Return to Irondale 2013, Part 1

by Glenn N. Holliman


Memories of Irondale, Alabama....

January 29, 2013, H. Bishop Holliman, b. 1919, returned to his boyhood home to share at a meeting of the Irondale Historical Society his memories of the 1920s and 30s.  A crowd of 46 turned out to listen and ask questions.  Bishop was assisted in his talk by input from his childhood friend, James Pugh, a young 92.

Below, Bishop in the pale blue shirt at the front of the rooms listens to a remark by James Pugh to the back right of this photograph.  The meeting was held at the Irondale Public Library community room.  The distinguished head of flowing gray hair, back to camera in butter scotch colored sweater, belongs to Bishop's great nephew, Clayton Herrin.

Below, among the many relatives attending were back row - Wally and Tommie Holliman Allen and Jean Holliman, daughters of Euhal and Edna Holliman.  Far rear by the camera is Tommie's son, Brian, who videoed the event.  Front row is a brand new father, David Herrin, who brought his new daughter briefly to the meeting.  Next to him in reddish orange shirt is E.C. Herrin and his wife, Mary Daly Herrin, the first grand child born to Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman.

After the speech, Bishop, a young 93, signed copies of his book entitled "Memories of Irondale, Alabama, 1920s and 30s".  E.C. Herrin, back row, looks in stunned wonderment that anyone, anywhere possibly would want Bishop's autograph!  For a free electronic copy of the booklet, please write glennhistory@email.com.

Learn more about the Irondale Historical Society at www.irondalehistory.org .  Bishop Holliman is grateful to president Denise Tew Wright for their kind invitation to share a bit of Irondale memories.

Next post, more photographs of family and stories from Uncle Bishop's book!

Have questions about Holliman family history? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).

Since early 2010, I have been publishing research and stories on the broad spectrum of Holliman (Holyman) family history at http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ . For stories on my more immediate family since the early 20th Century, I have been posting articles since early 2011 at http://ulyssholliman.blogspot.com/ .

Let's save the past for the future! If you have photographs, letters, memorabilia or research you wish to share, please contact me directly at glennhistory@gmail.com. Several of us have an on-going program of scanning and preserving Holyman and related family records. Don't just let family's genealogical work or photographs languish unread and deteriorating in an attic. Write us please and tell us of your items. Thanks to the Internet, we are able to scan, upload to the web (with your permission) and return the materials to you. - GNH

 

 

 

My Grandmother's Wall Photographs, Part 9

by Glenn N. Holliman

The Last Section....

Below is the last portion of my grandmother's, Pearl Caine Holliman, collage of photographs of family she put together in the late 1940s.  Grandmother Holliman died in 1955 of heart disease suffered at her home, 2300 3rd Avenue N., Irondale, Alabama.

 

Our identification of the framed photographs continues....

 

41. Euhal and Edna Holliman.  Euhal was the third child born to Ulyss and Pearl in 1912. 

42. Patti Holliman Hairston, daughter of Melton and Ida Hughes Holliman.

43. Ralph Holliman and his mother and father, Pearl and Ulyss, on a 1940 trip to western North Carolina. Ralph as the last of seven children, b 1924, to Pearl and Ulyss.

44. Melton and Loudelle Holliman, taken approximately 1915 in Fayette, Alabama. In 1917, Ulyss would move the family to Irondale for economic reasons.

45. Pam Holliman, first born of two daughters born to Ralph and Motie Holliman.

46. Nancy Carol Cornelius Morton, daughter of Virginia and Walter Cornelius (1922-2006)

47. Left to right – Loudelle, Vena, Euhal and Melton Holliman, perhaps 1915.

48. Virginia and Ralph Holliman, sister and brother, perhaps 1926.

49. Patti Holliman Hairston, left, with unknown girl.

50. Pam Holliman, today a professor of religion at a Chicago seminary.

51. Virginia Holliman Cornelius and Ralph Holliman were posed in 1928, dressed up for a traveling photographer, at the time of Vena Holliman and Robert W. Daly, Sr.’s wedding in Irondale, Alabama. Ralph, age 4, perhaps to his chagrin, was the flower boy.

52. Bishop Holliman and his oldest brother Melton met in New Orleans in the winter of 1942. Bishop was in the Navy, the only child yet in service in World War II. Ida and Melton had moved to Mobile, Alabama from Birmingham around 1940.

53. The photo is blurred but left to right are Jean, Anne, Jerry and Terry Holliman with their father, Euhal, behind them. This was made perhaps in 1946.

54. Ulyss and Bishop pose in Key West, Florida in early February 1942. Loudelle, Charles, Ralph, Pearl and Ulyss drove from Irondale to Key West, Florida (a long, long trip in that era) to visit Bishop during this critical time in World War II. They had no idea when (or if) they might see him again.

55. Taken in the late 1920s in Fayette, Alabama are John Thomas (1844-1930) and Martha Jane Walker Holliman (1846-1931). Interesting as the parents of Ulyss Holliman, this photo might be first, but Grandmother Holliman put it last. According to Rhodes Holliman, a Holliman family historian and a great grandson, Martha Jane had personality challenges. John Thomas seems to have suffered Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome from his terrible experiences in the Civil War.  He farmed all his life and died in poverty with no savings and before Social Security and Medicare. Their sons had to financially support them in their old age.

Martha Jane’s father, Samuel Walker, went off to fight for the Confederacy in 1862 when she was 16 years old. This great, great grandfather of my generation (we have no picture of him) was at the Battles of Gettysburg, the Crater, Petersburg and Lee’s last retreat. Pearl’s grandmother who is pictured at the beginning of this frame lost her father, Manasses Hocutt, after he died in 1863 from wounds at the Battle of Stone’s River, Murfreesboro, Tennessee. 

One can argue that the Holliman family did not recover from the Civil War until the advent of the generation of the children of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman – Melton, Vena, Euhal, Loudelle, Bishop, Virginia and Ralph.

 

For over 65 years Bishop Holliman (back to camera), son of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman, and his niece, Mary Daly Herrin, have studied and identified their many relatives and loved ones in the collage.  Above in January 2013 in Mary's Irondale home, the two did so together one more time.

 

 

Next week, photographs from Bishop Holliman's talk to the Irondale Historical Society on his memories of growing up in the 1920s and 30s.

 

Have questions about Holliman family history? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desablai@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).

 

Let's save the past for the future! If you have photographs, letters, memorabilia or research you wish to share, please contact me directly at glennhistory@gmail.com. Several of us have an on-going program of scanning and preserving Holyman and related family records. Don't just let your aunt or uncle's genealogical work languish unread and deteriorating in an attic.Write us please and tell us of your items.Thanks to the Internet, we are able to scan, upload to the web (with your permission) and return the materials to you. - GNH