John Holladay
Encyclopedia
John Holladay is a founder and namesake of the settlement of Holladay's Burg, Utah which became Holladay, Utah
Holladay, Utah
Holladay is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Salt Lake City, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 26,472 at the 2010 census, a significant increase from 14,561 in 2000. The city was incorporated on November 29, 1999 as Holladay-Cottonwood, and the...

. He was an early pioneer in the western US in Colorado, Utah, and California. He is sometimes erroneously referred to as John Daniel Holladay which was his eldest son's name.

Family

John Holladay was born March 10, 1798, in Camden District, Kershaw County, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

. A few descendants insist on calling him John Daniel though published historical accounts agree his given name was John not John Daniel. John Holladay's 1861 obituary in the Deseret News calls him John Holladay as does his original headstone now in Santaquin cemetery. John had a son named John Daniel whose own son was John Daniel Jr. who was born in San Bernardino in 1851 and died in Arizona.

John Holladay married Catherine Beasley Higgins in South Carolina in 1822. They had 10 children, 9 of whom survived early childhood. John's earliest known forbearer in the New World, his great grandfather, is John “The Ranger” Holladay of Belfonte in present-day Spotsylvania County, Virginia
Spotsylvania County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 90,395 people, 31,308 households, and 24,639 families residing in the county. The population density was 226 people per square mile . There were 33,329 housing units at an average density of 83 per square mile...

. John "The Ranger", first appears in New World records in 1702. He probably came from the area of Chalford
Chalford
Chalford is a village in the Frome Valley of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. It is about 8 km upstream of Stroud. It gives its name to Chalford parish, which covers the villages of Chalford, Chalford Hill, France Lynch, Bussage and Brownshill, spread over 2 mi² of the...

, Glouchestershire, England. "The Ranger is a also an ancestor of Ben Holladay
Ben Holladay
Benjamin "Ben" Holladay was an American transportation businessman known as the "Stagecoach King" until his routes were taken over by Wells Fargo in 1866...

, “The Stagecoach King”.

After John "The Ranger" died in 1742, John's father, Daniel Holladay Jr., and his grandfather, Daniel Holladay moved to South Carolina. Both Daniels were signers of the South Carolina Declaration of Independence. While residing in the High Hills of the Santee, Daniel Jr. enlisted when South Carolina’s troops were first organized on 4 November 1775 as an orderly-sergeant in the 2 South Carolina Regiment. He served under Captain James McDonald and was in the battle of Fort Sullivan on 28 June 1776. On 8 August 1777 he was reprimanded for gambling. He was reprimanded on 3 April 1778 for neglect of duty. He was discharged on 6 April 1778. Following his father's death In 1826, Daniel Jr. moved from South Carolina with son John and his young family, to join another son, William Daniel, at Moscow
Moscow, Alabama
Moscow is an unincorporated community in Marengo County, Alabama.-Geography:Moscow is located at and has an elevation of ....

, Marion County, Alabama
Marion County, Alabama
Marion County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Marion County was created by an act of the Alabama Territorial General Assembly on February 13, 1818. The county is located in the northwestern part of the state, bounded on the west by the state of Mississippi. It encompasses . Marion County...

. Daniel Jr. subsequently applied for and was adjudicated a Revolutionary War veteran pension and land Grant
Land-grant university
Land-grant universities are institutions of higher education in the United States designated by each state to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890....

 in Alabama. Daniel Jr. died on Feb. 4, 1837 and was buried at Mulberry Cemetery in Moscow, Lamar County, Alabama
Lamar County, Alabama
Lamar County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, member of the United States Senate from Mississippi. As of 2010 the population was 14,564...

. Also buried there is John's sister Lutisha and her husband Col. John Hollis
John Hollis
John Hollis was an English actor. He played the role of Lobot in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and the German porter at the chateau in The Dirty Dozen...

. Lutisha's daughter, Susana Fleming Hollis, married James G. Bankhead of the Alabama Bankhead political family
Political families of the world
A political family is a family in which several members are involved in politics, particularly electoral politics. Members may be related by blood or marriage; often several generations or multiple siblings may be involved....

. Their son, John Hollis Bankhead, served in the US Senate. United States Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 John H. Bankhead II
John H. Bankhead II
John Hollis Bankhead II was a U.S. senator from the state of Alabama. Like his father, John H. Bankhead, he was elected three times to the Senate, and like his father, he died in office....

 and Speaker of the House
Speaker (politics)
The term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the...

 William Brockman Bankhead were his sons and actress Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an award-winning American actress of the stage and screen, talk-show host, and bonne vivante...

 his granddaughter. The cross-country Bankhead Highway
Bankhead Highway
The Bankhead Highway was a United States cross-country automobile highway connecting Washington, D.C. and San Diego. It was part of the National Auto Trail system. The road was named for Alabama politician John Hollis Bankhead, a leader in the early national road building movement. In later years,...

 was named after him.

Mississippi Saints migration

In 1844, in Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

, John Holladay joined the LDS Church as his son John Daniel may have already done. In the spring of 1846, at the urging of the Church, he joined the so called Mississippi Saints migration west under the leadership of John Brown. He left Alabama with his wife and eight of his nine living children and their respective families. Their expected destination was California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. The “Mississippi” party was supposed to meet the main Mormon migration party led by Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...

 on the road west. Young postponed the departure until the next year without letting them know. When the “Mississippi” group did not meet up with the main party after traveling as far as Ft. Laramie, they headed south to Pueblo, Colorado
Pueblo, Colorado
Pueblo is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The population was 106,595 in 2010 census, making it the 246th most populous city in the United States....

 for the winter with the guidance of trapper/guide, John Richard, Jr. commonly known as Jean Reshaw. In Pueblo, the Mississippi Saints party set up a separate camp, including a log chapel, near the trapper settlement on the Arkansas River
Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's initial basin starts in the Western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas...

 and prepared for winter. John's eldest son John Daniel returned to Alabama before winter set in. The sick detachments from the US Army Mormon Battalion
Mormon Battalion
The Mormon Battalion was the only religiously based unit in United States military history, and it served from July 1846 to July 1847 during the Mexican-American War. The battalion was a volunteer unit of between 534 and 559 Latter-day Saints men led by Mormon company officers, commanded by regular...

 joined them in Pueblo soon afterward.

Salt Lake

In late spring 1847, on receiving word that main party was enroute, they retraced their steps to Laramie thence to the Salt Lake area arriving on on July 29, 1847. From Pueblo they carried a seed supply of Taos wheat a hard wheat variety grown around Taos, New Mexico
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico, incorporated in 1934. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,700. Other nearby communities include Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, and El Prado. The town is close to Taos Pueblo, the Native American...

. This seed did well in the Salt Lake Valley
Salt Lake Valley
Salt Lake Valley is a valley in Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably West Valley City, Murray, Sandy, and West Jordan; its total population is 1,029,655 as of 2010...

 becoming a commonly used strain.

In Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

, John eventually settled his family and others of his group on Spring Creek, a tributary of Little Cottonwood Creek
Little Cottonwood Creek
Little Cottonwood Creek is one of the principal streams entering Salt Lake Valley from the east rises near the summit of the Wasatch Mountains a short distance south of the ski resort town of Alta and flows in a westerly direction through Little Cottonwood Canyon until it emerges into Salt Lake...

 at a place which was called Holladay’s Burg after him and which became the present-day town of Holladay, Utah
Holladay, Utah
Holladay is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Salt Lake City, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 26,472 at the 2010 census, a significant increase from 14,561 in 2000. The city was incorporated on November 29, 1999 as Holladay-Cottonwood, and the...

.

In 1851, the Holladay family joined Amasa Lyman’s LDS Church sanctioned colonization of Rancho San Bernardino
Rancho San Bernardino
Rancho San Bernardino was a Mexican land grant in present day San Bernardino County, California given in 1842 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to José del Carmen Lugo, José María Lugo, Vicente Lugo, and Diego Sepulveda...

, present-day San Bernardino, CA. The family returned to Utah in 1857 after Brigham Young dictated the demise of the San Bernardino
San Bernardino
San Bernardino, California is a large city in the Inland Empire Metropolitan Area of Southern California.San Bernardino may also refer to:-Landforms:*San Bernardino , a torrent that flows through the Italian province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola...

 colony which he apparently considered a threat to the Utah project. The colonists had secured a mortgage collectively to purchase the Rancho San Bernardino
Rancho San Bernardino
Rancho San Bernardino was a Mexican land grant in present day San Bernardino County, California given in 1842 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to José del Carmen Lugo, José María Lugo, Vicente Lugo, and Diego Sepulveda...

. They were forced to default when it was almost paid off suffering heavy economic loss never compensated by the LDS Church. With the exodus their real estate became worthless. Some Holladays remained in the area and left the LDS.

Back in Utah, John settled first at Beaver, Utah then at Holladay Springs, Utah near present day Santaquin, Utah
Santaquin, Utah
Santaquin is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 4,834 at the 2000 census, while the 2008 estimates placed it at 8,400.-Geography:...

 where he remained until his death on December 31, 1861 according to his obituary in the Deseret News which has his name as John Holladay. He was buried in a field near the home where Catherine was also buried when she died on April 19, 1877. Their grave markers were moved in 1960 to the Santaquin City Cemetery. The unmarked graves remain at the original burial place, which is now plowed under.

His children, who pioneered in Utah, Arizona, Idaho, and California, were:
  • Lutisha (Letitia) Hollis Holladay m. Allen Freeman Smithson
  • Catherine Beasely Holladay m. Braxton Acres
  • John Daniel Holladay m. Mahalia Ann Rebecca Matthews, Johanna Blake,

and Sarah Elizabeth Hollis
  • Sarah Ann Holladay m.Absolom Porter Dowdle
  • Karen Happoch Holladay m.Thomas Bingham
  • David Hollis Holladay m.Henrietta Taylor
  • Keziah Donnel Holladay m. Henry Green Boyle
  • Thomas Wiley Middleton Holladay, m. Ann Hotton Mathews
  • Lenora McCray Holladay d.1853
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK