William Sanford Holman

Notes:

Biographical Notes from the Texas Archival Resources Online, A Guide to the Sanford Holman Papers, 1839-1845

William Sanford Holman was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, on 1816 April 12, a son of Isaac (1775-1835) and Anne Wigglesworth (1783-1841) Holman. A veteran of the War of 1812 and an attorney, Isaac Holman served as a Kentucky legislator and Tennessee state senator.

Sanford Holman moved with his family to Lincoln County, Tennessee, around 1818. A shortage of money and a resulting credit crisis in that state in 1834 prompted the Holman family to move to San Augustine County, Texas, in three groups between 1834 October and 1835 March. The family soon became prominent in the area, with Sanford's brother, William W. (1806-1873), representing San Augustine in the first Congress of the Republic of Texas. Another brother, James Saunders Holman (1804-1867), served as the first mayor of Houston after it was incorporated in 1837.

Sanford Holman served in the Texan army during the Texas Revolution and was a member of Captain William Kimbro's "San Augustine Company" at the Battle of San Jacinto. In 1842 September, President Sam Houston appointed Holman as Customs Collector for the San Augustine District. Owing the government more than $2,600, he was removed from office by 1843 July.

Sanford Holman married Clementine Cartwright (1819-1847) in San Augustine...The couple had two children, Annie (1839-1923), who married Richard Fendall Slaughter (1829-1904), and William Sanford, Jr.

Sanford Holman died in San Augustine on 1843 December 23. His brother William W. Holman and his widow Clementine were named administrators of his estate the following month.

References

Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Daughters of the Republic of Texas Patriot Ancestor Album. Paducah, Kentucky: Turner Publishing, 1995.

Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Founders and Patriots of the Republic of Texas: The Lineages of the Members of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Volume II. Austin, Texas: Daughters of the Republic of Texas, 1974.

Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Muster Rolls of the Texas Revolution. Austin, Texas: Daughters of the Republic of Texas, 1986.

Dixon, Sam Houston, and Louis Wiltz Kemp. The Heroes of San Jacinto. Houston, Texas: Anson Jones Press, 1932.

Holman, Dixon W. "James Sanders Holman." Handbook of Texas Online. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fho38.

Holman, Dixon W. "William W. Holman." Handbook of Texas Online. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fho39.

Ingmire, Frances Terry, compiler. San Augustine County, Texas, Marriage Records, 1837-1880. St. Louis, Missouri: Frances Terry Ingmire, 1980.

Noble, Harry P., Jr. Texas Trailblazers: San Augustine Pioneers. Lufkin, Texas: Best of East Texas Publishers, 1999.

San Augustine Public Library. 1828-1940: Probate Cases of San Augustine County, Texas. Nacogdoches, Texas: Ericson Books, 1984

William married Clementine G. "Mentie" Cartwright on 14 Jan 1838 in San Augustine County, Texas. Clementine (daughter of John Cartwright and Mary E. "Polly" Crutchfield) was born on 14 Apr 1819 in Wilson County, Tennessee; died on 10 Mar 1847 in San Augustine County, Texas; was buried in Holman Cemetery, Sabine County, Texas. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Anna Holman was born on 15 Jan 1839 in Texas; died about 1923.
2. William "Billy" Sanford Holman, Jr. was born about 1842 in Texas; and died.

Notes:

Isaac was a veteran of the War of 1812 where he earned the title of Colonel. An attorney by profession, he was attracted to politics. He was elected to the Kentucky legistlature in 1810 and again in 1816. In 1818, he moved his family to Lincoln County, Tennessee, where he immersed himself in public affairs, running for the Tennessee assembly in 1823, and later serving as state senator. A credit squeeze in Tennessee put the Holman family in a financial bind, and the family decided to move to Texas. Sons William W. and James S. made the trip first, arriving in San Augustine in October 1834. (Noble, page 111). Isaac arrived in December with his two younger sons. In March, 1835, his wife and daughters followed. The entire family became citizens of the Redlands. Isaac died only eight months after his arrival in San Augustine. (Harry Noble) In "The Cartwrights of San Augustine" it was written that the family brought 20 slaves with them to Texas. (Henson & Parmelee, p. 84)

Isaac married Anne Wigglesworth on 25 Dec 1800 in Kentucky. Anne was born on 14 Sep 1783; died on 22 Jul 1841 in San Augustine County, Texas; was buried in Holman Cemetery, Sabine County, Texas. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Henson and Parmelee, in their book "The Cartwrights of San Augustine," wrote that Anne, along with her teenage daughters, Amanda, America and Elvira, journeyed "from Lincoln County, Tennessee via Nashville, Natchez, and Natchitoches in only fifteen days, a remarkably short time, having connected with steamboats at all three places by mere minutes. In Natchitoches a drove of horses from Arkansas had just arrived and they bought three for only $180. The colonel had been Sandford, his youngest son, to Tennessee to escort his mothers and sisters, but he had unknowingly passed them on the river. From this brief account, it is clear that Anne Wigglesworth Homas was an unusually self-reliant woman, unafraid to travel alone over unfamiliar territory. She and her three teenage daughters were relatively safe on board the steamboats, but the journey from Natchitoches seems unusual. The ladies most have been accompanied by loyal servants who could hitch the horses to their vehicles and act as an escort past Fort Jesup and through the Sabine Bottom. (pp. 84-85). Aldophus Sterne in Nacogdoches noted that a number of pope suffered from fever and died during the month [of July 1841, when both John Cartwright and Anne Wigglesworth Holman died]. While no local people identified the sickness that summer, it may have been yellow fever. Two men who left Nacogdoches in September died of the dread disease as soon as they reached Vicksburg. (p. 117).

Notes:

Married:
Shown as marrying in Woodford County, Kentucky by some. Henson and Parmelee instead cite their marriage as taking place in Harrison County.