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]

Notes:

Along with her cousins Mary Garrett and Victoria Thomas, she "Attended St. Mary's Hall, an elite Episcopalian finishing school founded in 1837 in Burlington, New Jersey, near Philadelphia...(enduring) terrible homesickness and culture shock upon...arrival in November 1854." (Henson and Parmelee, THE CARTWRIGHTS OF SAN AUGUSTINE, p. 174)" She and her husband moved to Kaufman County soon after the civil war, but their relationship with her Uncle Matthew Cartwright seemed strained by his handling of some of her inheritance. (ibid, p. 264).

(Research):

Census Listings:

1850 Census
Texas, San Augustine, San Augustine District
Enumerated 14 Sept 1850
Stamped 336
77-77
Wm. Garrett 38 M Farmer 14700 Tenn
Lucette Garrett 22 F Texas
Clementine Garrett 14 F Tenn
Mary Garrett 12 F Tenn
William Garrett 2 M Tenn
Anna Holman 10 F Tenn
Wm Holman 8 M Tenn

Anna married Richard F. Slaughter on 13 Jan 1857 in San Augustine County, Texas. Richard was born before 1839; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

William's "Uncle Billy" Holman was appointed his guardian in December, 1857 by Chief Justice Alfred Polk. William's sister, Anna Holman, and her husband, Richard F. Slaughter, a San Augustine Attorney filed a petition against William W. Holman and Matthew Cartwright to gain control of William Holman's interest in a 722 acre tract obtained by Clementine Holman dec'd as an heir to the estate of John Cartwright. After hearing the case the judge ruled against the Slaughters. (Noble, Harry P. TEXAS TRAILBLAZERS: SAN AUGUSTINE PIONEERS: Best of East Texas Publishers, Lufkin, Texas, 1999, pp. 128-129).

Henson and Parmelee write that "William S. Holman, the orphan son of Sanford and Clementine" served alongside his cousin, Lon Cartwright [a son of Amanda Holman] during the Civil War. On May 25, 1861, Lon, Meck "and twenty other volunteers rode to Shelby County, where Captain Short lived, to enlist...Short's company left in June to rendezvous near Dallas, where along with other East Texas units, they were sworn into Col. Elkana Greer's mounted regiment....(and) eventually were designated as the Third Texas Cavalry, and Short's company became Company E." (Henson & Parmelee, THE CARTWRIGHTS OF SAN AUGUSTINE, p. 200, p. 205) By 1862, Bill was a second lieutenant of Company C, and "acted nobly and received compliments from Maj. Stone for his gallant behavior." (ibid, p. 224). After the civil war, he moved to Bell County where, in addition to his own business, he watched over the investments of his Uncle, Matthew Cartwright. (ibid, p. 264).

(Research):
Census Listings:

1850 Census
Texas, San Augustine, San Augustine District
Enumerated 14 Sept 1850
Stampted 336
77-77
Wm. Garrett 38 M Farmer 14700 Tenn
Lucette Garrett 22 F Texas
Clementine Garrett 14 F Tenn
Mary Garrett 12 F Tenn
William Garrett 2 M Tenn
Anna Holman 10 F Tenn
Wm Holman 8 M Tenn