Living

Living married Living. [Group Sheet]

1. Living

Notes:

These Holleys are cousins

William married Odessa May Holley on 01 Aug 1931. Odessa (daughter of Beverly Honor Holley and Martha Ellen Reynolds) was born on 05 Dec 1912 in Marlowe homeplace, Callands, Pittsylvania, Virginia U.S.A.; died on 24 Jul 2005; was buried in Holley Family Cemetery; Liberty Baptist Church, Callands, Pittsylvania, Virginia U.S.A.. [Group Sheet]

John married Naomi Maude "Nannie" Overton. Naomi (daughter of W. T. Overton and Susan T. Overton) was born on 15 Dec 1882; died on 08 Feb 1954. [Group Sheet]

Beverly married Martha Ellen Reynolds about 1909-10. Martha (daughter of William Barton "Bart" Reynolds and Nancy "Nannie" Reynolds) was born on 27 Sep 1889 in Marlowe homeplace, Callands, Pittsylvania, Virginia U.S.A.; died on 09 Sep 1965 in Danville, Virginia U.S.A.; was buried in Holley Family Cemetery, Liberty Baptist Church, Pittsylvania, Virginia U.S.A.. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Find A Grave Memorial# 68966960

Notes:

James Leonard Holley fought in the Civil War at the age of 17. He was in the Johnson C. McIntosh Artillery Battalion and was at Appomattox when Lee surrendered. It is recorded that he attended two DAR birthday dinners; one on 30 Sep 1909 and another on 30 Sep 1911.

He lived with his wife and family in Callands, Virginia where he was a miller.

James married Alzeria Ella Gregory on 24 Mar 1878. Alzeria (daughter of John Branch Gregory and Martha Jane Eanes) was born on 22 Jul 1855; died on 19 Jan 1941; was buried in Holley Family Cemetery; Liberty Baptist Church, Callands, Pittsylvania, Virginia U.S.A.. [Group Sheet]

W. married Susan T. Overton. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Examination of the Census Records for 1900 and 1910 show that Bart and his family are closely situated to the Joshua Columbus Manning's (married his sister Mary Permelia "Bettie" Reynolds. They are shown within two households of one-another on each Census.

Born 28 Sep 1848 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, William Barton Reynolds, was the fourth child of Allen Gilmer Reynolds and Martha Ann Jackson. Bart was named for his father's brother, William Barton Reynolds, Sr. (Barton), a testament of his father's regard for his brother. The name Barton first appears in our family when Bart's grandmother, Sarah Philpott named Bart's uncle in 1827, after her great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Barton Smoot, born in 1701.

"Bart" became his 'distinguishing name', very early. He had two older brothers, Levi and James Samuel, each named for his mother's father and his mother's brother; each instrumental in her upbringing. Older sister Tabitha Ann and younger siblings John Henry, Cephus Wilson, Elizabeth "Bettie' and Texanna composed Bart's family. Texanna, was born after her mother's brother moved to Texas, and was so named to commerate the event.

We find no evidence of Bart serving in an official capacity during the Civil War. Too young, to go away, he served at home, with a thousand chores and fear everywhere. His uncles, served in the Home Guard, their sons, so many of them; gone to fight. Loved-ones left at home, to worry and fear. Bart grows into manhood while the war rages and claims his cousins. His brother, Levi, leaves home in 1860 to travel to Pennsylvania and marry; Levi is 23, Bart 12. Brother James Samuel is 16, John Henry is 5 and Cephus is 2 years old. Sister Bettie is 9; Tabitha is 14 and Texanna is 7. Levi is the only one of his siblings who will leave Pittsylvania County to make his home.

During his 25th year, Bart marries the very attractive 18 year old Nancy Reynolds in about 1873. His brother James Samuel "Jim" marries her sister Bet about the same time. They knew them well. The girls are the daughters of his Uncle Barton and Aunt Rutha Reynolds. Three other of the girls also married cousins.

Bart and Nancy farmed on Barn Road in Callands. A family photograph of their log cabin, taken in 1898 shows all of their children except the last one, Buster, who was in his mother's belly for the occasion. Bart is 50, Nancy, 44. They have buried two newborn babies in the last 3 years, and she is pregnant again. Their private cemetery marks their sorrows; two infants graves, marked with fieldstones, In another six years they will bury their oldest daughter. Dead before her prime, grieved by her parents, siblings and all of her grandparents, cousins, and a husband.

Weddings and births, christenings and parties mark the years as they pass. They have 10 children living before 1900; eight will survive into middle age and most will bring home their own babies.

Bart has had diabetes for a long time. He lost his right leg below the knee; an infection that would not heal. The disease would take its toll before his death, progressing in a now predictable sequence of events; a disease that would trickle down through his progeny for the next 110 years.

By 1910 the next generation has begun, and the last generation is a beloved memory. Bart's mother and father are dead. Nancy's mother and father died with a year of each other, nearly 20 years earlier. Bart's oldest son has a son; his eldest daughter is dead. Molly too has a young son, and is about to remarry in Norfolk; Essie is settled with several children; Missy is about to have her first baby; Kate 29, has moved to North Carolina; Jim, 25, is courting Sally Fannie Wells, and Claira and Ruth are striking 18 and 20 year-olds, as yet unclaimed by mates. Ford is 23 and Buster, his baby son is only 12 years old.

The next 100 years see his progeny increase, and the legacy of this man's integrity, determination, faith, love and respect find its way from his genes to ours.
~ Mary Frances Reynolds Eggleston
mfeggleston@gmail.com

William married Nancy "Nannie" Reynolds about 1873-74. Nancy (daughter of William Barton Reynolds, Sr. and Ruth Ann "Rutha" Oakes) was born on 03 Jun 1854 in Marlowe homeplace, Callands, Pittsylvania, Virginia U.S.A.; died on 23 Jan 1924 in Marlowe homeplace, Callands, Pittsylvania, Virginia U.S.A.. [Group Sheet]