MARVIN HOLT

The following bio was taken from page 243 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

I am Faye, the oldest of six children born to Marvin and Abbie Yandle Holt and a descendant of Michael Holt, who came to America with the Second German Colony of 1717. The non-English speaking Germans were required to spend their first eight years as indentured servants of Governor Spotswood.

Michael married soon after his arrival and started his family. He received a grant of land after he gained his freedom. Each move was to more wilderness. He died in Orange County of North Carolina. From here, his grandson, John Holt, and family left to establish a new home in Central Tennessee.

They were given land by his wife’s brother, Nicholas Perkins Hardeman, which was later sold, and he ended up in Brentwood, a suburb of Nashville. Another John Holt, a direct descendant, stills owns the plantation, and in 1976 it was a productive farm.

Lewis Francis was the twelfth child and, with several of his siblings, he moved to another state. He and his brother bought a plantation at the edge of Louisiana bordering Texas, and Lewis built a home for his family. After the death of his first wife, he married Laura Beall; and my grandfather, Solon, was the oldest of their three children.

In 1859, Lewis died, and Laura and her three children moved to Rusk County to live with her sister, America, and first husband, George Washington Trammel. Four years later, Laura died, and her sister reared the children.

My grandfather, Solon Holt, married Sarah Eugenia Tippit, and they reared their daughter and five sons on the Trammel place. As each of Solon’s sons married, America gave each a part of the place, and my family still owns Marvin’s farm.

There are many stories about "Auntie," as America was called by relatives. One was about her arriving home by horseback and finding all the cotton gone. She didn’t wait for her husband but followed the tracks. Shortly, upon her husband’s arrival, he discovered the problem and followed the tracks also. When he caught up, she had the wagons headed homeward. It is said that neither ever told who was driving the wagons.

Another story often told was that one night when Auntie’s husband was away, she was awakened by someone at her window. She reached under the bed for a hatchet, and all that was left were ends of four fingers and a trail of blood.

My parents were very determined that their children get an education, and we did so against many odds. We learned to help one another until all were on our own.

I started teaching in the winter and going to college in the summer. I came to London as a first grade teacher in the fall of 1931, and the first two years were trying ones, but I remember many wonderful experiences.

It was here that I met Ralph Layman, and after two years we were married. With his young son, Ralph, we started our married life in a three-room "shotgun" house. I continued to teach, and he worked as a building contractor. We transferred our memberships to the London Methodist Church and devoted most of our free time to school and church. We considered Ralph, Jr. as our major project, and we were not disappointed.

I received a B.A. Degree from South West Texas State College at San Marcos, and an M.S. Degree from Stephen F. Austin.

My husband died December 26, 1962. In 1969, I retired with forty-five years of teaching experience, of which thirty-eight were in the London School.

Ralph, Jr. attended Texas A&M and was commissioned Second Lieutenant before serving three years in World War II under General Patton. He retired after twenty years with the rank of Lt. Colonel. He and his wife, June, work in Civil Service with the Army.

Ralph has two sons – Jonothan, who is in the Air Force in Duluth, Minnesota and is married and has one son, and Jeff, who will soon finish Clemson College in South Carolina.

Submitted by Faye Layman