TWO HORSE POWER HAY BALER. Andrew Jackson Holland with his son David M. Holland: Grandfather and father of Dr. V.M. Holland

TWO HORSE POWER HAY BALER.

What we are looking at is a hay bale pressing machine set up with two horses... a TWO HORSE POWER HAY BALER. 

The photo was taken by a traveling photographer who did photos for hire with wealthy land owners and business men who wanted a photo of their "pride and joy" here it is his crew of hay balers with the capital investment of the machinery and horses that was his trade in the community. My sister is doing a wonderful job of picking up where our father  Dr. V.M. Holland left off with puzzling out our family history. Lots of work remains with this image... love to have any comments about the others in the photo or about the process of baling hay with that press.

"Found this photo with negatives that Dad had stored.  Original was a postcard (bad condition) with marking on the back “Mordie and Will”, not Dad’s handwriting.  Mordie is young boy, wearing a hat in center of photo.  Will is in front of the lead horse/ mule.  One of the men is probably their father, Andrew Jackson.  Not sure if it is the one beside Mordie or the one turning his head, standing in front to the far right.  Date:  very early 1900’s, is a guess; Location:  Tennessee"

"Andrew Jackson Holland was born in 1860,  David Mordie Holland was  born in 1895.  Dr. V.M.  was born in 1918.  If Mordie was 15 in the photo, the year would have been 1910.  They are baling hay.  I did some checking on the internet and the harness on the horse is low and the rod looks like what was used with a hay press"

The man almost dead center on the platform in this photo and  to the viewer's right side of the boy in the hat on the platform .. would be my Great Grandfather Andrew Jackson Holland before he loses eye sight in one of his eyes. The boy beside him would be my Grandfather David Mordie Holland, the father of Dr. V.M. Holland.  Can you identify anyone else in the photo?

The Return Of Harper Lee's Atticus Finch: White Racism in the South and the American Negro.

 Think July 29, 2015

Earlier this month, HarperCollins published Go Set a Watchman, the novel Harper Lee called the “parent” of To Kill a Mockingbird. This hour, we’ll talk about how the book has us reconsidering Atticus Finch and the rest of the Mockingbird universe with Thomas DiPiero, dean of the Dedman College of Humanities at SMU. DiPiero reviewed Watchman for the New York Post.

 

Atticus’ complexity makes “Go Set a Watchman” worth reading. “Mockingbird” was written through the eyes of a child. “Watchman” is the voice of a clear-eyed adult.    
Thomas DiPiero

My father Dr. V.M. Holland was a "country doctor" in the 50s and well into the  80s as a classic example of the humanistic, college educated, worldly white professional who lived in the rural South like Harper Lee's Atticus Finch. My father delivered hundreds (if not thousands) of both White and Black children in Panola County in those years. He freely and diligently  "doctored" both White and Black families, who waited in segregated waiting areas of the clinic on Panola Street in Carthage, Texas. He left the house at night to provide house calls for both races for decades and rushed out at night to the emergency room at the county hospital. I find both Atticus who served in WWI and Virgil  who served in WWII, both born and lived in the rural South to be in their heart and soul very much in the same man from one book to the next, from one era in American history to the next. I came away from the discussion on KERA's Think show today with a desire to read "Go Set a Watchman" by Harper Lee and compare it to my past readings of her "To Kill a Mockingbird."

I believe that  Dr. Thomas DiPiero has done a wonderful job of presenting the novel and how it does develops naturally from the SAME characters in terms of the aging view point of the narrator and the reality of White Racism in the South and the American Negro. Thank you,

Panola County Historical & Genealogical Association is now housed in the Old Panola County Jail Museum and Genealogy Library

213 North Shelby • Carthage, Texas 75633
(903) 693-3388       http://oldjaillibrary.org/

Panola County, adapted from the Cherokee word for cotton, ponolo, is located in northeastern Texas. Carthage is the county seat. In 1846, the Texas Legislature incorporated Panola County from pieces of Shelby and Harrison counties. Two years later (1848), Panola County chose Carthage as its seat. Various tribes of the Caddo Indians inhabited the area until European advancement in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

During the fifteen years before the Civil War, the county expanded in size and diversified its economic infrastructure through the sale of cotton, sweet potatoes, and livestock. After the war and through the 1920s, Panola County began to stabilize and recover, primarily through the cotton and logging industries. Railroads created additional jobs and helped to build the county's infrastructure. Throughout the 1920s, the county's population decreased slightly, but cotton helped stabilize the uncertain market.

After the Great Depression, the population declined because of a sharp nosedive in property values and available land. The only industry that remained strong through the depression, cotton, took a permanent hit and never recovered. After World War II, Panola County's population decreased over the next several decades because of a combination of permanent decreased land values and decline of the cotton industry. However, by the 1960s and 1970s, the county government worked hard to reinvigorate the depleted soil, but the oil and gas industry became the prominent economy force in the 1970s.

Panola County Historical and Genealogical Association and The Leila Belle LaGrone  Family History Center

213 North Shelby

Carthage, Texas 75633

(903) 693-3388

info@oldjaillibrary.org

Our History

The Panola County Historical and Genealogical Association (PCHGA) was founded by ordinary people in the community  who had an interest in family and local history and who  wanted to preserve our heritage. So, they met and formed  PCHGA to serve those ends. The charter members were all volunteers, so they asked  Panola County to give them a long-term lease on the old  1891 Panola County jail which was no longer in use. The  jail use was discontinued in 1954 and the old jail had fallen  into a state of disrepair.  These charter members not only raised money from others,  but also donated their own time and money, and ultimately  rebuilt a structure  that would house history, family books  and artifacts in a stable, controlled environment. The upstairs of the Old Jail is now used as a museum.  The old cells and locks are still intact. The bottom floor of  the jail is where the jailer's family lived and where meals  were prepared for the prisoners by the jailer's wife. The  bottom floor now has three book rooms with a good  representation of states, counties and family history ; a computer room with four computers for public use;  and an office with one computer for keeping up with  the daily affairs of PCHGA. The PCHGA Old Jail Library is open three days per  week: Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday afternoon.  There is no user fee or membership  cost. Normal hours  are from 10:00 AM until 3:00 PM on Tuesday and  Wednesday, and from 1:00 PM until 5:00 PM on Sunday.  We invite the public to visit us during any of these times. We have three to four volunteer staff members to assist  you with researching your family tree  or maybe the history  of your home county, town or state. You can also use our  computers to research on the internet. We also welcome  any and all tour groups.

Happy Father's Day: Dr. V.M. Holland

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Salen Holland White expressed it so well, when she wrote of her father Samuel L. Holland
: "I just knew there was nothing Daddy did not know, nothing he could not do."
It was so true of you, too. Love you, Dad.

- Fred L. Holland

Dr. V.M. Holland, M.D. : The Life of My Husband, an East Texas Country Doctor

Dr. V.M. Holland M.D.: The Life of My Husband,an East Texas Country Doctor,
 by Mrs. V.M. Holland, Evangeline Neal Dennard Holland, R.N., Captain US Army WWII
Trans-scripted letter posted by Fred L. Holland, entitled "Virgil M. Holland, V.M. Holland, M.D"., dated 4 March 1995


Virgil Holland was born in Fairplay, Panola County, Texas, on 4 March 1918. His parents were Lois Allison Holland of Fairplay, Texas and Mordie Holland of Benton County and Carol County, Tennessee. Virgil had one sister, Marguerite, and three Brothers, Samuel, Leland, and James (known as “Bill”) Holland. His Father was a farmer, rancher and carpenter. His mother was a homemaker. Both parents were life long community leaders in the Methodist Church, local schools, county fairs, soil conservation, home demonstrations, and youth socials and activities.

Virgil attended the rural school in Fairplay and graduated from from Carthage High School in 1934. Only 11 years of public schooling was required for graduation at that time, and he had been advanced two grades. He was valedictorian and only 15. After graduation, he enrolled in the Baptist College of Marshall in Marshall, Texas. His Uncle Sam Allison paid his tuition and book fees: he paid his room and board by waiting on tables and washing dishes in the college cafeteria, managed by Mrs.Fant, mother of the Mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, Mr. Clyde E. Fant. [ Mayor Clyde Fant would be the guest speaker at the CHS graduation commencement of Virgil’s son, Frederick Leon Holland, in 1971.] According to Wikipedia,

Clyde Fant was a native of Linden in Cass County, Texas. He was one of six children of Mr. and Mrs. John Preston Fant. John Fant was a cotton gin owner and a onetime Texas state legislator. Fant graduated in 1925 from the former Marshall (Texas) College, now East Texas Baptist University. He taught school for a year in Blocker, a since abandoned community near Marshall, the seat of Harrison County. He then worked for a lumber company in east Texas and was thereafter associated with Southwestern Gas and Electric Company. He was an executive with Interstate Electric Company, with seven years of service with the firm, when he was transferred to Shreveport.]

Mrs. Fant was a lifelong friend and was admired and respected by her “helpers.”

Virgil was a “whiz” in math, chemistry, biology, physics, and history. This background provided good career choices and upon completion of enough hours for a teacher’s certificate and for graduation, he taught in the Fairplay School. He was a scholar, educator, hard worker, and teacher all of his adult life.

In May 1941, Virgil Mordie Holland joined the US Navy and served 4 years, 4 months, and 22 days. During those years of service, in Florida and California, and overseas on Guam and Australia, he was honorably discharged in 1945 as a Chief Pharmacist's Mate, (A.A.). It was during his WW II service that he decided his goal was to “ enter medical school after his discharge from the service, and to become a general practitioner (G.P.) of medicine after graduation and proper training.”

Virgil obtained a B.S. Degree through extra college work at Stephen F. Austin College, Nacogdoches, Texas. Graduating from there with honors, he was admitted to the University of Texas Medical School at Galveston, Texas without having to take an entrance exam in 1946. While there for four years of study, he worked at night for the Sisters of Charity and the John Sealy Hospital in Galveston. During the Summer, he “externed” at the Memorial Hospital in Henderson, Texas, and the Marshall Hospital in Marshall, Texas. In school, he was a member of a fraternity, living in their house and enjoying all their activities. Virgil graduated from the University of Texas Medical School in June 1950. He was third in his class of 96 and was admitted into Alpha Omega Alpha, the National Honor Medical Society.

The Texas Board of Medical Examiners granted Virgil M. Holland, B.S., M.D., this license to practice medicine in Texas in July 1950. Before the examination, he had taken time to marry Evangeline Dennard, Carthage I.S.D. public school’s first and only school nurse from 1947 - 1951. The couple felt they were very fortunate to be able to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary together, before his death in 1990.

Dr. Holland interned at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Texas. Dr. Gregory, head of the Medical Department in the school wanted him to specialize in internal medicine and become an internal medical diagnostician. Dr. Holland was pleased to receive the offer, but he he felt it “would take too long and I wasn’t getting any younger.” He wanted to enter general practice, become a family physician, and fulfill his goal. He was a life [“Old Red”] member of the U.T. Galveston Medical School’s Alumni Association.

Upon completion of his John Sealy service, Dr. V.M. Holland had been offered a partnership to enter general practice at the Carthage Medical and Surgical Clinic in Carthage, Texas with Dr. Carl Prince and Dr. W.C. Smith: Mrs. V.M. Holland would continue to be the school nurse, but their plans had to change. Dr. W.C. Smith notified Dr. V.M. Holland that the partnership had an obligation to take back their partner, Dr. James M. Ashby, who was returning from the Korean War. The office space that was to be Dr. V.M. Holland would instead be returned to Dr. Ashby.

Dr. Lynn Hooker, whose clinic was also on West Panola, wanted Dr. V.M. Holland to join his clinical practice: but there was not enough room to set up an immediate practice there. This emergency need was taken care of by Dr. D. B. Daniel graciously offering to rent an office to Dr. Holland at the Panola Clinic on North Daniel Street for solo general practice. This help at this crucial time, after years of study and work, was always appreciated by both Dr. and Mrs. Holland in the years that followed.

However, Dr. Holland desired to enter a group practice, and soon he received an offer to join Dr. Coy Stone and Dr. Alfred “Al” Menson in Hobbs, New Mexico. It was too good an offer to turn down. Mr. Q. M. Martin, Superintendent of Carthage Independent School District, promised to release Evangeline, if she could talk Lou Tatum, R.N. into becoming the school nurse for Carthage I.S.D. The rest became history for Lou Tatum and school nursing in Panola County!

 (Hurray for Lou and Coach Tatum --- God Bless you! Always!)

-Evangeline, March 4, 1995


TO BE CONTINUED...

"GREAT UNCLE SAM ALLISON’S GARDENING AND SUCH"

Letter from Dr. Virgil M. Holland to his daughter, Mary, who has provided some editing additions for clarification. -- Dated July 29, 1982

Dear Mary,
That was an interesting article on the large Ginkgo tree on the old Sam Allison farm out in Fairplay, Texas. There were a few things that even my book did not mention. Sammie was a great one for plants of all types. In his best years, I can remember that he had an orchard with pecan trees, apples, cherries, and pears; in the plot across the road from his house on FM 159 from the Henderson Hwy, US 79, to the north (right) of the barn. In the corner of the garden next to the smokehouse he had raspberries of several different types and colors. It was my delight to pick these through the picket fence when I was about four.

In the chicken yard where the fig trees are now behind the house, there were two huge fig trees. The trees there now are only the remains of one of these large figs. In the turkey yard, he had three fig trees of the large variety. These never seemed to have ever amounted to much... even though one persisted around by the pear tree until a freeze a few years ago did it in...to the roots. Over to the right of the pear tree was an apple tree that ripened in June. It was the first fruit to be available. There were small apples, seldom ever as large as lemons, but they were the best tasting apples that I can remember.

Further back in the orchard proper that now has only three large pecan trees; he had a chinquapin tree, a “Japanese” walnut tree, several varieties of plum and at least a dozen or more peach trees. Among the peaches were the Indian peach for pickles, peaches which the meat adhered to the seed, and peaches of the “clear-seed” kind and several Alberta’s, which are now synonymous with modern day peaches. There were about four apple trees of a type he called “horse apples”. I never saw one ripen. They were fit only for apple cobblers and pies, of which he was very fond. They were also used to make jelly. [Mary’s addition: there were also Hachiya “Japanese” persimmon trees. These had seeds and needed to be fully ripen before eating or they would cause one’s mouth to “pucker”.]

The yard around the house was full of flowers [Mary’s addition from memory: daffodils, hyacinths, jonquils, wisteria, snowflakes, a tulip tree and a massive old Magnolia...to name a few] and there was a rose garden (heirloom varieties with trellises) over on the south side of the driveway, by the house. [Mary’s addition: a red crepe myrtle and pomegranate tree were nearby] I can remember Sunday afternoons when he had visitors from all around... that were flower people...that came only to wander through the yard and garden to see his flowers and see what new varieties he had added in previous Winter. These folks usually left with an arm full of cuttings or bulbs. Sammie, no doubt, spent some time admiring their flowers and brought home new varieties.

He always liked to try new flowers and trees as witness the Ginkgo tree and Tulip tree that still blooms. (Mary’s addition: Great Uncle Sam once had a beautiful Japanese red maple outside the kitchen window.] The Ginkgo tree made it under very adverse circumstances. For years, it seemed to have been a mere sprout of a tree. Diamond Pope’s kids all rode it down when they were left under the sycamores while Diamond was working in the field. Sammie would get on to Diamond for letting the kids ride his tree, then she would break switches by the armloads from the same tree to whip the misbehaving kids. (The tree’s ancient ancestors probably survived similar treatment by animals, dinosaurs and such!)

Sammie’s real love was flowers and he always carried bundles to the church every Sunday. He eventually had enough varieties planted to have material for bouquets at any season of the year. In his dotage he even carried this a bit too far...and would make special trips to town just to pass out flowers to people. He didn’t just bring flowers, but had to visit for a spell and give a bit of the history of every flower. (I suspect a lot of his flowers ended up in the waste basket when he was gone.)

He had some of the same interest in certain animals. Pigs were just for bacon and ham ...cows, milk...and horses just draft power.
Poultry was where he gave way to his interests...He always had turkeys as far back as I can remember. He did not like ducks or geese...or Guineas...they always were getting out and messing up his flowers. His chicken yard looked like a Babylon of varieties...He specialized in the bizarre. He had “frizzled” chickens with curled up feathers...”bunnie” chickens that had no tails...bantams, and various other varieties for color and size. He kept all of these together and every setting of eggs was always a surprise package!

Love, Dad