Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

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

"So, thus ended my third Golden Summer with the Robert Dalys and my sister, Virginia Holliman Cornelius.  By next summer, 1937, I had finished Shades Cahaba and was hoping to enter Birmingham Southern College that Fall, also trying to pick up odd jobs.  I had reached the age where I would have to start paying my way, and that realization posed all sorts of problems for me.  My days of romping on the beach were over and done with!!"

Above are eight of the thirteen family members who were caught in the 1936 hurricane.  This photo was taken in 1936 in the yard between the Dalys and Hollimans in Irondale, Alabama, a natural photo spot to catch the afternoon sun.  

The youngster with the long tie on the front row is Ralph Holliman, about 12 years old.  The young girl is Mary Herrin, born 1931, with her grandmother’s hands resting on her shoulders.  Her grandmother is Pearl Caine Holliman, age approximately 49 in this photo and not wearing glasses at that time. 

Back row left to right are Ida Hughes Holliman, her husband Melton Holliman, Virginia Holliman, probably 14 in this photo, Ulyss Holliman and Robert Daly, Sr. just behind his wife, Vena Holliman Daly.  Perhaps Bishop Holliman took the photo.

As an aside, notice how young Pearl Caine Holliman appears in this picture.  In just a few years, she will age noticeably with the advent of World War II and three sons going to war. - GNH

 "However, Vena, Robert, Mary and Virginia went to Miami the next summer, and Mr. Stewart Button returned to Irondale and went with them.  Upon their return, I went to Knoxville with Mr. B. staying with a church family there, and we climbed Mt. LeConte in the Smokies.  Virginia may have gone with them again in 1938 or 1939…I am not sure.  My youngest brother, Ralph, went with them in whatever year it was Virginia did not go, even though he has forgotten it!"

In the surf in Florida – left to right – Stewart Button, unidentified, Robert Daly, Mary Daly Herrin, Ralph Holliman and Vena Holliman Daly.

In 1937 Robert Daly, Sr. took the below photo in Miami, Florida of a Pan Am passenger transport, a flying boat which made regular runs to Havana, Cuba and Latin America.  This was a massive aircraft for its day, a Sikorsky S-42, all aluminium capable of 150 mph carrying 32 passengers. Range was an amazing 3,000 miles (very lightly loaded), and it still took five days to carry passengers with luggage from Miami to Buenos Aires!  - GNH

Next, more family memories by Bishop Holliman....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

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

In late 1936, the 16 year old Bishop Holliman wrote a 'book' on the great hurricane of 1936 that his family had experienced in the pan handle of Florida.  In 2011, 91 years old, he wrote the story from memory as I now have pocession of the 75 page tome.  In comparing my Father's memories to what he wrote three - quarters of a century earlier, he has remembered well and factually in his senior years. Naturally the 1936 work is much more detailed and includes some danger not included in his 2011 memoirs.  Still a fascinating look at an America three-quarters a century ago. - GNH 


In November 2010, below my Father, back to camera, visited his boyhood home,  Irondale, Alabama again.  This photo shows him conversing with the unidentified person who now lives in the house (behind her) on 2^nd Avenue where his brother, Melton and his wife, Ida Hughes Holliman, lived in the late 1930s. His 2011 narrative continues....

"Melton and Ida were living in the house across from Grandma Lula Caine (in Irondale, Alabama), just down the hill from us.  Ida had an old Underwood typewriter that she let us peck on from time to time.  So several days after we returned home I got the bright idea of writing up a history of our experience in Florida and of the storm, typing it all out of her type writer.   Truly a hunt and peck system.  I have forgotten how long it took me to get the job done. 

The title was 'The Storm Warnings Were Posted', and I don’t know how I came up with such a threatening name for my story.  Daddy was so impressed with my work he showed it to a Birmingham News reporter, thinking he could make something of my work.  But alas, nothing ever came of it and the reporter returned it after a few weeks.  Today, this great literary production is in possession of my son, Glenn Holliman."

               

Right, Melton Holliman ca 1938 in a photo perhaps taken on the steps of the house on 2nd Avenue, Irondale, Alabama shown above.  By this time in his life, Melton had begun what would be a successful career selling pharmacological medicines.

Next the Golden Summers give way to World War II....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

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

From memory written in 2011, 92 year old Bishop Holliman continues his narrative of his summers in the 1930s, 75 years earlier.


"The next week Daddy (Ulyss S. Holliman) called a reporter for the Birmingham morning paper, the Age-Herald, and gave him an account of our experience in the Florida hurricane.  His story came out on the front page, listing all our names and what our feelings were about our ordeal."

                                   
As the faded newspaper is difficult to read, I include this material which seems to be the story prepared by James Free, reporter, before publication.  GNH

Next post, the 75 page book that young Bishop Holliman wrote and typed in 1936.

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

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


The story of the West Florida hurricane of 1936 continues by H. Bishop Holliman.

“We learned through folks in the building that the railroad depot would be a safe place for us to go, once it was safe to get out on the street, so soon after daylight that’s where we went.  There was no chance of getting breakfast as the wind and rain continued in full force, and we knew we had better stay put.  So we did.

Taken from the Defuniak Springs, Florida history web site is this photograph of the L & N Railroad station where the Holliman family took shelter.  Hmmm....it does not look all that substantial as a structure.

All morning long the wind blew and blew and the rain poured and poured.  I remember seeing objects such as signs, limbs and other stuff flying through the air.  Up in the  morning the L & N passenger train that ran between Jacksonville and New Orleans pulled into the station.  Its appearance gave us some hope, as we believed if the train could get through maybe the worst was over.

In all the fury, there was no panic and no hysteria throughout our ordeal from the youngest to the oldest.  During the morning other refugees came into the building and one told us the gadget that measured the wind’s intensity was rising and that was a a good sign.  I remember Melton’s saying that he hoped it reached a thousand!  (Probably this was a barometer  indicating rising pressure; the storm was passing.)

Left, the young minister, Charles Ferrell holds his new son, Charles Halford Ferrell, the second grand child of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman.

All during the morning, though, we were concerned about Loudelle and Charles and Euhal and Edna back in Birmingham.  There was no way to let them know what was happening to us and that so far we were safe.  Loudelle was just about a month from bringing Charles Halford into the world. And Euhal and Edna has been married only a month.  So our concerns were not confined to our fate there in the depot.  I know now that Mama and Daddy, especially, were carrying a lot of weight on their shoulders that we young ones could not realize.

Below Edna Westbrook Holliman, age 18, the new bride of Euhal Holliman, the third child and second son of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman. Edna and Euhal waited in Birmingham, worried about the family caught in the Florida storm.

Around one o’clock the wind seemed to have subsided a little, so Hoyt and Melton dared to go out in search of some food for all of us.  Maybe they found some, I don’t remember now from this this distant date.  But about mid-afternoon, the wind let up, the sun came out and we all seemed alive again.  We piled into the two cars and headed back to Panama City Beach, hoping Daddy’s car would still be there and that our belongings would also.


It was close to dark when we arrived at our destination.  Limbs and trees were strewn all along the highway on the way, but thankfully, the houses were still there with all our belongings.  The first thing we saw though was Daddy’s car, which had lost some paint due to flying sand.  It was still where we left it, but would it start?  It did, right off.  We immediately packed up, loaded the cars and headed north as the sun sank in the west, glad to be safe and sound and on the way home!

It was a Friday night and we drove all the way to Dothan, Alabama, before stopping to eat and/or finding lodging for the night.  We arrived home late Saturday afternoon, happy to be safe with lots to talk about."

Left, Melton and Ida Holliman were caught in the storm with other members of their family.


Next post, recording the story of the storm in newspaper and in print.....