THOMAS JEFFERSON HOLDEMAN

The following bio was taken from page 238 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Shirley Koym

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Cemeteries of Texas

Thomas J. Holdeman came from Nacogdoches to Rusk County in the 1870’s with his mother, Lucinda Killian Holleman, and brothers, William Riley, John Erasmus, and Patrick Henry.

William Riley Holdeman, Sr., their father, was captured at Fort De Russy, Louisiana March 14, 1864, and was taken to a prison in New Orleans. He entered St. Louis U. S. General Hospital on April 1 and died on April 7 of pneumonia in both lungs. He is buried in Cypress Groves Cemetery, No. 2, grave 173. The Confederates gave $3.00 to wrap his body to bury. He was the son of John Holdeman and Elvira McClean (McLean), who came to Nacogdoches County, settling in the Melrose Community, from Madison County, Tennessee. The name was spelled Haldeman then. John’s son, Henry, has descendants buried in Fairview Cemetery, Nacogdoches County under the name of Halderman.

William Riley, Sr. married Lucinda Killian, January 15, 1851. Lillian was the daughter of William Killian and Delila Morton, and granddaughter of Goodwin Killian and Jane Sharp (same say Thorp) and John and Nancy Morton. William was born in 1827 in Davidson County, Tennessee. Lucinda was born in 1830 in Blount County, Alabama. William Riley and Lucinda had five children. The first was Amanda Jane who died young. The second child was William Riley, Jr. who married En(?), lived in Rusk County, and died in Smith County. The couple had one child who died at age of one month old.

John, Sarah and his mother, Lillie moved to Anderson County where the Killian and Morton kin lived. Sarah burned to death when their house burned. John then married Isabell Hamby, his cousin.

Patrick Henry married Annie Lynch. Patrick was the third child of Lillian and William Riley, Sr. Their home was in Good Springs. He died in 1945. The children of Patrick Henry and Annie Lynch were Sudie, Arthur, Horace and Lyda.

Thomas Jefferson was the fourth child and was born in 1851. He married Mrs. Mary Oliver (Berry) West York, December 1877, in Smith County. She was born in 1844 in Homer, Louisiana and was the daughter of William Berry and Sarah Rowe. Thomas J. and Mary Oliver had four children. Ada was born in 1878 in Smith County. Thomas Jefferson bought 350 acres in the Shake Rag or McKnight Community, January 1879, where my father, Erasmus Oliver, and his brother Hardy, were born. The neighbors in Shake Rag were his brother, William Riley, Jr., Jordon Neely, William Neely, John G. Berry, Mary’s brother, and William J. Murry, father of John Berry’s wife.

In November 1881, Thomas and Mary sold their 350 acres to William J. Murry and moved to Smith County, where the son, Tommy, was born and died in 1884. Tommy was buried by Mary’s first husband, Mr. West, in Blackjack Cemetery. Mary had had one child by Mr. West, the first husband, and he is buried by her second husband, Mr. York. (See Berry account.)

By 1905 Thomas and Mary Holdeman had moved back to Ravana, Miller County, Arkansas where his step-sister, Viney Stuckey, lived. Thomas died in 1924. Mary died in 1935 at ninety-five. They are both buried in Macedonia Cemetery.

The only time I ever saw my grandfather was when he worked at the railroad depot in Ravana. It was a long walk from Aunt Ada’s to our house. Grandma would not ride at the age of ninety. She never put teenagers down and taught me always to better myself in every way and that mistakes made were good if we learned from them. I share her philosophy today. She was a lady, self-educated, from many years of experience and the Blue Back Speller. She went to school in Homer, Louisiana. It is said that she taught some school from the Blue Back Speller. She lived in wealth as a girl, through two wars, and buried three husbands. I loved her so much.

Thomas and Mary Holdeman’s daughter, Ada, married Jake Whestone and had one child. Their son, Hardy, married Lula Been and they had thirteen children. In 1905, Erasmus (Ras) married, first, Marvin Velma McKnight of Cass County near Bloomburg, Texas, which is five or six miles from Ravana, Arkansas. They had a daughter, Ruth, but the couple separated before she was born in 1907. Ruth never knew her father. Her mother told her very little about him because it would make her too sad to talk about him. She must have loved him very much. Marvin got her divorce in 1912 and remarried. She died when Ruth was very young and her grandparents raised her. She never knew she had brothers and sisters on her father’s side until she started genealogy.

Ruth married Dr. Edwin J. Palmer, and they had no children. We were always taught we had a sister somewhere by the name of Ruth and to love her. We did not know how to find her because it was likely she had married and we didn’t know the name. Someone told Doug, my brother, she lived in Roanoke, Virginia. We made contact January 1963. She came down at Easter, and we had a reunion in Houston at Dougs’ home. She came home with me and stayed a few days. We spent our time getting to know one another and looking at my pictures. She learned of our father, and my wonderful mother-in-law made us coffee and tea and served us. She did everything so I could spend time with Ruth. These were probably the happiest days of my life, finding a sister I had wanted all my life. It is no wonder I took up genealogy as a hobby.

My father, Ras Holdeman, born in 1880, Rusk County, married a second time to Linnie Lenora Waller, born in 1898, in Rusk County, daughter of William H. Waller and Florence O. Dennis. (See Waller Family). They married August 1916 and had seven children. He (Ras) died September 1935 in Miller County, Arkansas and is buried in Macedonia Cemetery near Bright Star, where his parents are buried.

After Ras’ death, Linnie Lenora moved back to Rusk County. She died December 22, 1960, while visiting her two sons in the service in San Diego. She is buried in Crim’s Chapel Cemetery, Rusk County, where her parents and grandparents are buried.

The children of Ras and Linnie Lenora were R. B., born in Rusk County and married Audrey Hamilton of Cass County. Their children are Alan, Kevin, and Kathy, and they have four grandchildren. He died February 1980 at his lake house on Lake Arrowhead and is buried in Iowa Park Cemetery. He had his office in Wichita Falls. He was a private investigator, and he retired as a major in the Air Force after being in World War II and the Korean conflict. When President Eisenhower was in office, he was an officer of Special Investigation (O.S.I.) with an office in the Pentagon.

I am Helen Grace (Ginger), born in Anderson County. I went to McNease Business College a few months after the war broke out. I worked in defense plants in Texarkana and Karnack as a file clerk, in Houston shipbuilding as secretary, at Consolidated Steel Shipbuilding in Orange as a welder for three years, where I met my husband. For nine years I was a telephone operator in the office of our garage and automotive parts house. I married Morris H. Pearson, who retired in 1977. My hobbies are genealogy.

The third child, William Thomas, who was born in Smith County, married Corene Branham of Rusk County. He is a welder. He was in the World War II Air Force in England. They have four children: Betty, Pat, Tommy, and Pam, and six grandchildren. He lives in Ore City Community.

The fourth child is Douglas, born in Rusk County, and he was in the Air Force in England, a volunteer for combat duty in General Patton’s 3^rd Army in Germany, where he was wounded. After the war ended, he lived in Tatum with Mother for a year. Then he went to Houston and moved Mother there in 1951. He married Mrs. Sylvia Champagne. Doug adopted her boys, Tracy and Frank and Ronnie and Mark. They were divorced in 1974. He was a millwright with Brown & Root. He died in 1977.

John Dudley, a fifth child, was born in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, and married Alma McCasland of Rusk County. They have five children: Teresa, Marsha, Dudley, Steven, and Lynette and four grandchildren. He retired as EN1 in the Navy, July 2, 1970. He was in World War II and Viet Nam. He is a welder now.

The sixth child was Faye Argean, born in Miller County, Arkansas, and married Angus McCasland (brother of Alma). Both are graduates of Tatum High School. They have four children: Valerie, Mike, David, and Brenda, and three grandchildren. Faye has divorced and remarried to Billy F. Box of Houston. She graduated Cum Laude in Bachelor of Science in Technology in 1975. She received her Master’s Degree in education curriculum and instruction in 1980. She and her husband live in Bayou Vista, near Galveston. She is instructor of Business Administration in San Jacinto College, South Campus.

The last child of Ras Holdeman is Dale Oliver, who was born in Rusk County. He served in the Marines. He married LaDell Anderson, and they have one child, Greg. LaDell died in 1963 and then Dale married Pat Brown. They have two children, Kenneth and Deborah. He teaches business in Galena Park High School and lives in Pasadena, Texas.

Submitted by Mrs. M. H. (Ginger) Pearson