Monday, February 28, 2011

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

by Glenn N. Holliman

1912 or 1914?  Is the Baby Euhal or Loudelle?


The 1910 U.S. Census lists Ulyss and Pearl Holliman living in Precinct 1 in Fayette, Alabama.  Granted the numbers might be somewhat inaccurate with Ulyss listed as age 26 (b 1884 which is correct), but  Pearl as 21 on April 15, 1910, which would make her born in 1889  Traditionally the family lists her birthday as February 1887.

What is the age of the below photograph and who is the baby?  On the left is Vena Holliman Daly and on the right is Melton Holliman.  The third child born was Euhal Holliman in 1912 when Melton was four and Vena 2 1/2 years of age.  Melton appears about 5 or 6 in this photo and Vena could be 3 or 4, making this picture of a one-year old Euhal in his stroller.  Loudelle would be born in 1914, and conceivably this could be her as a baby, but why would not Euhal be included?  Perhaps there is a missing photo.  Can any family member definitely identify whether this be Euhal or Loudelle Holliman Ferrell?


Having a picture taken was still a formal and expensive process in 1912.  Melton is dressed in a quasi-feminine outfit typical of the formal attire of young boys of that day.  Vena is also wearing leggings and a very fancy dress.  The 1910 Census does not list a trade or profession for Ulyss.  One can surmise this photograph was an financial extravagance for a growing, young family for whom the breadwinner was probably a mill worker in the local lumber yard.  Employment opportunities in Fayette were limited at the time, and Ulyss was not a farmer.  As his family grew, so did expenses.

When regular and more lucrative employment beckoned in the 'Magic City' of Birmingham later in the decade, the family would move.

More later.....

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

by Glenn N. Holliman

                              Ulyss's Wise Selection of a Wife

Above is pictured Pearl Caine as a young lady.  Those dark eyes must have attracted Ulyss.  The comments are by Bishop Holliman, their fifth child,  who is not sure when his parents were married.  He thinks 1907.  More research is needed, but I believe it was 1906.  

Ulyss and the rest of his descendants are fortunate that a young 19 year old, Pearl Caine, agreed to marry him in 1906.  Pearl balanced Ulyss's quiet, sometimes grumpy nature (at least when he was older).  She was loving, generous, strong willed and terribly hard working.  She is remembered warmly by surviving children and grandchildren old enough to remember.

Born in Fayette County, Alabama in 1887, she died of a heart attack May 5, 1955, stricken at her home in Irondale, Alabama.  She survived in the hospital until all her children could arrive and say goodbye.

The couple had seven children.  They are:

Melton Pearson Holliman (1907 - 1958)

Vena Vivian Holliman Daly Buckheit (1909 - 1990)

Euhal Arlington Holliman (1912 - 1989)

Loudelle Holliman Ferrell (1914 - 1998)

Homer Bishop Holliman (1919)

Virginia Ruth Holliman Cornelius (1922)

William Ralph Holliman (1924)

In my blog at http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/, I have separate pages on each of these children.  In time, I shall be removing those pages and moving their stories and additional information to this blog at http://ulyssholliman.blogspot.com/.


More in a few days....

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants



Ulyss S. Holliman



by Glenn N. Holliman

In February 2010, with the help of my daughter, Grace Holliman, I began publishing articles on the Holliman family. An abundance of material made available by cousins Rhodes Holliman, Ron Holliman and others, plus my own research, has led me further back into our family past than I had originally planned or thought possible. I intend to continue to write and publish such information at http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/.

However, thanks to my father, sisters and cousins, I have accumulated a tremendous number of photographs and letters. Of the seven children of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman, four have left us. Memories of a time and place in Southern and American history are slipping away. My cousins and I are not getting younger. Thanks to the internet, it is possible to collect information easily and share it with family. With this new blog, I hope to focus exclusively on my father's parents, their families and descendants.

The young man above is my grandfather. Rhodes Holliman made this photograph available to me. This picture resembles my own father, Bishop Holliman (b 1919) as a young man in the 1930s. There is also a strong resemblance to my Uncle Ralph Holliman, whom his daughters, Pam and Kathy may notice. Probably this picture was made in Fayette, Alabama in the late 1890s, perhaps in the year 1900.

Ulyss was the last born of six brothers to a Civil War veteran, John Thomas Holliman, and his second wife, Martha Jane Walker Holliman. John seems to have been a simple farmer who worked hard to bring in a crop each year and cloth and feed his many boys. He died in 1930 and Martha Jane, shortly after. They died poor leaving little in worldly goods. However, they gave their sons a sense of morality and purpose. Their sons, whatever their career paths and financial success or lack of it, seemed to have all been of high moral character.

Ulyss was gifted with his hands, and spent his adult life working first in the wood mill in Fayette, and then in 1918 as a carpenter with the Birmingham Electric Company, repairing the wooden street cars. He retired in 1949 at the age of 65.

This grandfather of mine was taciturn, a person of few words and he had difficulty showing emotion (other than annoyance perhaps). This was balanced by his strong work ethic, rising early and stoking a coal fire in the winter, commuting a long distance from the home in Irondale, Alabama to the street car yard, and then back again late in the evening. Until Roosevelt's New Deal, he worked six days a week, had no sick days and no vacation time.

In 1906 he married one of the Caine sister's in Fayette, one Pearl Caine. Together this couple would have seven children. In future articles, I will be writing of Grand Mother Holliman and the seven children.

Opinions expressed are mine alone. I welcome comments, critique and especially additional memories and photos. Please let me know if one wishes a photo removed or commentary edited. No photos of current under age descendants are published. My email address is Glennhistory@gmail.com. My thanks to the family for the use of materials.