My Genealogy Hound

Capt. Henry B. Holman is the well-known incumbent of the sheriff and collector’s office of Hempstead County, Ark., a position he has filled by re-election since 1886. He first saw the light of day in Little River County, Ark., in 1842. His parents, Hon. William Holman and Mary (Stuart) Holman, having been born in Missouri in 1815, and Hempstead County, Ark., in 1823, respectively. Mr. Holman grew up in Hempstead County, and with the exception of seven years spent in California, engaged in mining, from 1849 to 1855, he has resided in Southwest Arkansas, and is now one of the leading planters of Little River County, and represented the same in the General Assembly of the State in 1868-69. His father, James Holman, was a Kentuckian, who became an emigrant to Missouri, and in 1818 settled in Hempstead County, Ark. Still later he removed to Paris, Tex., and at one time owned nearly all the land on which the town is situated, dying near that place a few years since at quite an advanced age. He was also a member of the Arkansas Legislature, it being a Territory at that time, and he was closely connected with the early history of the State. Joel Stuart, the mother’s father, was born on Blue Grass soil, and about 1818 removed to Hempstead County, Ark., where the remainder of his life was spent in tilling the soil, becoming during this time very widely known and highly respected. His wife died a few years ago aged eighty-six years. Mrs. Mary (Stuart) Holman died when the subject of this sketch was small, and her husband afterward married a Miss Fuquay, by whom he had nine children. When he went to California he left his son, Henry B. with an aunt, Mrs. Brown, by whom he was reared. He was first sent to the country schools, but later obtained a good education in the schools of Cane Hill, Ark., but in 1861 put aside his books to take up arms in defense of the cause he espoused, and served in Company G, Second Arkansas Infantry, and later served in the Trans-Mississippi Department until after the battle of Elkhorn, after which he was transferred to east of the Mississippi River, and was in the engagements of Corinth, Richmond, Murfreesboro, Jackson, Chickamauga, and was all through the Georgia and Atlanta campaign. After the fall of Atlanta he was sent home on recruiting services, and was here discharging his duties when the news of the final surrender reached him. Just before the battle of Murfreesboro he was made lieutenant, a position he held until the close of the war, although for about one year he commanded his company, and was wounded in the battles of Oak Hill and Resaca. In 1864 he married Lucy, a daughter of Hon. Joel and Lucy McKean, natives of Tennessee, their marriage also taking place in that State, but in an early day they came to Sevier County, where they spent the rest of their lives engaged in farming. Mr. McKean represented Sevier County in the General Assembly of the State several times, and was well and favorably known throughout this region. Mrs. Holman was born in Sevier County, and died in 1868. Mr. Holman’s second marriage took place in 1872, his wife, Lou Bronson by name, being born in Columbus, Ark., and died in 1873. Her father, Dr. Robert Bronson, was a Tennessean, an early settler of Columbus, and now lives in California, practicing his profession. Mr. Holman’s marriage to Miss Mary Stuart, his cousin, took place in 1877, she being a daughter of A. O. and Sarah Stuart. She and her parents were born in Hempstead County. Mr. Holman has two sons and one daughter by his last wife. He resided in Sevier County until after the death of his second wife, then removed to Fulton, where he followed mercantile pursuits for four years, coming in 1878 to Washington, and followed the same calling until 1885. He is perhaps the most extensive planter in the county, for he cultivates about 2,700 acres of land, being the owner of 5,800 acres in all. He is a Republican, a K. of H., and he and wife are Episcopalians.