Memories of Irondale, 1925 to 1942, Part I

by H. Bishop Holliman

In November 2010, also 91 years of age, H. Bishop Holliman (pictured below in the red sweater) who lived his childhood and youth at 2300 3^rd Avenue North, Irondale, Alabama, returned to look once more at his home town where he grew up in the 1920s and 1930s.  These are his memories and photographs. - Glenn N. Holliman, his son

"Trains, trains, trains…Among my earliest memories of Irondale are the trains that went through the center of town.  Four main lines that used five tracks – two for the Alabama Great Southern that ran from Birmingham to Chattanooga on to Washington, DC.  One for the Southern that ran from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans and one for the Central of Georgia that connected with the other line that ran from Chicago to Miami.  Finally, one for the Seaboard that came from Washington, D.C, through to Birmingham."

Above the Norfolk Southern freight pulls through Irondale with Bishop Holliman walking beside it in 2010.

"Long before ‘rock and roll’, music came on the scene, Irondale already knew how to shake.  It seems that a train was barreling through every few minutes – sometimes four at a time.  On summer evenings we would try to sit on the front porch to listen on the radio to Major Bowes or Bob Hope.  But about 8 o’clock, the Pelican on its way to New Orleans or the Robert E. Lee from Washington and Atlanta, plus a couple of freights, would create so much noise, we had to go inside.

Each day to and from school, to church on Sunday, to the post office and to the baseball diamond, we had to cross those tracks.  There were no warning lights and no guard rails to stop us – we crossed the tracks at our peril.  You can imagine the anxiety our parents felt every day that we went to school or to other placers, hoping and praying we would get there and back safety.  

Some did not make it.  I remember three deaths that occurred.  Usually an older student would lead first graders from school across the tracks in the afternoon.  About two thirty each afternoon we would hear the toot of the Seaboard train on its way to Atlanta and we would know then school would soon let out."

More in the next post on Irondale, Alabama from 1920s to 1940s.....

Stewart Butten, Family Friend, Part III
by Glenn N. Holliman

The beloved mother of seven children, Pearl Caine Holliman, pictured below, died of heart failure on May 5, 1955.  This is one of the last photos taken of her, again, on the lawn between her home and the Robert W. Daly's.  Born in 1887 in Fayette, Alabama, she married Ulyss S. Holliman in 1906, and with him and their growing family moved in 1917 to Irondale, Alabama, a suburb of the then growing city of Birmingham.

 Stewart Butten wrote the following letter to Mary Daly Herrin, the oldest of Grand Mama Holliman's 19 grand children. Sadly, many grand chidlren are too young to have known of her warmth and caring.  Her memory lives today for those of us grandchildren who were fortunate enough to have sat around that long and large Holliman table at Christmas, which Mr. B. eludes to in  his letter. Click twice to enlarge the letter.

Two good friends, a picture taken in the middle 1930s of Robert W. Daly, Sr. and Stewart Butten, both had an infectious Irish humour.

Next, more memories of Irondale, Alabama....in the 1920s and 30s.

Stewart Butten, Family Friend, Part II
by Bishop Holliman


"Mr. Butten married in the early 1940s and later moved back to Chattanooga and ended up in Knoxville. In 1975, he attended my younger daughter's wedding in Cookeville, Tennessee.  My wife and I visited him in a nursing home once and also in his home. His wife, Hazel, died before he did.


Below, Hazel and Stewart Butten visit with Ralph Holliman in 1975 at the wedding of Alice Holliman and Bill Murphy.  At that time, Mr. Butten was retired and Ralph, Bishop Holliman's youngest brother, was a corporate executive in Chicago.

He went back to Ireland once, I'm sure, after Hazel died, and visited his old home place. He is buried near Seymour, Tennessee. Robert Daly, Sr. died in 1959, and Mr. Butten lived on into the 1980s."

Compare the photo above with the one on the right of the same Ralph Holliman, age perhaps 15, the tallest of the Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman children, leaning on Mr. Butten at one of those memorable Florida vacations the Robert Dalys made possible for the family.

Next posting a letter by Mr. Butten on the death of Pearl Caine Holliman....

Stewart Butten, Family Friend
by Bishop Holliman

 In reviewing the letters and photographs of the 1930s, I continue to come up on the name of The Rev. Stewart Butten (spelled with an 'e') of Irondale, Alabama.  My father, Bishop Holliman, knew 'Butten' in the middle and late 1930s and renewed the relationship in the 1970s.  I remember stories about Mr. Butten's liberal views (liberal for the Ulyss Hollimans who were largely Republicans in the 1930s and 40s), and have wondered how he became such a close friend of the family.  Here are my father's memories. - GNH

"Mr. Butten was a native of Ireland. I don't know the year he came to the U.S., but he ended up in East Tennessee, attending Maryville College, and eventually becoming pastor of the Presbyterian church in Irondale, Alabama about 1933. He also pastored a church near Trussville and one other out by Lake Purdy. The churches were very small, and he preached at a different one each Sunday. 

He was about Robert Daly, Sr.'s age (my brother-in-law who had married Vena Holliman in 1928), so they became very close friends.  The Dalys, who lived next door to us (the Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman house) took Mr. Butten under their wings. He was not married and had no family in the States, so he welcomed their friendship .  He went with Vena, Robert and Loudelle (Holliman Ferrell) to the Chicago World's Fair in 1933 and to Florida several summers. He became like one of the family and became sort of a role model for me as I was a young teen-ager, and was always around the Dalys when Mr. Butten was there.

Irondale, of course,  had a very conservative Presbyterian church, but I guess it was Mr. B's Irish wit that endeared him to the congregation and community. He seemed to be a good fit, but he was way ahead of the time and place with his social and liberal views about religion, politics  and race. He managed to get along well with all the folks.

Above, Mr. Butten in Florida on a Daly trip in the 1930s.

Once, though, he spanked a little boy who had misbehaved at the Bible School. The boy's daddy brought suit against him, and the newspaper picked up the story, and it got all the way to Belfast, Ireland. It was seen by Mr. B's family there, and that's how they learned that he was in the ministry and what he was doing!  The law suit was eventually dropped and nothing came of it.

Mr. B drove a motor cycle to his various churches, as an automobile was too expensive. I guess that was also his way of flouting the establishment. He was well-educated, a well-read man. He enjoyed engaging Robert (and me) in heated discussions about current events, FDR, and other issues of the day. He would usually end up every Sunday night at the Dalys, and I would often be there to hear their discussions and engage in arguments with them. 

He left Irondale in 1937, taking a church in Knoxville, Tennessee, lived there several years, moving to some job in Ohio, and eventually went into library work. After Mr. B moved to Knoxville, that summer 1937, he returned to Irondale on a visit, and I went back to Knoxville with him and stayed at the home of one of the members. They had a boy my age, and we went up to the Smokies, my first time there and climbed the Chimney Tops. I rode the train back to Birmingham, always a thrill for me.   

Above, Stewart Butten right with Bishop Holliman left.  Note the stylish white shoes in the late 1930s.


More on The Rev. Mr. Butten and his influence on Holliman lives next posting....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

The Seventh Child of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman, 
William Ralph Holliman, Part IX

by Glenn N. Holliman

Ralph and Motie Holliman were blessed with two talented and gifted daughters.  Pam has a doctorate in religious studies and today teaches at a seminary in Chicago.  Her career track has included professional counseling and director of not-for-profits.  Below in the 1990s, Ralph, Motie and Virginia Holliman Cornelius.

Left in the middle 2000s, Ralph, Kathy, Pam and Kathy's daughter, Rachel Harbour.

To the right are Kathy, Rachel and Kathy's husband, Tim Donald.  Rachel and Tim live in Philadelphia where both are writers and publishers for medical and scientific publications.  Earlier in her career, Kathy taught school and wrote for the Bangor, Maine Daily News.  

Below, Ralph visits with Pam in her Chicago seminary office in 2010.

Motie passed away in 2003 after 60 years of marriage.  In 2007, Ralph was fortunate to meet a widow, Laura Stanley, who has brightened his life in countless ways.  

This ends our biographies of the seven children of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman. In future postings, we shall dig deeper into the history and culture in which the family lived.

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

The Seventh Child of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman, 

William Ralph Holliman, Part VIII

by Glenn N. Holliman


The years slipped by for Ralph and Motie.  From a clerk at American Bakeries in Birmingham, Alabama, he climbed the corporate ladder to office manager and plant manager, regional, divisional  and finally national vice president of operations in Chicago.  At one time the company had sixty-two plants and 10,000 employees.  Those were busy years, but he never lost his Alabama roots.

Right, in 1965 at the Robert and Vena Daly home in Irondale, Alabama, five of the six surviving siblings of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman gathered for a group picture. Left to right are Euhal, Vena Daly, Bishop, Loudelle Ferrell and Ralph. Notice the three men are in suits and ties.  






In 1978 Vena, Ralph, Virginia and Bishop took time to gather in Birmingham.

In 1984, Motie, Ralph, Mary Daly Herrin and Bishop Holliman met in Irondale, Alabama, Mary's home.

Below, Ralph, Gerry Holliman, Motie and Bishop Holliman, 1987.

Next, the Children of Ralph and Motie Holliman....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

The Seventh Child of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman, 
William Ralph Holliman, Part VII

by Glenn N. Holliman, a nephew

The affluence that Ralph’s generation was creating and enjoying was almost unimaginable to his parent’s generation.  It is startling to recall that the Ulyss Holliman home did not have an indoor bathroom or running water until 1936.  Pearl Holliman was still churning butter in her kitchen, and killing and defeathering her own chickens until her death in 1955.

The 19 grandchildren of Ulyss and Pearl were to live in the greatest economic expansion in the history of the planet and have enjoyed a standard of living far richer than any king  or baron of industry born before the 20^th Century.                                       

This is one of the numerous suburban homes Pam and Kathy Holliman would know in their growing up years.  In the 1950s and 1960s millions of American acres were being converted into subdivisions, ranch style homes with air conditioning, concrete driveways, car ports, large picture windows (as above) and sans front porches (not needed if a house was air conditioned).

                                       

The expanding economy allowed middle class families to travel and visit relatives.  In this 1953 photograph taken at Lake Ponchatrain in New Orleans, Louisiana are from left to right – Becky Holliman Payne, Pam Holliman, Motie and Kathy Holliman, Bishop Holliman and a young Glenn Holliman in front.

Right, two young, up and coming executives, Bishop Holliman with the hat and his younger brother, Ralph Holliman, pose in the front lawn of their childhood home in Irondale, Alabama, Christmas 1954.  Both are formally dressed and attired as if for the office.  In the decade after World War II, men wore fedoras and business suits even when on vacation.

Next, Siblings and Children....