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.