Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Christmas 1950

by Glenn N. Holliman

Let us raise a toast and a prayer for parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents this Holy Season.  This picture was taken in 1950, 64 years ago, at 2300 3rd Avenue North, Irondale, Alabama in the home of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman.  This picture is from Charles H. Ferrell, first born of The Rev. Charles T. and Loudelle Holliman Ferrell and the second born grandson of Ulyss and Pearl.


 Ralph and Bishop, ages 90 and 95, are still with us, but we have lost Vena Holliman Daly (1909-1990), Virginia Holliman Cornelius (1922-2011), Ulyss (1884-1965), Pearl (1887-1955) and Loudelle (1916-1998).  The back row right are Melton (1908-1958) and Euhal (1912-1989).

We salute them all and give thanks for the gift of life they have handed off to new generations.  Note behind Ralph's head is a picture of Virginia, now in the procession of one of her daughters, Susan, with an insert picture of Walter Cornelius in his World War II uniform. - GNH, son of Bishop


Saturday, December 6, 2014

How a World War Changed an Alabama Family, Part 26

by Glenn N. Holliman

 H. Bishop Holliman turns 95!

 Above at home in Avilla, Indiana, comforted by his wife of fourteen years, Ellen Cox Holliman, Bishop enjoys his sun room and his cappuccino.  He turns 95 on December 17, 2014, eyesight and hearing diminished, but mind clear and understated sense of humor ever present.  He continues to write of his youth in his beloved Irondale, Alabama, trains and his World War years.  In fact, an article about a girl he met on the train at Chistmas 1942 will be appearing this February 2015 in the magazine The Good Ole Days.  With tongue-in-cheek, he has bequeathed his 'little black book' to his nephew Charles H. Ferrell!

Below from his 1991 handwritten memoirs, the Christmas of 1942, the family story he told us every holiday season for decades as we gathered around the family table....as his son, a mere 68 years of age, I am happy to post it this holiday season.- GNH

I'll be Home for Christmas 1942 by H. Bishop Holliman

For H. Bishop Holliman, November 1942 would see his one year anniversary in the U.S. Navy.  Now he was a radioman on the USS Butler, a brand new Navy destroyer.  The 'terrible ordeal' of the shake down cruise off the coast of New England over, the 1,000 or so ton ship was ready for war duty, to protect convoys and ward off German U-boats during World War II.

"Eventually the Butler was ready for sea duty, and our first voyage was to Bermuda escorting a convoy of merchant ships.  It was an uneventful trip, and I have forgotten how long we were gone.  I'm sure we returned to Philly for a short stay, and I continued to see Gerry when I had liberty." 

"Gerry" or Geraldine Stansbery would become Bishop's wife June 26, 1945, one of three war time marriages in his immediate family.  This one lasted forty-two years, produced three children, eight grandchildren and as of this writing, fourteen great grandchildren. She became a widow this year, losing her husband of twenty-five years, The Rev. Don Feick, an Episcopal priest.  Age 91, she now resides in a retirement home in Cookeville, Tennessee.

"In mid-December, we escorted a convoy to Galveston, Texas, and this voyage took several days coming and going.  I suppose when I left Philly it was a 'tearful good-by', as I had no idea when ever I would return there.  I had no assurance I would ever see Gerry again.  I promised to write and thereby hangs a tale!

Upon our return from Galveston on Christmas Eve 1942, I was granted unexpected leave, so I boarded the train in Norfolk, Virginia and rode all day and night transferring, I guess at Lynchburg, Virginia to the Southern, thinking it would take me all the way to Birmingham.  The train was 'standing room' only, and I remember enjoying the company of a girl part of the way.  She probably had been to see a sailor friend, but I detected no lasting inclination toward him!"

Left, the railroad routes in the southern U.S. in the first half of the 20th Century.  Passenger service soared during World War II and crashed after the conflict.  Air passenger traffic and the Interstate Highway System doomed most passenger trains by the 1960s.

"While in route, I learned the train terminated in Atlanta, and I would have to get to Alabama the best way I could.  Since I wanted to surprise the family (and walk in on Christmas Day), I had not called, so no one knew I was homeward bound.  Well, the train reached Atlanta in the dead of night, and the next one to Birmingham would be up in the day, so I devised another way to get home as soon as I could.  I went down to the Greyhound Station and rode a bus on home, arriving in Irondale just about day break the day after Christmas."

Raised on small farms in Fayette County, Alabama, and farmers in their early married life, Pearl and Ulyss Holliman continued to grow a large garden and raised chickens (as did millions of Americans) at their home at 2300 3rd Avenue North in Irondale, Alabama.  Pearl sent this photograph to her son Bishop in 1942, promising to save some of the chickens for his next time home.  This writer can remember as a child her fried chicken, collard greens and butter from her kitchen churn.

"I can still remember the excitement my appearance at the front door generated for Mama, Daddy and all the others.  But I was finally home and glad to be there on my second Christmas in the navy.  My leave was for only a few days, because I was to be assigned to radio school in Cosco Bay, Maine, January 1, 1943."

For contact information to send Bishop birthday or Christmas greetings, please write glennhistory@gmail.com.

 Next posting, more World War letters of an Alabama Holliman family.... 

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!).

There is also a massive Ancestry.com Holyman and Associated Families Tree available for review.  For an invitation to this collection of over 20,000 individuals, please write glennhistory@gmail.com.  

I also have a collection of associated family manuscripts and research collected by the late Walt Holliman, Cecil Holliman and Rhodes Holliman.  Happy to send these materials by email and to insure their research is available.  The surnames: Alexander, Baldwin, Barham, Bass, Beall, Blakeney,  Baker, Bond, Bostick, Brewer, Bryan, Bryant, Bullock, Calvert, Carter, Champion, Chew,Cofer, Cole, Crafford, Crockett, Curtis, Dale, Daniel, Davidson, Davies, De Mallpas, Douglas, Duckett, Edwards, Edgerton, Emerson, Fitzhugh, Fowlehurst, Fox, Gains, Garrison, Gonson, Graves, Gray, Guyton, Guins, Hall, Hamby, Hawkins,Hendrix, Hill, Hogg, Holliman, Holt, Howard, Jackson, Jones, Judkins, Love, Lucas, Maget, Mansfield, Manwaring, McBee, McComas, McCurdy, McNewsome, Nicholson, Norsworthy, Noyall, O'dell, Oliver, Pearce, Peerce, Pettigrew, Petway, Pitman, Plow, Plyler, Porten, Prather, Petite, Ridgely, Riggan, Roberts, Smith, Spencer, Sprigg, Standley, Stanyard, Swan, Strother, Thompson, Thornton, Thrope, Trelawney, Turpin, Underhill, Underwood, Wallace, Walters, Weedon, Whitherspoon, Whitten,Williams,Wilmot,Wilson, Whitaker and Yerby.  These are mainly Alabama families and their ancestors from the Carolinas and Virginia. Materials vary from one page to 200. - GNH at glennhistory@gmail.com.