Friday, October 21, 2011

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

The Golden Summers of the 1930s, Part IV
by H. Bishop Holliman 2011

"In the summer of 1933, the Robert Dalys, The Rev. Stewart Button and the Model A Ford all got together, left Irondale, Alabama and went to the Century of Progress (the World's fair ) in Chicago!  Can you imagine anything more unusual than that!!!  They left daughter Mary, now two years old, with Robert's sister, Lena and other Daly folks, on their farm, up above where Mary and E.C. Herrin live now (near the new Shades Valley High School in east Irondale).


Right, Loudelle Holliman Ferrell and her sister-in-law Ida Holliman in front of the Daly house in Irondale, a new home built by Robert Daly in the early 1930s.  The lawn on which Loudelle and Ida are standing was the shared lawn with the Ulyss Holliman home at 2300 3rd Avenue. Dozens of family photos were taken from the 1930s to 1990s at this site.

In addition, they took Loudelle with them!  I guess they were gone a week.  They must have been on the road a night each way, going and coming.  I am sure Robert paid all the expenses for gas and overnight lodging.  Maybe Mr. Button paid his hotel bill.  Loudelle would not have had any money, and she lost a week's wages because there was no vacation time nor sick leave for hardly any one at that time, and surely not for ten cent store clerks.  But this was Loudelle's time to travel with the Dalys!

To say that your relatives had gone to the World's Fair elevated in little Irondale, Alabama our prestige no end - even more so than riding in the rumble seat of the Packard!  None of us knew of anyone else who had gone to Chicago, and certainly not to the Fair. It gave us a lot to talk about.  Vena and Robert always brought souvenirs back to Virginia, Ralph and me, but I can't recall now what they brought this time.  Loudelle picked up lots of pamphlets with coupons to order stuff, and I got on many mailing lists.  Below, Vena Holliman Daly in 1934.


An interesting side bar - to add luster to this 1933 safari, the next summer, 1934, the noted gangster, John Dillenger, was shot and killed by FBI agents outside a Chicago theater.  The four from Irondale like to claim that the hotel where they stayed the summer before was just a few blocks from where the Enemy No. One was gunned down!  That gave them something to talk about (aside from being asked several times if they saw Sally Rand)!"

More exciting Irondale adventures in next post....

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

by Glenn N. Holliman

The Golden Summers of the 1930s, Part III
by H. Bishop Holliman 2011

"In the summer of 1933 many of FDR's programs were being developed and there was lots of news about the new President and what was happening in Washington. That summer I spent reading the 8th grade history book because I had been double-promoted from the 7th grade to the 9th. Mr. Millsap, the principal, had told me to study that book over the summer, so I did. In September 1933, I entered the 9th grade.

Below in Irondale, Alabama in 1934 are left, Ida Hughes Holliman, wife of Melton, and Loudelle Holliman. In 1935, Loudelle would marry an up and coming young Methodist minister, Charles Ferrell.

Loudelle was working at F.W. Woolworth Ten Cent Store on 3rd Avenue and 19th Street in Birmingham. She worked six days a week and made, I think, seven dollars a week! Her car fare was 14 cents day. I don't know what she did for lunch. Euhal was working in Hill's grocery store in East Lake, but I do not know how much he was paid.

Right, a restored 1926 Packard with rumble seat the type in which Euhal Holliman enjoyed riding when Robert and Vena Holliman Daly took him for a long vacation ride!

By that summer, Robert Daly had sold his Packard Roadster and bought a Model A Ford from Cecil Bunt, who lived on the same street up on the hill. I never did know why he sold the Packard, or felt the need to move down to a lower level. That was not for me to know. The two-door Ford was probably a 1931 model.

 Also in 1933, there came into Robert and Vena's life, and also into our family's lives, The Rev. Stewart Button, the new Presbyterian preacher in Irondale, one who was to impact our lives for many years.

Below, Irondale neighbor, Charles Pugh, Bishop Holliman and Stewart Button in front of the Holliman home at 2300 3rd Avenue, ca 1939.




Mr. Button, or 'Button' as Robert Daly called him, was a native of Ireland and had come to the States in the late 1920s, attended Maryville College in Tennessee, a Presbyterian institute. A well educated man, he was about the same age as Robert but as yet unmarried. Robert and Vena took him under their wings, and from then on Mr. Button was like one of the family.

 He was in and out of their house constantly, socialized with them and shared many hours of pleasant conversations. Maybe it was the Irish connection that tied them together. Anyway, he became a big part of their lives as long as they lived. Also, he had a great influence on my life as well."

Next, a Return again to the 1930s....

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

The Golden Summers of the 1930s, Part II
by H. Bishop Holliman 2011

"In the summer of 1929, Daddy (Ulyss Holliman 1884 - 1965) bought an electric cook stove, a rare appliance for that time and place.  Up until then Mama (Pearl Caine Holliman 1888 - 1955) had had to cook on a coal stove, which, of course, was an unbearable thing in the summer.  But not many folks in Irondale, Alabama enjoyed the luxury of such a thing at that time.

Left, a side view of the Ulyss Holliman house at 2300 3rd Avenue, Irondale, Alabama.  Constructed in 1921, the home had six rooms and no indoor plumbing facilities until 1938. This photo was taken in November 2010.

I remember this event so well because the stove was installed while Vena and Robert were on their trip to Kentucky and North Carolina.  They took Euhal (1912 - 1989) with them on this trip.  He was 17 years old, and I remember his saying when he returned that he sat in the rumble seat and waved to the girls they passed along the way!  So Euhal was the first of the family to enjoy a long auto trip with the Dalys.  Our time - and Loudelle's - would come later.
                                                                  Above Euhal Holliman, ca 1935

By the summer of 1930, the Great Depression was in full sway, though I was too young to understand the implications of any of it.  I thought folks had always been unemployed.  The freight trains that came through Irondale, which we could plainly see from our front porch, had always carried hobos as far as I knew, so I was not impressed one way or the other by the evidence around me.  If Daddy had been out of a job, as so many of our acquaintances were, I am sure I would have been more aware of what was happening.
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Mary Daly was born in June 1931, so they did not go anywhere that summer.  At that time, 1931, they were living in the 2nd brick house (the one next to the woods) on our block. I remember Bill Fortenberry on the afternoon of June 15, 1931, who worked for his brother Ed in the local grocery store, saying to me that I was now an 'uncle'.  I thought that made me more mature than I was!

Right, Mary Daly Herrin in Irondale, 1932.

I guess the summer of 1932 was much like the previous summer.  The Depression had deepened, and the thought of taking along trip was incomprehensible to most folks.  Daddy was still working, and Euhal and Loudelle were working off and on.  Radio was a fairly new kid on the block, even though Daddy had bought a Zenith in 1928 for the prodigious sum of $219, a huge amount in those days.

I remember Mama let me stay home from school in 1929 to listen to Herbert Hoover's presidential inauguration.  In 1932 we listened to the Democratic Convention and heard the band playing over and over 'Happy Days are Here Again.'

The radio, along with the electric stove, made us among the first folks in Irondale to claim ownership of such modern conveniences."

Next more memories of the 1930s....