A Trip back in Time with my Sisters 2021

 by Glenn N. Holliman

In November 2021, my two sisters, Rebecca Holliman Payne and Alice Holliman Murphy and I ventured back to western North Carolina and upper East Tennessee to visit our mother (1923-2015) Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick's ancestral homeland.  We also planned to see our second cousin, once removed, Mary Proffitt Wilson, who as a child remembered our great grandmother, Francis Wilson Osborne (1851-1940).  

Another reason for the trip was for Alice to check on the home that she and her husband recently purchased in Avery County, which is in the North Carolina mountains.  After decades of living in Texas, Alice and Bill look forward to the Appalachian Mountains, where the climate is cooler, and the summers are less humid.  It was in nearby Johnson City, Tennessee where Alice was born.

It has been a number of years since I have visited and written about my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents who occupied and live in some of the most beautiful land in these United States.

Our most pleasant stop was in Vilas, North Carolina with Mary Wilson (b 1927), a delightful lady full of wit, humor and charm.  Below is yours truly (b. 1946), Patricia ('Tricia', one of Mary's daughters) and Mary herself. 

As a child Mary met our great grandmother and even remembered 'Frankie' Osborne talking about our mother, 'Gerry'.  

Mary's late husband was Carl Clyde Wilson, (1923-2012), her distant cousin whose life was devoted to the Baptist ministry.   Carl served in the U.S. Army in the Philippines during World War II.  Mary and Tricia shared his medals of his time overseas in 1944/45.  Mary and Carl were married in Henson Chapel Methodist Church, June 1, 1946.

Mary's lineage, as does ours, descends from Isaac Wilson (1822-1864) and Caroline Greer Wilson (1828-1911) and then hers follows through grandparents, Mary Jane Polly Wilson (1852-1937) and James Harvey 'Harve' Proffitt (1844-1917) and parents James B. (1896-1994) and Wilma Lawrence Proffitt (1899-1996).

We posed for a photograph with Mary and after a slice of her delicious butterscotch pie, we bid Trica and her goodbye, taking with us a remembrance of a wonderful lady, a dear cousin and visit to cherish.

Below Glenn N. Holliman, Rebecca Holliman Payne, Mary Proffitt Wilson and Alice Holliman Murphy.

Our thanks to cousin Clinton Getzinger and Mary's other daughter, Sandra, for arranging this wonderful visit. - GNH

 

 

My Adema Cousins - Part 2

by Glenn N. Holliman

Recently while sojourning in the warmth of a February Florida, my wife, Barb, and I stopped and visited my cousins, the Bob Ademas.  You may recall I wrote of the Ademas, my 2nd cousin, through the George W. (1844-1928) and Frances Wilson Osborne (1851-1940) line; these two persons are great grandparents of both Bob Adema and myself.

Below, Bob and Gayle Adema in Brandenton.  The photographer in the mirror is yours truly.

This time in what is becoming a twice annual meeting, we met Bob and Gayle's daughter and son-in-law, Vicki Adema McIntyre and her husband, Todd McIntyre.  Below, Vicki, Todd and Barbara Holliman.

Vicki for many years was with the Ringing Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, in charge of ordering feed for the many animals, and especially the elephants.  With the closing of the circus, she is now taking some time off before her next adventure.  Todd is writing a book on chemicals we may not know we are ingesting or inhaling in our 21st Century lives.

Below, Bob holds a picture of his mother, Vicki's grandmother, Gladys Osborne Adema (1913-2003) who lived in Damascus, Virginia.  Gladys met and married Bob's father, Howard Adema (1909-1984), who was working in the 1930s for the Civilian Conservation Corp in Virginia, but whose hometown was Buffalo, New York.

During our meeting this year, I remembered discovering a photograph of Gladys when she visited my Aunt Louise Stansbery Sherwood (1915-2006), a grand daughter of G.W. and Frances Wilson Osborne.  Louise and Gladys were first cousins.  Below, Louise, right and Gladys at Louise's home at Scenic Point, Louisville, Tennessee, April 2, 1978.  Ft. Loudon Lake (the Tennessee River) is in the background.

So, I close this remembrance with a picture taken in Damascus, Virginia in 1938, almost 40 years earlier, in which both Gladys and Louise were present.  Left to right are Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick (the writer's mother, 1923-2015), Louise, Gladys and Doris Osborne Akers (1912-1986). Two sets of sisters, both first cousins visiting the home of Dave and Pearl Osborne Wright.

My Adema Cousins - Part 1

by Glenn N. Holliman

                                         The scene from the Lake Erie cottage of the Adema family in Canada not far from Niagara Falls

This past July, my wife, Barbara, and I once again visited the Lake Erie cottage of Bob and Gay Adema. Bob and I share common maternal great grandparents, George Washington and Frances Wilson Osborne (1851-1940). Frankie was with her father, Isaac Wilson (1822-1864) when he was cruelly bushwhacked and killed on his farm in Ashe County, North Carolina, yet another victim of the Civil War.

Left to right, Barb, Gayle, Rob and Bob. Rob Adema, son of Bob and Gayle, makes his home in Buffalo, New York, where Adema families have lived since the late 1800s, immigrating from Holland.

My wife, Barb, whose maiden name is Long, is also a native of the Buffalo area, having been born and raised in Lockport, New York.

Bob' mother, Gladys Osborne Adema (1913 - 2003) and my mother, Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick (1923-2015) were first cousins.

Gladys was the daughter of Bascom(b) and Doris Kruger Osborne (1891-1923).  In earlier blogs, I have told the story of the untimely death of Doris at age 32, the mother of three young children - Bacomb, Doris and Gladys Osborne.

While together, Bob and Rob pulled out some family artifacts and photographs.  Here are some we examined.

Right in 1937 are Bob's parents, Howard M. (1909-1984) and Gladys Osborne Adema at Niagara Falls. Howard had met Gladys in Damascus, Virginia while working with the Civilian Conservation Corp during the middle 1930s as part of President Franklin  Roosevelt's New Deal.  After that service, Howard returned to Buffalo, NY with his new bride and entered the family heating and furnace business.

Left, the first child of Howard and Gladys, Margaret 'Peg"Adema Noeltner, held in 1937 by her grandmother Amelia Margaret "Millie" Berkhausen Adema, b 1874. 

After the birth of Bob,  Alan Adema,was born in  in Buffalo, Howard and Gladys third child.  Below right in 1951, Alan on his sister's Peg's shoulders, next to their grandfather, Bascomb Osborne at Niagara Falls.

Below left, Howard and Gladys Osborne Adema as newly weds in the middle 1930s.

Next Posting, more on the Adema cousins!

For additional information on Stansbery, Wilson, Greer, Osborne, Adema, Hollimans, Boones, Wilcoxsons and many associated families, please visit www.bholliman.com, a virtual archive of manuscripts and records of these families.