Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

by Glenn N. Holliman


Vena Vivian Hollman Daly Buckheit (1909 - 1990),
the Second Child of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman

Above left to right are Vena, Loudelle, Euhal, Bishop and Melton Holliman in 1920.  The pony may have belonged to Mrs. T.C. Burgess who lived at the bottom of the hill below the Irondale, Alabama house.  She had two children, John Hugh and Sadie Mae.  Mr. Burgess owned the hardware store that Robert and George Daly purchased in 1944.

Vena was 8 in 1917, when Ulyss and Pearl Holliman moved their four children and themselves to the growing suburb of Irondale, Alabama.  The population of Birmingham and its environs were exploding.  Founded in the 1870s, Birmingham grew in forty years from 3,086 to 178,816!  Jobs were plentiful as the infrastructure of the steel industry and the city grew.  Ulyss Holliman, now age 32, with many mouths to feed, left Fayette County and work in the lumber yard, to become a carpenter with the Birmingham Electric Company.

As Birmingham grew horizontally, street car lines pushed to all corners and into the suburbs.  Ulyss helped keep the wooden carriages and benches in good repair.  Ironically, when Ulyss was born there were no street cars in Birmingham, and when he died in 1965, there were not street cars in Birmingham.

Vena, the oldest daughter helped her mother, Pearl, care for the growing brood, which expanded by three more children after Ulyss found secure employment, and the family settled into new housing in Irondale.

In December 1924, twenty-one year old Robert Daly, grandson of an Irish immigrant who came to Alabama to build railroads, watched Vena in a Christmas pageant in the Irondale Methodist Church.  Robert, smitten over the cute 15 year old, sent her the above note and by her 19th birthday in 1928, she became his bride!  Below is the newspaper clipping of the happy occasion.  Click on the pictures to make them larger.



More soon on the Daly family and how they impacted on the life of the three youngest children....


Note: The information and opinions expressed in these family biographies are those of the writer alone. Comments, corrections and additions are most welcome. The purpose of these articles is to capture a period and family in American history and to pass this legacy along to future generations who share the common bond of family.  My thanks to Mary Daly Herrin for making these materials available..