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 Madison County, Kentucky
Died: about 1886 in Crab Orchard, Lincoln County, Kentucky

James Holman (Holdman, Holeman) was born about 1814 in Madison County, Kentucky. He lived in the area of Brodhead and Crab Orchard, Kentucky, which are 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.

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The results of the DNA tests show that the descendant of James Holeman, b. 1814 is:

"very tightly related" to the descendant of the Daniel Holman who was born about 1787 in North Carolina, had children in Tennessee, and homesteaded in Douglas, Missouri;

"very tightly related" to the descendant of the Kenneth Holeman who died in 1871 in Upperfreehold, Monmouth Co., New Jersey who is thought to be a descendant of Robert Holeman, died 1709 in New Jersey;

"related" to a descendant of the Elias Holeman (1759 - 1827, Burlington County, New Jersey); and

"related" to the descendants of Thomas Holeman, born about 1723, who moved from the Shenandoah Valley to North Carolina in 1752.

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Any Holman from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, or the Lord Fairfax controlled area of Virginia who wanted to go to North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, or the Ohio River Valley during the period 1730 to the Revolutionary War passed through the Shenandoah Valley.

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Notes on
SETTLERS BY THE LONG GREY TRAIL
BY J. HOUSTON HARRISON

Isaiah Harrison of Oyster Bay Long Island
arrived 1687 from England unmarried

Long Island, New York was English, not Dutch. East end settled under English Authority, west end by English settlers with permission of the Dutch government.
Deed for Isaiah Harrison of Oyster Bay Long Island was witnessed by a John Newman.

Isaiah Harrison of Long Island, New York and first wife Elizabeth Wright had the following children:
Isaiah, Jr. b 1689 (settled in Augusta Co., VA, then c1750 relocated to Carolina)
John b 1691 married Phebe c1720 (early member of the Smith's & Linville's Creek Baptist Church)
Gideon b 1694
Mary b 1696 married Robert Cravens c1721
Elizabeth b 1698

Isaiah Harrison of Long Island and second wife Abigail had the following children:
Daniel b 1701 married first Margaret Cravens (sister of Robert) and second Sarah (widow of William Stephenson)
Thomas b 1704 married first Jane De La Haye, then Sarah (founder of Harrisonburg, Virginia)
Jeremiah b 1707
Abigail b 1710 married Alexander Herring (Herron)
Samuel b 1712

1702 relocated from Oyster Bay Long Island to Smithtown, Long Island.
1721 relocated to Sussex County, Delaware (which at the time was one of the lower three counties of Pennsylvania)
1737 relocated to Virginia, died on the way to land west of great mountains.

Sons and sons-in-law of Isaiah Harrison of Oyster Bay Long Island (John, Daniel, Thomas, and Jeremiah, Robert Cravens and Alexander Herron (Herring) were pioneers in part of Augusta County that became Rockingham County, Virginia.
In 1739, Daniel Harrison got patent for 400 acres in the Valley (six years after settlement by Lewis and Hite).
Soon Harrison brothers and brothers in law (Cravens and Herrings) acquired more than 17,400 acres in part of Orange County that became Rockingham Co., Virginia (from George II by Gov William Gooch).

The Newman family relocated (with stops in between) from Oyster Bay Long Island to part of Orange County that became Rockingham County, Virginia. Samuel Newman and wife Martha, and Mary Newman, wife of Jonathan Newman were among the founders and early members of the Smith's & Linville's Creek Baptist Church. They were from Pennsylvania. Samuel and Jonathan were probably descendants of the Oyster Bay Newmans. Jonathan Newman died in Old Augusta prior to the establishment of the church. His estate settlement by Samuel Newman was recorded Feb. 1750 (Will Bk. 1, p. 93 & 319.) On April 20, 1765, Samuel Newman and Martha asked for a letter of dismissal as they were preparing to move to the Carolinas.

[Note: Harrison points out a conflict in the Newman genealogy.
Boogher, in his "Gleanings of Virginia History" identified the Jonathan Newman of Augusta County (who married Mary and had sons John and Walter) as a son of Samuel Newman, born about 1658, of Henrico County, Virginia. Samuel Newman, born about 1658, was the son of John Newman who emigrated to Virginia in 1635, in the ship "Globe," at the age of twenty four. He settled in James City County, where he patented land in 1644.]

John Smith of Augusta Co., VA was also from Long Island and knew the Harrisons there.

John Harrison of Flushing, NY was a relative. He immigrated c1685, settled in Elizabethtown, NJ in 1702, and then relocated to Perth Amboy, NJ. He was a land speculator. Died 1709.
King James' persecution of the Scotch Convenanters (c1686) lead thousands of them to emigrate to New Jersey, landing at Perth Amboy. John Harrison of Flushing, NY sold them land.

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1716 Alexander Spotswood expedition to the Valley.
1720 Spotsylvania Co formed from Essex County, Virginia

In 1722, under the Treaty of Five Nations of Indians (Negotiated in Albany, NY), the Shenandoah Valley became neutral hunting ground for the tribes.

First settlers south of Potomac and west of Blue Ridge were from Maryland settling in area now known as Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

1734 Orange Co formed from Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Orange Co included all of Virginia west of the Blue Ridge.

1732 Lewis and Hite establish settlements in the Valley:
John Lewis in Upper Valley near Staunton
Joist Hite in Lower Valley near Kernstown (on the Opequon within the Van Meter grant.

[Note: The Shenandoah Valley "opens" on the north end. The land closer to the opening is called the "lower" section and the land near the closed end of the valley is called the "upper" section. So, the lower section of the Shenandoah Valley is north of the upper section.]

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England wanted to encourage settlement in its colonies.

* Individuals could receive land in exchange for paying to transport immigrants from Great Britain.

* Individuals could acquire uninhabited public land in the Colony (process under control of Governor)
1. find land and mark trees with tomahawk
2. petition for a grant of survey and settlement (to determine no one else had a claim on land), then survey and settle
3. acquire a patent to establish legal ownership.

* Individuals could acquire land from well connected individuals who received large land grants (conditioned on commitment to bring in a fixed number of settlers within a given time frame)

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The Virginia Governor and Council could make land grants. The first grants in the Valley:

Sept 22, 1730: grant to Lord Fairfax (his land agent was Robert "King" Carter) based on earlier survey. (Land between Shenandoah and Opequon)

June 17, 1730: Gov Gooch grants:
* to Van Meter brothers, John (10,000 acres for his family plus 20,000 acres if twenty families settled within two years) and Isaac (10,000 acres if ten families settled) in the fork between Shenandoah and Potomac to the Opequon.
* to Jacob Stover: 5,000 acres on both sides of South Fork; and 5,000 acres on south side of North Fork (near Strasburg) if one hundred persons settled on each tract.
* to Joist Hite of Pennsylvania: 100,000 acres "west of the great mountains" not otherwise granted. (through the the influence of the Pennsylvania Governor)

1733: patent to William Russell and Larkin Chew (between the Fairfax and Stover grants)
1736: patent to William Beverly
1739: patent to Benjamin Borden

In addition to his own land grant, in 1731 Joist Hite bought out the Van Meter brothers, and later formed land company with Robert McKay, and then William Duff and Robert Green. Hite, McKay, Duff, and Green patented 1264 acres on Linville Creek in Rockingham County, Virginia in 1739

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Van Meters and Hite were originally from New York.
Brothers John and Isaac Van Meter born in Ulster County, NY, settled in Pilesgrove Twp., Salem County, NJ. Their brother Joseph settled in Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Jan Joosten Van Meter, the father of the brothers (John, Isaac, and Joseph Van Meter) was a Dutchman from New York. He relocated to New Jersey and became an Indian Trader. From his travels with the Delaware Indians he first learned of the land in the Shenandoah Valley.
Jan Joosten Van Meter was granted 200 acres of land near what is now Frederick, Maryland, November 3, 1726, by Lord Baltimore, and the following year he is found at the Germanna settlement near Fredericksburg, Virginia. From there Jan Joosten Van Meter and this two sons, John and Isaac, set out to explore the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley. In 1730 Virginia Gov Gooch made land grants to the brothers, John and Isaac Van Meter.

Joist Hite was native of France [?]. He immigrated to Hudson River, NY with wife Anna Maria Du Bois, and daughter, Mary. Daughters Magdalene and Elizabeth born in NY.
Joist Hite relocated to Salem County, NJ where he was a fur trader.
Joist Hite relocated to to Germantown (near Philadelphia) and became wealthy as a land trader.
Joist Hite lead a group of twenty families (including his own and his married daughters) from Philadelphia to the Valley. First stop was Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia).

Note:
Elizabeth Van Meter, daughter of John Van Meter and his second wife Margaret Mulinar, married Thomas C Shepherd (1705-1776)
Early settlers from Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northern end of the Valley crossed the Potomac River at the Pack Horse Ford.
In 1734, Thomas C Shepherd (1705-1776) was granted 222 acres on the south side of the Potomac. From that tract he laid out a town (fifty acres) named Mecklenburg (later renamed Shepherdstown).

The old trail when first cleared by these early settlers was called the Indian Road, later they called it the Great Road, and before the Revolution, the King's Highway. After the Revolution it is referred to as the Big Road.

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Joist Hite received a conditional grant for 100,000 acres of land to be located "West of the Great Mountains," the condition being that he would settle forty families within two years, but later this number was reduced to twenty. Hite was not required to locate his surveys in one tract, but was allowed to make selections from the Potomac south into the Valley.

In addition to his own land grant, in 1731 Joist Hite bought out the Van Meter brothers. In 1734 Hite claimed that he settled 140 families on the Van Meter land. (Got an extension of time to Dec 25, 1734 and complied by June 1734)

Joist Hite later formed land company with Robert McKay, and then William Duff and Robert Green. Hite, McKay, Duff, and Green patented 1264 acres on Linville Creek in Rockingham County, Virginia in 1739.

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Lord Fairfax was the proprietor of Northern Neck of Virginia (land between western shore of the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers). As a proprietor he had semi-autonomy relative to the colonial government, and he received income from quit-rents and selling land. He and the Colony of Virginia disagreed on the location of the western boundary of his land

The exact location of southern boundary of the Fairfax grant had not been located through a survey. This created uncertainty about land grants in the area. In 1736 Lord Fairfax challenged some of the claims of Joist Hite. About six hundred of Hite's settlers in Valley were involved in a dispute between Joist Hite and Lord Fairfax.

New settlers tried to avoid land in the Hite/Fairfax dispute. Many went to land of Beverley and Borden.
William Beverley land (118,491 acres around Staunton in present day Augusta County)
Benjamin Borden land (92,100 acres bordered on the forks of the James River in Rockbridge County)

Others tried to avoid the large tracts covered by land grants; instead wanting patents directly from the Crown via the Governor for unclaimed public land.

1746 Fairfax line determined.

The boundary lines of settlers were not well defined. "Processioners" were appointed to settle boundary line disputes. Law required that every four years boundaries be marked.

A 1769 deed regarding 165 acres "on North River of Shenandoah, part of a tract called the Great Plains" describes the land as having a "corner on the line between Matthew Harrison and said Alexander White according to the division of said plain made by Robert Rutherford, Daniel Holeman and Thomas Moore, line between His Majesty and Lord Fairfax." (Deed Book 16, p. 111 ; Chalkley, Vol 111 , p. 492.)

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About 1805, many residents of Rockingham County, Virginia migrated west to Kentucky and Ohio. (Many had land grants resulting from their service during the Revolutionary War.) Two routes were available in 1780. The southern route, because it was considered safer, was more popular.
* to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and then down the Ohio River.
* through the Valley of Virginia, by way of the "Great Road," and the Wilderness Road, to Cumberland Gap, and thence northwesterly, by the Wilderness Road, to the Falls of the Ohio, at Louisville, Kentucky.

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