The Islands: Biographies: Wolfe Island Bio 6

Wolfe Island Biographies 6




The Holliday Family in America
William Holliday and Sarah Caldwell

By Thelma Moye

William Holliday was born in Ireland October 27,1784. There he married Sarah Caldwell. I don't have a wedding date for them. Her last name has been spelled many different ways but in the family bible it is spelled Caldwell. I don't have any information on their parents or where in Ireland they were born. She was born in February 1789. Of their 8 children only 2 were born in Ireland. Ann; April 5,1811 and John William Hoillday born October 18,1813. They left Belfast ,Ireland on the ship "Down" arriving in New York City on July 31,1817. From there they settled in Morristown,St. Lawrence Co.,New York.

The other six children were born there. They were Robert,William Henry,James,Mary,Sarah,and Eliza.

Williams brother David and his wife Nancy also came to the United States at a later date in 1829. They never had children.

William and David both bought land on the St. Lawrence and became framers. William died in 1867 and his wife Sarah in 1864 both are buried in the Pine Hills Cemetary,Ogdensberg,N Y .

Their daughter Ann married James Wright; Robert married Lucy Ann Simonds; William married Betsy M. Eastwood and moved to Wisc.;James married first Ann Long who died in 1885 he later married Sarah Butrich.;Mary married Ezra Day;Sarah married William McNeil and moved to Brockport.;Eliza married Issac Best who fought and was killed in the Civil War.

Their other son( my Ancestor ) John William married Nancy Day . They had five children William;Sarah ( M: Morris Edmund Bromling );David married Emily G. Thompson. David was a watchman for the Chicago Northwestern Railroad. They moved from Canada to Wisc. in 1868 and settled in Black Brooke, Polk City,Wisc. John Christopher who was accidentally kicked by a horse at Hogan's on Oak St. Wolfe Island and died as a result. He never married. They had one more child Shuben ( Shib ) who was born in Nov. 1847 and as a result John William's wife Nancy died leaving a family of 5 small children. In 1852 John married my gr.gr. grandmother Margaret Notter. Margaret had been raised in a Convent by nuns in Montreal ( some say it was in Buffalo,NY). She met him there, as the story goes, when her brother George brought John with him on a visit. One story relates that she hid behind a door, not realizing her brother had a friend with him ,and proceeded to jump out with a surprise kiss for her brother ,but kissed John instead of George. It must have made a big impression on John for he later married her. Both her brother and John were Sea Captain's on the Great Lakes. It is said her father was also a Captain and was forced to put the children in the convent when his wife died.

John and Margaret were married on July 1,1852. After their marriage they moved to Wolfe Island with a large chest of their belongings which stood in the kitchen of the Holliday homestead for many years. They bought 400 acres of land and cleared it,and built on it. The original home was a three room log cabin. This became the old part of the Holliday home.At that time Wolfe Island still had many Indians living there and they were hired on to help with the work.

Margaret being raised by nuns had learned to do exquisite embroidery work. Her stitches were so small as not to be seen.My grandmother used to describe her as having naturally curly black hair that hung in long ringlets with dark eyes that danced as she spoke. She was very well educated and spoke many languages.I remember grandma as she talked about her grandmother who was very religious. She used to tell of spending time there with her cousin Nora Murphy and at night her grandmother would kneel by her bed for hours repeating her rosary only stopping long enough to say " Oh, Lord,forgive me,for I am such a sinner.". The girls being in the next room would on occasion get to laughing, finding the idea of this saintly little women being a sinner as very funny, she would stop and yell to them in her heavy brogue " Shet up ye lit'l divils..kin ya not see I'm trying ta pray?"

Margaret Notter Holliday was a small women. She used to tell people she weighted 98 lbs. The weight of a witch. John and Margaret had 7 children all born on Wolfe Island They were Eliza, Charlotte who married John Gibson; Mary married Thomas Murphy, Richard b: Aug.15,1859 & died Dec.13,1859;Charles Victor married Isabelle Mae Bamford;Henry Murray whose first wife was Cora Mathilda Niles who died of diphtheria he then married Dora Gillespie Bates ( widow of Edward Bates) and Richard Justice married Lydia Ann Ranous.

At the Christ Church Angelican on Wolfe Island one of the stain glass windows was deticated to the John William Holliday family and is inscribed with the childrens names Charles,Richard,Henry,Mary,Charlotte,and Eliza. My grandmother used to go to church there and sit in the family pew. They were baptized there.

John and Margaret's son Charles Holliday who married Isabelle Bamford, whose father was also a Great Lakes sea Captain, lived on Wolfe Island for years and raised all 7 of their children there. Their children were Margaret " Marjorie" Irene ( M:Arthur W. Vincent); Beatrice ( M: Frank Schram );Irene Eliza (M: Henry "Ray" McCumber King);Charles Victor ( Ethelyn Durant) Grace Bamford Halliday (M: Howard P. Cheever) Kathleen Ruth ( Harold Easton) & Henry Edward ( M: Ann "Shirley" Williams)

This is where the name change came in and a lot of the Holliday's started spelling their name Halliday using an A instead of O.My grandmother was the only child of Charles Victor Sr. with the O on her birth Cert. His father John when he died left the bigger farm to the brother and we have often wondered if that caused it. John died July 4,1891 and after that they spelled it with an A. Also another branch had changed the spelling of their name when the widow ( left with small children )was snubbed by some of the family when her husband died. And so the stories are handed down.

Charles Victor and Isabelle moved to Jefferson Co.,NY on Nov 4,1908 and are both buried in the Depauville Cemetery. They were living in Depauville at the time of the big fire that almost destroyed the village. She was teaching Sunday school then and a lot of the young people she taught helped to save her home. Charles died Nov.21,1938 in the barber shop owned by Everritt " Skip" Vincent a brother of his son-in-law ( Arthur Vincent ) my grandfather.





The Islands: Biographies: Wolfe Island Bio 6
Copyright (�) 1999-2002 Jennifer Hoeltzel. All rights reserved.
Send comments or suggestions regarding this site to the webmaster:

Jen Wylie nee Hoeltzel