Some Holts of Spartanburg County

DNA testing proves that our family is closely linked to Robert and Dorothy Holt who came from Rochdale, Lancashire, England to St. Marys, Maryland in 1646. The DNA test means that we share a common ancestor with Robert, and he might, indeed, be that ancestor, although no direct link has been established yet.  An article at http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/anson/bios/family31bs.txt by Carson Turner gives a good summary of the Holts in North and South Carolina in the earliest censuses.  The first Holt to be listed in Spartanburg County was Clayburn (Claiborne, Clayborn, or Clabourn), appearing in the1800 census.  He was the only Holt listed in the county until the 1830 census when he is joined by Hugh Holt.  Claiborne was born in Virginia around 1753 (the SC census of 1840 states that he was 87).  As a South Carolina resident, he was given a pension from Virginia for his service during the Revolutionary War, and a Claiborne Holt is listed in John H. Gwathmey’s 1938 publication Historical Registry of Virginians in the Revolution, Vol 82, page 493.  According to his application for this pension, he served in the “Continental Establishment Scott’s Company Third Regiment commanded by Colonel Heath... in the line of the State of Virginia” from the Spring of 1779 to 1782.  The Virginia Line was assigned to the Southern Department and sent to defend Charleston, SC in the siege of 1780, and most all of the Virginia Line was surrendered by Patriot General Lincoln to Tarleton.  Perhaps the reason Claiborne moved from Virginia to South Carolina is that he was given land for his service to SC.  A land grant was given by Gov. Moultrie after the war to a man named Charles Holt, land along Spartanburg-Union County border, and this might be true for Claiborne as well  (The book Revolutionary War Bounty Land Grants by Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck states that Claiborne Holt received 100 acres from Virginia on May 20, 1829 but I don’t know if this acreage was in SC or elsewhere).

There is good evidence that Claiborne came to SC from Accomack County, Virginia, which is located on Virginia’s eastern shore near Hogg Island which was once entirely owned by the Holt family.  There is further evidence that his father was Reuben Holt of that county.  In the book Genealogical Abstracts of Revolutionary War Soldiers, Claiborne Holt is mentioned as the “issue” of Rueben [sic] Holt, a soldier in the Continental Line (Armand’s Corps) who was killed in battle at the Siege of Savannah on October 9, 1779.  An application (number 1667) was filed at Accomack County, Va. Court on February 28, 1884.  John Neely of Accomack County was named Administrator debonis non in 1883 to represent this unsettled estate, and he stated that there were four heirs of Reuben in Accomack County and one heir in SC.  It also states that Claiborne Holt was living in Spartansburg [sic] in 1828.  Also there is a Land Bounty claim (number BL Wt 1412-100) for Reuben Holt filed by his heir Claiborne for Reuben’s service during the Revolutionary War.

It is likely that one of Claiborne’s sons was Hugh Holt of Spartanburg.  There is an 1821 deed recorded in the records of Spartanburg County (Book R, Page 340) which shows Clayborn Holt giving 120 acres of land to Hugh Holt “for and in consideration of the future care, protection and provision given.”  This same deed lists Claiborne’s wife as Elizabeth.  The land given was somewhere along Lawson’s Fork Creek in the Bivingsville Post Office area - near the Glendale Community.  The 1860 Spartanburg County census lists Hugh’s place of birth as Virginia also and places his birth in 1794.  His wife was also named Elizabeth; her place of birth was listed as South Carolina in 1795.

I have also found that Clayborn had another son named, William.  Spartanburg County/District South Carolina Deed Abstract Books A-T reports on “October 22, 1809 Clayborn Holt (Spartanburgh) to son William Holt; for love and affection give a gray horse...” 

For a time, Hugh lived in Union County, SC. In the 1820 deed which records a purchase by Hugh Holt of 120 acres along Green Creek in Spartanburg County from Nancy Brown et al, it states that Hugh Holt was from Union County.  The 1820 Union County Census does report a Hugh Holt among the residents of that county and it shows four people in his household: 1 male under 10, 1 male 16‑26 (presumably Hugh), 1 female under 10 and 1 female 16‑26 (presumably his wife Elizabeth).

Connecting Hugh to the next generation was interesting!  In the 1860 census, Hugh and Elizabeth have a son named “Peter A.” who was said to be 25.  In the 1880 census, Milton Holt is listed as head of a household that included his grandmother Elizabeth (born in SC in1797) and his Uncle Peter (born in SC in 1833).  Milton’s birth year is listed as1850.  In the 1850 census there is a Samuel (Milton Samuel) born in 1849 and in the 1860 census a Milton H. (b.1849), both entries in the household of James T. and Susan Holt.  If Milton was the grandson of Hugh and Elizabeth and the son of James, then Milton’s father James Thomas Holt is the son of Hugh and Elizabeth. James was born on March 18, 1824.  (Note: There is a death certificate for Milton Reid Holt Jr. in 1923, listing M. R. Holt and Alta Land as his parents.  In that case, Milton Holt (b. 1849) would have the middle initial “R” instead of “H.”)

Hugh and Elizabeth had sons Peter and James and at least two more sons.  One was John C. Holt, listed in the 1860 census in Hugh’s family.  He died during the Civil War of an accidental, self-inflicted gun shot. The other was Berryman R. Holt who lived in Pickens County, Georgia.  The abstract of newspaper articles from Spartanburg papers (dated Feb. 6, 1873)  reported the “accidental death of Berryman R. Holt at his home in Pickens County, Ga, on the 17^th.  He was a native of this county and son of Hugh Holt.”  The 1870 Pickens County, Georgia census lists these members of that household: Berryman R. age 41, Nancy C. age 34, Virginia age 14,  John F. age 12, Ancil age 10 (male), Perry E. age 6 (male), and Harriet E. age 1.  There are Spartanburg land deeds with the names Nancy C. Holt, John F. Holt, and Ansel Holt and also “Hattie” Holt who was probably Harriet.  This shows an ongoing connection between the Berryman R. Holt family in Georgia and the Spartanburg Holts.

Another item of interest and mystery: The 1850 Spartanburg County census lists a Solomon age 4 in the home of Hugh and Elizabeth.  In the 1860 Richmond County, Ga. census, there is a Solomon Holt, age 14, in the home of another Berryman Holt - this one with the middle initial of H - who is said to be 68 years old.  I haven’t been able to prove it yet, but I believe these Solomons to be the same person and that this Berryman was the brother of Hugh and son of Claiborne and the uncle of the younger Berryman.

James T. was married twice. His first wife was Susan (either Cannon or Cameron). Comparing the censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880, James and Susan Holt (b.1827) had these children in their home: James Robert, Sarah Caroline (Carrie), Milton (Samuel), Lucinda (Lu), Marietta, Susan E. (Euphemia), Nancy A. (Alice), and William E.  There was a John listed in the first census who is absent from subsequent lists, causing me to believe that this is the same John - son of Hugh - who was killed in the War Between the States.

The census of 1880 shows James now married to Luisa - my great-grandmother.  She was Sarah Louisa McCarley, born on December 31, 1848, daughter of James and Rachel McCarley.  Their marriage on December 18, 1878  produced my grandfather Thomas Earl (9/15/1879), Roland Wofford (9/16/1881), Fannie Viola (9/25/1883), Clarence Calahan (1/6/1886), and Russell Miller (12/17/1888;  Russell died 3/28/1889).

James T. died on January 27, 1892 and his young wife Louisa died four months later on June 1, 1892.  My father told of how the orphaned children were taken into the homes of their McCarley kinfolk to be raised.  Aunt Viola, an 8-year-old, was wanted by many family members, as was the 6-year-old Clarence.  But teenaged Thomas Earl found it more difficult to find a willing family to take him in.  Finally, someone said, “Come on Earl, let’s go home.”  In looking at census records, I found that it was his half‑sister Susan Holt McCarley and her husband Kendree (or Kennedy) McCarley that Thomas Earl was living with in 1900.  Viola was listed in that same census as being in the home of her half-brother William Holt while Clarence was living in the home of M. Cicero Poole who had married his mother’s sister Melinda McCarley  (Louisa is buried at Zion Hill Baptist Church, in the part of the cemetery that is across the highway from the church.  I do not know where James T. or his forebears are buried).

(Another question: Is this Kendree McCarley (b.1850 in the 1900 census) the same person as Kennedy McCarley (b.1852 in 1880 census), son of James M. and Rachel A. McCarley?  If so, then Kendree’s wife was James T. Holt’s daughter and Kendree’s sister Louisa was James T.’s second wife!).

I have very few memories of my “Papa” Holt.  He died on Christmas Eve when I was four. His obituary lists his father as James T. Holt, and that gives a paper-trail to my connection back to Claiborne and Reuben.  I am told by my older cousins that Thomas Earl (also lovingly called TeeHee) was a man who appreciated good humor, as did his brother Clarence whom I knew longer.  That seems to be a family heritage.  These Holts were faithful members of a church near their home - Liberty Methodist Church on US 221 between Whitney and I-85 - and that is their final resting place.

To briefly finish my heritage, Thomas Earl married Lucy May Chapman.  One of their sons was Henry Hardin Holt (August 30, 1910 - June 1, 1990).  His marriage to Caroline Cannon (daughter of John B. Sr. and Eulalie Earle Cannon) on January 18, 1946 produced my sister and me.

Thomas Earl and Lucy May’s children were James Rufus, Wofford, Aubrey L. (Osburn), Henry Hardin, W. Marvin (“Joe”), Edna (Parris), and Estelle (Hall).

Clarence C. Holt married Ida Arsula Johnson, and their children were  J.P., Edwin, Homer, Glenn, Oren, Robert, and Mary.

 Fannie Viola Holt married Herman Walter Thomas (b. 1877) and they lived in Newberry, SC where he was an overseer at the cotton mill.  Herman died on December 10, 1944.  I have found a record regarding the death of one child, Elbert Woodrow Thomas (b. January 21, 1916) on September 28, 1917 when the child was 20 months and 7 days old. The 1920 US census showed a son Paul (age 9) in the household along with daughters Sadie (age 12) and Lois (age 6).  Aunt Viola was living at the time of my grandfather’s death in 1954.
 

The family of Roland Wofford Holt: Regarding James and Lou’s other son Roland Wofford Holt (b. 9/16/1881), he died while still quite young on 8/16/1907 and is buried at the cemetery on the Glendale-Clifton Road (right behind the District 3 administration building).  He had a son named William Raymond who was born in 1905.  Raymond died on March 20, 1989, and his obituary states that his mother was Mae Gault Holt, who I believe is also buried in the Glendale Cemetery near Roland.  The marker on that grave reads “May Holt Hellams, 1880-1948.”  Raymond and his wife are also buried at this Glendale-Clifton Cemetery.

Raymond was married to Thelma Reeves Holt (1909-2001) and they had a son Roland Maxwell, Sr. and a daughter Harriet. Roland M Holt, Sr. married Miriam Lee Holt and they had a daughter and two sons. Roland Sr. died on January 23, 2002 and is buried at Greenlawn Memorial Gardens in Spartanburg.

The family of Peter A. Holt:  Hugh Holt’s son Peter Alexander (born in 1833) was wounded during the Civil War but survived his wounds.  He married Mary Pauline McCarley who was probably another daughter of James and Rachel McCarley.  This means that brothers James and Peter married sisters Lou and Mary Pauline!  Peter and Pauline had a son named Walker Alexander Holt and perhaps others.  Walker married  Sara Hammett Holt and they had a son, William Knox (“Toby”) Holt, and daughters Helen Holt Turpin and Nell Holt Hawley.

Toby married Mary Barnwell Holt and they had a son and a daughter. Helen married Joseph Richard Turpin and they have 2 daughters.

Arthur H. Holt, March 27, 2010