I am opening this section in the Holland Family web site to record and preserve those things we remember about our family members.  While stories are wonderful and add the human touch to our family history, sometimes what we remember doesn't make a story but nevertheless adds that human element to our family history .   I hope that you will honor those you remember in your family by sharing something about them with the rest of us.    

Earnest G. Holland 1901 - 1970:  Ernest was know as "Unk" to us for uncle.  He would walk almost everywhere he went, even to Waycross and Baxley on occasion.  He gave me my first trumpet, he called a bugle, and I later majored in music and was tour soloist for NAU for two years.  There is a Holland cemetery in Baxley, Ga. about 25 miles from Alma where AB is buried and Grandma's brother Ransom.  Do you know anything about Ransom being a fine Organist and playing with Billy Sunday's Crusades?  It is a story in the family.  - from Ken Lee, 12/13/2002

Eli R. Holland 1834 - 1878  Based on the Bible, the name was listed as "Eli R. Holland.  I feel this is correct as a number of the Holland members were named Raymond.  Also, at the same time, Eli elected to be away from home for long periods of time.  Whether he was a member of a military branch, a merchant seaman, a peddler or maybe just a "total bum," I have no knowledge.  From what I have heard, he was a rather small man, weighing around 150 pounds, never seemed to have shaved and did very little talking.  His wife on the other hand, was a very "firey" lady, red headed, wearing high collar, long dresses and laced boots.  She spit out words like a "canon," with a very violent temper.  It has been said that Eli and his wife were heavy drinkers.  She smoked a corn cob pipe, was very small and trolled her red hair in a honey cone on top of her head.  - from Harold Holland, 9/26/2003

My great-grandfather Eli R. Holland was married to Amanda Jenkins.  Her father was married to a full-blooded Indian lady, and they were both heavy drinkers.  While still a little girl, Amanda ran away to a farm owned by Joe Woodard.  He raised her.  This is why her death certificate lists Joe Woodard a "father."  Amanda also had a drinking problem, apparently inherited from her Indian mother and her father, as well.    - from Harold Holland, 1/18/2007

Laura Alice Holland 1873 - 1960   According to family members, Laura was quiet, calm, easy-going, and sweet-tempered.  She was Cherokee Indian on her mother's side.  She had long hair which almost touched the ground and which she wore tied up into a bun.  She had pierced ears - unusual in the 1930's.  She walked with tiny steps.  Her faith was very important to her; her grandchildren called her a "faith warrior."  She made "tea cakes" -- cookies -- which she would tie inside a flour sack and hang from the ceiling so her grandchildren wouldn't eat them until after supper.  She earned her own spending money by selling eggs and butter that she made.  She would use the money to buy honey which she liked to put on her biscuits.  - from Cynthia Shaw Bunch's notes in her Family Group Sheet June 2007

Richard Turner Holland, Jr. 1942 - present    Have you wondered where I got the name “Jim” or “Jimmie” from Richard Turner Holland, Jr?  My Dad was on Guadalcanal when I was born on August 20th, 1942. One of the fiercest battles of Guadalcanal (The Battle of the Tenaru River) took place on that day. He didn’t know I existed for almost a year because of the censorship of all mail during that time. My Mom named me James Turner Holland for my maternal Grandfather James Bland and my dad Richard Turner Holland. When my Dad returned, he insisted that I be named for him as a junior, so my name was changed on the birth certificate. However, I had been called “Jimmie” for so long (the spelling was a reference to ancestors “Jimmie
and Ruthie”) that I could never shake the name.

William Albert Shaw 1907 - 1956  William Albert Shaw was called Albert.  Albert and his wife Ida were neighbors when they were growing up. They both lived on farms on Old Crockett Road in Grapeland, Texas. Ida and Albert's sister Daint were childhood chums. At his funeral they sang, "What A Friend We Have in Jesus" and "Shall We Gather at the River."

William Albert Holland was a farmer in several places including Grapeland, TX; Rockwall, TX; Twitty, TX; Shamrock, TX; and Endee, NM; and Springer, NM. By the late 1940's he had made a lot of money as a farmer, then he lost everything in the historic "dust bowl' drought. He then started drinking heavily and died in 1956 of cirrhosis of the liver.  - from Cynthia Shaw Bunch's notes in her Family Group Sheet June 2007