Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

by Glenn N. Holliman

More on Loudelle Holliman Ferrell, 1914 - 1998,

the Fourth Child of Ulyss and Pearl Holliman

The Holliman children were growing up by 1928.  Melton had gone to work in his Uncle Floyd Caine's drug store, and Vena became Mrs. Robert Daly that year.  Charles H. Ferrell, Loudelle's older son, made this photo below available to me.  Vena is on the left and Loudelle, now all of 14 and looking very grown up, is wearing a fashionable hat of the 1920s.  The young ladies are in short skirts as a revolution in fashion occurred after World War I. Hem lines rose!

 Both are standing in front of the then new home at 2300 3rd Avenue, Irondale.  One can see the wooden steps in the background.  It was a winter's day.  No sidewalk yet on the street nor paved roads.  The sidewalks and water system would go in the 1930s and 40s as part of a New Deal Public Works Administration program.  That's right....the seven Holliman brothers and sisters grew up in a house without running water and in door facilities.  Not until the late 1930s was an indoor bathroom installed.  Oh yes, the good ole days!

Below is another photo of Loudelle, second from left with the penetrating eyes.  The other girls are believed to be friends and not relations.  Notice the fascinating hair styles of 1930.  Compare Loudelle's eyes with the February 22, 2011 post of Pearl Holliman.  One can see a startling resemblance when Loudelle was Pearl's age.

Note: The information and opinions expressed in these family biographies are those of the writer alone. Comments, corrections and additions are most welcome. The purpose of these articles is to capture a period and family in American history and to pass this legacy along to future generations who share the common bond of family.

More Loudelle and family next post....


Plan now to attend the Holliman and Associated Families Genealogical Round Table at the Fayette County, Alabama Civic Center, 10 am to 3 pm, Saturday, October 15, 2011. For information and reservations for lunch, contact Glenda Norris at gnorris@bcbsal.org or Glenn Holliman at Glennhistory@gmail.com.  Sessions to include Tracing the Holymans from England to Alabama, Holliman Farm Sites in Fayette County and sharing of information on Associated Families.  All invited!

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

by Glenn N. Holliman

More on Loudelle Holliman Ferrell, 1914 - 1998

the Fourth Child of Ulyss and Pearl Holliman

In 1917, Ulyss moved his family to E.F. Montgomery's planned subdivision on the hill overlooking the Southern and L & N railroad yards in Irondale, Alabama.  The Hollimans first lived in a house on 2nd Avenue, just a few blocks from the center of town.  

This picture was made in 1920 a few months after Bishop Holliman's birth.  In the back are Vena and holding baby Bishop (b 1919) is Melton.  The children in front are Euhal left, and partially obscured, Loudelle. Around this time, Ulyss realized he needed a bigger house for the five children, so he purchased a lot from the Bishop family at 2300 3rd Avenue.

Below is a truly amazing photo from 1924 on the Cahawba River.  Let's see, the youngster in the foreground is my father, Bishop.  Behind his is Euhal, Loudelle, and Melton.  In the right foreground is their father, Ulyss S. Holliman, my grandfather.

Note: The information and opinions expressed in these family biographies are those of the writer alone. Comments, corrections and additions are most welcome. The purpose of these articles is to capture a period and family in American history and to pass this legacy along to future generations who share the common bond of family.  My thanks to Charles H. Ferrell for the loan of many of the pictures.


Next posting, more on Loudelle and the new house....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

by Glenn N. Holliman


Loudelle Holliman Ferrell, 1914 - 1998
the Fourth Child of Ulyss and Pearl Holliman

Loudelle Holliman Ferrell was born in Fayette, Alabama in 1914, the 2nd daughter of Pearl and Ulyss Holliman. Ulyss worked in the nearby lumber mill, and probably walked to and from his home which was located not far from his parent's house, John Thomas and Martha Jane Walker Holliman.  In the late 1990s with Charles Holliman and his first cousin, my father, Bishop Holliman, we visited the little white frame house, perhaps a 1,000 square feet in size, where Ulyss and Pearl were raising their growing family.  The couple had been married 7 years and had four children to support.

Below is a photograph of Loudelle Holliman Ferrell as a baby in 1914, the year World War I broke out in Europe.  This war would feed the already rapid economic expansion of Birmingham, Alabama.  By the time Loudelle was three, the family moved to a new subdivision begun in an older part of Jefferson County - Irondale.

Below is a photograph, perhaps 1917, made in Fayette, Alabama.  Left to right: Loudelle (with a new haircut evidently), Euhal and Vena Holliman.  Vena hold one of her first cousins, a Cook child and a second Cook cousin on the far right.  Maude Caine, one of Pearl's sisters, married a Cook in Fayette.  As with the Holliman's, the Cooks moved also to Irondale and during the 1920s inhabited a home just behind the Ulyss Holliman house.  Around 1930 the Cook's moved to a farm near Leeds, Alabama.  Maude, who had tuberculosis of the spine as a child, was physically disabled, and died around 1940.

Note: The information and opinions expressed in these family biographies are those of the writer alone. Comments, corrections and additions are most welcome. The purpose of these articles is to capture a period and family in American history and to pass this legacy along to future generations who share the common bond of family


More on Loudelle and family in next post...

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

by Glenn N. Holliman

Euhal Arlington Holliman (1912 - 1989),
the Third Child of Ulyss and Pearl Holliman

The Ulyss and Pearl Holliman family moved to Irondale from Fayette, Alabama in 1917, and Ulyss settled in to his new job at the Birmingham Electric Company.  The above photograph is from 1924.  Left to right: Vena, Euhal holding Virginia, Bishop in front with the stick, and Melton holding the youngest, his brother Ralph Holliman. Vena is dressed formally (age 15) and both Euhal (age 10) and Melton (age 16) are wearing the style of the time, knickers.  (This style of boy's pants is frozen in time today as the uniform of baseball players.)  Note Euhal, Melton and Bishop (only 4) are all wearing caps or hats.

Melton was born in 1908, and before the Great Depression in 1927, he obtained a position in his Uncle Floyd Caine's drug store.  Euhal came of age right in the middle of the Depression, and jobs were scarce.  He went to work for a local grocery store, and spent his career in the food business.

He met a pretty young lady named Edna Westbrook (below) and in 1936 they married.  Six children were eventually born of this union which lasted 54 years!

Edna Westbrook Holliman (1916 - 1992),  a native of Cherokee County, Alabama, married Euhal July 9, 1936.  Edna is the daughter of Annie Josie Naugher Westbrook and Thomas Edward Westbrook.  Daughter Tommie Holliman Allen believes they met in East Lake, Alabama, when Edna's sister's boyfriend, later Tommie's uncle, introduced them. Edna was 18 when this picture was taken.

                                             This is young handsome Euhal, probably about 1935.

 A hard worker all his life, he was a leader in the Irondale Lion's Club,  his labor union and in retirement, the Irondale Auxiliary Police. Super market chains appeared in America after World War II, and wages were low and benefits few.  A leader in the labor union movement, Euhal helped organize and lead grocery workers to better compensation and working conditions during his career at chains Jitney Jungle, Piggly Wiggly, Kroger and Brunos as produce manager, before retiring in 1972.

     Euhal, center right, in the white coat  at a national union convention in California in 1956.

Like his three  brothers, he took his physical for the Army in World War II, but due to age and having four children to support, he was not called up.  The family lived in Gadsden, Alabama in the 1940s until the middle 1950s.  In 1956, they  moved to the Ulyss and Pearl Holliman home in Irondale, living there for the rest of Euhal and Edna's lives.


Next Posting, the Children of Euhal and Edna....


Note: The information and opinions expressed in these family biographies are those of the writer alone. Comments, corrections and additions are most welcome. The purpose of these articles is to capture a period and family in American history and to pass this legacy along to future generations who share the common bond of family .My thanks to Tommie Holliman Allen and Bishop Holliman for the pictures.

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.....