Carson in Florida

The Carson Family

From Washington County, Virginia
To Rockcastle County, Kentucky
To Jellico, Tennessee
To Davie, Broward County, Florida

James Holman (Holdman, Holeman)
Born: about 1814 in Kentucky
Died: after 1880

James Holman (Holdman, Holeman) was born about 1814 in Virginia or Kentucky. He lived in the area of Brodhead (Stigall's Stand), Kentucky, which is on the border of three Kentucky counties: Lincoln, Garrard, and Rockcastle.

On June 4, 1835 in Garrard County, Kentucky, James Holman was married to Martha Ramsey, the daughter of Alexander Ramsey, by Baptist minister Benjamin Polston.

***

Notes from
History of Garrard County, Kentucky and its Churches
By Forrest Calico

Pages 128 - 131
First Kentucky Cavalry Regiment:
organized July 1861
Col William Jennings Landrum
Lt Col Frank Wolford
both were veterans of the Mexican War
Company K recruits were largely from Madison County (most from Poosey Ridge)
Company K Captains: Nelson D Burris and Phillip Roberts
Private Bryant Holman

Note: Bryant Holman (1842-1912) was the son of James Madison Holeman (born 1818) and Frances Newby; and the grandson of Joseph Holman (c1746-c1819) and his first wife Elizabeth Wilson. See Madison County, Kentucky.

Pages 134 - 135
Seventh Kentucky Cavalry Regiment
Lt Col John K Faulkner
Capt Robert Collier, a Mexican War veteran
Privates: Isaac and Mason Pointer, Daniel Holman, John and William Pointer

Question: Is this the Daniel Holman (1842-1903) who was the brother of James Alexander Holeman (1841-1916); and the son of the James Holeman who married Martha Ramsey?

Note:
Pvt William Pointer
Burial: Stringtown Cemetery, Garrard County, Kentucky, Memorial ID 114834117
Inscription: CO H, 7TH KY CAV.
Deserted January 1863 at Frankfort, KY; returned to regiment; sent to military prison at Nashville, TN October 19, 1863, then deserted; date not known. (Data supplied by Linda J. Pointer)

Pages 136 - 137
Eleventh Kentucky Cavalry Regiment
Company A
Mixed company from Garrard and Madison Counties
Raised by Capt John G Pond, Baptist minister (his father Rev Griffin Pond came from Virginia with the Craig group to Gilbert's Creek, Garrard County)
Sergeant Joseph Tatum
Privates: Samuel Tatum, James and John Roberts, James Elkins, Henderson Elkins, James Holman
Was in Wolford's brigade and in Stoneman's Raid. Escaped with Col Adams and the First Kentucky Cavalry Regiment to join General Sherman.

Notes:
James Alexander Holeman (1841-1916), son of the James Holeman who married Martha Ramsey, daughter of Alexander Ramsey (1783-1867).
Henderson Elkins (born c1824), son of Rev Henry Elkins, and father of Matilda Ann (Elkins) Holeman (1847-1920).
Samuel Harrison Tatum (1821-1887), brother-in-law of Henderson Elkins (born c1824).

Pages 372 - 375
Old Bethel Baptist Church
Located on Fall Lick Creek in the Knob region, four or five miles west of the Cartersville Road. [Fall Lick empties into Drakes Creek. Drakes Creek empties into the Dix River, and the Dix River empties into the Kentucky River. The head waters of the East Fork of Drakes Creek are just south of the Good Hope Church. Gilberts Creek and Harmons Lick also empty into the Dix River.]
Member of the Predestinarian or Foot Washing Baptist Church
Organized around 1800
Preachers: Henry Elkin, King David Noaks, L. B. Johnson, Isaac Renfro, Pierce Bryant.
Members: Bentley, Brock, Kennedy, Bryant, Renfro, McQuerry, Holman, Pointer.

Note:
Isaac Renfro, a civil war soldier, is buried in the Stringtown Cemetery in Garrard County, Kentucky.

Pages 342 - 343
Old Union Baptist Church
Located on southwest side of the road on James Kennedy's line
Schoolhouse church, the predecessor of the Good Hope Church
Preachers: Henry Elkin, Isaac Renfro, King David Noaks, L. B. Johnson, and John Pond
Members: Bentleys, Pointers, Brocks, Faulkners, Kempers, Archers, Cookes, Rothwells, Bryants, Kennedys, Halls, Bairds, Dollens, Holmans, Hammacks, Newlands, Conns, Bakers, Churches, Helmeses, Renfros, Kirkendales, Lawsons, McQuerrys, Conners, Hawleys, Cooleys, and Vernons.

Note: John T Bentley (Eleventh Kentucky Cavalry, Company A) married Rosa Ann Elkins, daughter of Rev Henry Elkins.

Pages 347 - 349
Good Hope or Flat Woods Baptist Church
Church house built in 1895
Previously, services were held in schoolhouse called Union
Preacher: A. J. Pike
Members: Adams, Bently, Cook, Holman, Lair, McQuerry, Owens, Pointer, Payne, Parson, Rose, Reynolds, Sowder, Southern.

Note:
The Good Hope Baptist Church used to be called the Flatwoods Baptist Church because the entire neighborhood (south of intersection of Rt 52 and Ky 1972 in Garrard County, Kentucky) used to be called Flatwood. About a half mile from the church there used to be a one-room school called "Union School".

***

The church was near the property line of James Kennedy, one of the descendants of the Captain Joseph Kennedy who left Ireland around 1733 to go to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Captain Joseph Kennedy then relocated to what is now Rockingham County, Virginia. His son, John Kennedy (along with John's sons, including General Thomas Kennedy) came to the Lincoln county area during the early settlement of Kentucky.

A half-brother of John Kennedy, James Kennedy, was born about 1735 and relocated from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina to Paint Lick, Garrard County, Kentucky sometime around 1780. He was appointed Deputy Surveyor for the state of Kentucky in 1783, serving in this position at the same time as Daniel Boone. He died in Paint Lick on Oct 1, 1825 and is buried in the Paint Lick Cemetery.

[See Kentucky Surnames]

***

The Old Bethel Baptist Church and the Old Union Baptist Church (which became the Good Hope or Flat Woods Baptist Church) should not be confused with the churches described below. Also, the Rev Henry Elkins of the above churches should not be confused with the Rev Robert Elkins of the Providence Church in Clark County, Kentucky.

The "Elkins of Madison/Garrard County" do not appear to have a close family relationship with the Rev Robert Elkins of Clark County, Kentucky.

Captain Billy Bush persuaded forty families of Orange and Culpepper counties in Virginia (his brothers Josiah, Philip Jr., Ambrose, Francis, and sister Mary) to form a colony in Clark County, Kentucky. They reached the frontier fort at the Holston River in December 1780, and learned that because of Indian attacks it was not safe to go further. They remained at the fort for three years, during which time other families planning to go to Kentucky joined them. Among those that joined was Reverend Robert Elkin, a Baptist preacher and they chose him as their pastor.

Because the family of Martha Ramsey (c1815-1886) who married James Holman (c1814-bef.1886) attended the Gilbert Creek Baptist Church in Garrard County, Kentucky, they may have had a connection with Rev Robert Elkins of Clark County, Kentucky and/or the Traveling Church.

***

Baptist History Homepage
A History of Kentucky Baptists, By J. H. Spencer
Chapter 4, Churches Planted in 1783

GILBERTS CREEK church of Separate Baptists was gathered by Joseph Bledsoe, in what is now Garrard county. There has been some confusion in the popular mind concerning the history of this church, caused by confounding it with Gilberts Creek church of Regular Baptists. The latter, as we have already seen, was organized by Lewis Craig and others, in December, 1781; the former was gathered by Joseph Bledsoe, as we shall presently see, in 1783. Asplund and Benedict both date its constitution in that year. John Taylor, who was a member of the Regular Baptist church on Gilberts Creek, during the winter of 1783-4, says: "Just before I got to Kentucky (in 1783) Craig, with a number of others, had left Gilberts Creek, and moved to South Elkhorn and set up a church there. The remnant left of Gilberts Creek kept up order; it was this remnant I united with. Among them was George Smith, commonly called Stokes Smith, a valuable preacher; Richard Cave, then an ordained minister, William Cave, who afterwards became a very good preacher, and many other valuable members. Soon after, George Stokes Smith and chief of the members at Gilberts Creek also moved to the north side of Kentucky; and a Separate Baptist church being set up at Gilberts Creek, by Joseph Bledsoe, the old church became dissolved, and the Separate Baptists chiefly took possession of the south side of the Kentucky river." In another place, Mr. Taylor says: "The church I have been writing of, at Gilberts Creek was swallowed up, partly by Craig's members moving away, and partly by a Separate church settling there under the care of old Mr. Joseph Bledsoe, and, though the old gentleman is dead, it seems the church yet exists."

This testimony is sufficiently conclusive. The present Gilberts Creek church was constituted in 1783, and was one of the churches that formed South Kentucky Association of Separate Baptists, in 1787. It entered into the general union of the Separate and Regular Baptists, in 1801, but soon afterwards went off with a faction headed by John Bailey and Thomas J. Chilton, again assuming the name of Separate Baptists. It returned to the United Baptists, in 1845. Among the many pastors who have served this church, may be named Joseph Bledsoe, Michael Dillingham, John Bailey, Thomas J. Chilton, Thomas Chilton, Absalom Quinn, Jesse C. Portman, John G. Pond and Burdett Kemper. Quinn and Pond were ordained in this church. During the year 1828, 101 were added to its membership, and, in 1837, it received 37 additions. It was long a prosperous body, but for a number of years past, it has been declining. It is now without a house of worship, and only has a name to live.

JOSEPH BLEDSOE was the founder and first pastor of this church. As early as 1778, he was associated with Ambrose Dudley and Lewis Craig in gathering Wilderness church in Spottsylvania County, Virginia. Of this congregation he was chosen the first pastor. But "they were not happy under his care," and he resigned his charge to move to Kentucky, where we find him pastor of Gilberts Creek church, in 1783. He was an old man at that time, and probably remained in charge of this congregation until his death. His brother, Aaron Bledsoe, was a Baptist preacher in Virginia, his son William was a Baptist preacher of more talent than piety, in Kentucky, and his son Jesse was a prominent lawyer and a politician of the last named State, and was two years in the United States Senate, and several years judge of the circuit court. Another Bledsoe, named Moses, was a Baptist preacher in Kentucky. Many of the family possessed brilliant talents, but they were generally unstable and erratic.

--

"SOUTH ELKHORN, not far from Lexington," says John Taylor, "was the fourth church in which I had my membership. This was the first worshiping congregation, of any kind, organized on the north side of the Kentucky river, and early in the fall of 1783." This church was gathered by Lewis Craig, and was constituted principally of members who had belonged to Upper Spottsylvania church in Virginia, had emigrated with Mr. Craig to Kentucky, in 1781, and had again followed him from Gilberts Creek to South Elkhorn in Fayette county. In organizing this church, Mr. Craig doubtless had the assistance of George Stokes Smith and Richard Cave, who were still members of the first Gilberts Creek church. In the summer of 1785, these preachers and most of the other members of Gilberts Creek church moved to the north side of Kentucky river, and united with the new organization. John Taylor moved to Kentucky, in 1783, just after South Elkhorn church was constituted, and, settling at Lewis Craig's station in Garrard county took membership in Gilberts Creek church. But, in the summer of 1784, he moved to what is now Woodford county, and joined South Elkhorn church. William Hickman, John Dupuy, and James Rucker, having moved to the new country, also united with this church, in 1785. There were now seven preachers within the bounds of the church: viz., Craig, Cave, Dupuy, Hickman, Rucker, Smith and Taylor. Four of them, however, went into the constitution of a new church, on Clear Creek in Woodford county, early in that year.

--

PROVIDENCE church was the third and last to occupy a place on Kentucky soil, in 1783. Like the first Gilberts Creek church, it was organized in Virginia, and moved to Kentucky in a church capacity. The following traditionary account of its origin is from the pen of A.G. Bush, a descendant of Capt. Wm. Bush, and, for many years past, clerk of Providence church: "Daniel Boone, on his second trip to Kentucky, was accompanied by Capt. Wm. Bush of Orange county, Virginia. Capt. Bush on his return, gave such a glowing description of the wilds of Kentucky, that a colony, composed mainly of Baptists, was induced to start to Boonesboro on the Kentucky River. Capt. Bush went forward to locate lands, while the colony was preparing to start. As soon as the preparations were finished, they set out, and proceeded as far as the Holston, arriving at that point, in December, 1780. Here they received intelligence from Capt. Bush, who was then in the fort, not to proceed any farther, as the Indians were very troublesome at that time."

The following extract is copied literally from the Book of Records of Providence church: "A company of Baptists came from the older parts of Virginia to Holston River, in December 1780 . . . . Robert Elkin minister and John Vivian elder, and in January, 1781, they, with other Baptists, formed themselves a body, in order to carry on church discipline, and, in September the 28th, 1781, became constituted by Lewis Cragg and John Vivian, with the members: to wit" [here follows a list of 42 names.] Robert Elkin who was a minister in the colony on the Holston, and is spoken of as one of the company of Baptists that came from the older parts of Virginia, seems to have had nothing to do in the matter. His name does not appear, either as one of the constituting presbytery, or in the list of members that entered into the constitution. This probably originated from his being a Regular Baptist, while the church was a Separate Baptist organization. This may also account for the delay in constituting the church. John Vivian was not a minister, but merely an elder, an officer with a very ill defined office, that some Baptist churches recognized at that period. Lewis Craig, (sometimes improperly spelt Cragg) was at this time, a Separate Baptist minister, and was now on his journey to Kentucky, as known circumstances sufficiently prove, with the church that settled on Gilberts Creek, in December of that year.

At what time Robert Elkin united with the church on Holston, or became its pastor, the Record does not state. The church remained on the Holston "till the first day of September 1783. Then a principle part of the members, with their minister being about to move to Kentucky, it was agreed they should carry the constitution with them." "And now having arrived in Kentucky, and settling on the south side of the River," continues the Record "near Craggs station, but, through the badness of the weather and our scattered situation, nothing of importance was done till April 3rd, 1784." "Through a turn of God's providence, the church chiefly moved to the north side of Kentucky, and, for the health and prosperity of Zion, we have appointed a church meeting at bro. William Bush's Nov. 27th [1784.]" This was the first meeting of the church on the North Side of Kentucky river. Here it located on a small stream called Howard Creek, in what is now Clark county, and about three miles from Boonesboro"

---

***

Garrard County, Kentucky was created December 17, 1796 from Lincoln, Madison and Mercer Counties.

The Gilbert's Creek Baptist Church is located on Gilbert's Creek on the Lancaster and Crab Orchard Pike (Rt 39) in Garrard County. The Reverend Ben Polsten (who married James Holman and Martha Ramsey on June 4, 1835 in Garrard County, Kentucky) represented the church at one of the meetings of the South District Association of Separate Baptists. The family of Martha Ramsey (c1815-1886) who married James Holman (c1814-bef.1886) attended this church.

James Holman and Martha Ramsey were in the 1840 census for Garrard County, Kentucky (Males - Under 5: one; Males - 15 thru 19: one; Males - 20 thru 29: one; Females - Under 5: two; Females - 20 thru 29: one; Slave - Female - 10 thru 23: one. On the same page was Johnson Ramsey, the brother of the Martha Ramsey who married James Holman.

James Holman and Martha Ramsey were in the 1850 census in Lincoln County, Kentucky with their children: Mary, James, Amanda, Sally, Daniel, Thom, Mildred, and W. H.

James Holdman of Garrard County on February 26, 1857 purchased eleven and one-half acres on Drakes Creek (lot #6) from John F Sudduth and wife. (Land that Mary Ann Sudduth inherited from her father, Daniel McQuery.) (Garrard Deed Book U, page 179 -180)

James Holman and wife Martha F Holman of Garrard County on March 2, 1860 (taxes paid March 12, 1860) sold eleven and one-half acres on waters of Drakes Creek for $130 to Flavius Josephus Conn (the lot of land allotted to John F Suddith and wife for division and allotment of land of Daniel McQuerry, deceased. (Garrard County Deed Book V, page 127, #5724)

James Holman (listed as a farmer) and Martha were in the 1860 census in Garrard County, Kentucky with their children: Amanda, James, Sarah, Daniel, Thomas, M.E., William, Francis, Madison, and Samuel. A nearby neighbor was Ancel George and his wife Mary, the sister of Martha Ramsey.

-----------

***

Click here to return to Garrard County

Click here to return to Rev Henry Elkins

Click here to return to Thomas Ramsey

Click here to return to James Holman

Click here to return to Claudia Lung Carson

Click here to return to Judge John Evans Carson

Click here to return to Joseph Carson, born 1777

Click here to return to David Carson, born 1741

Click here to return to WAM Founders home page

Click here to return to Nose4BS.com home page

Copying or Publishing this information strictly prohibited without written permission from the author.