.  GNH