R. V. Holleman

Today I post brief bios of two first cousins, Richard Valentine Holleman (1874-1969), son of Clinton Marion Holleman) and Roe Thomas Holleman (1884-1912), son of Robert Houston Holleman). These were previously posted on my other blog, here and here.

R. V. was a Primitive Baptist preacher. R. T. was a Missionary Baptist preacher. Both were born in Rusk County, Texas, but R. V. never pastored in Rusk County. Both were first cousins of my maternal grandmother, a daughter of Moody Valentine Holleman. One candle burned brightly and quickly. Cousin Roe Holleman died of spinal meningitis in the 27th year of his age. He was licensed to preach in March 1901, and ordained December 21, 1902 – making his time in the ministry about ten years. The other candle burned slowly and steadily. Cousin Richard Holleman died in the 95th year of his age, after nearly 63 years in the ministry. He was ordained December 15, 1905. Surely now any religious differences they had are all resolved!

At least two other Holleman-side first cousins were also preachers – Nehemiah Morris “Nead” Holleman, son of John Lawrence Holleman, and Moody Cunningham Hays, son of Parmelia C. Holleman Hays. I have little biographical information on either of these, but may be able to post something later. I once heard the following story about Nead Holleman. He received a call to a church to the south – perhaps around Livingston where he is buried. He moved, did not harvest his crop, but left it for his neighbors to harvest and to have.

FROM ELDER AFTON RICHARDS IN THE “BANNER OF LOVE” OCTOBER 1961: Our Profile this issue is of Elder R. V. Holleman, a pioneer minister of Southeast Texas.

I have not been very closely associated with this good man, but have corresponded with him for some 20 or more years, and heard him preach a few times.

He is counted as one of the truly great old fathers in Israel. While he retired a few years ago, he is still a great influence for good among Primitive Baptists.

My father, who was more closely associated with him, especially in the mid 40’s, said the courts missed one of their best gifts when Brother Holleman did not study law. He said that he had a brilliant technical mind. And my observation of him has proven to me that this is true.

I remember some two years ago some time after he retired, at a session of the Primitive Association, Brother Rowell, the moderator, whom custom said should preach Sunday morning, in his kind way bowed out and gave the time to Brother Holleman. His mind was so clear, and he took a subject and discussed it from a technical standpoint, like an attorney briefing his case. This too, presented in the spirit of the Lord. It could not be put into words the great worth to the cause of Christ of such able old soldiers as Brother Holleman.

WRITTEN BY ELDER HOLLEMAN: I was born in Rusk County, Texas, August 28, 1874 and moved to Leon County October 1884. I have lived in the Wealthy Community since. I united in marriage to Miss Eva Mae Gilbert (who was born Dec. 25, 1884) Dec. 15, 1907. She has been loyal.

I united to Union Church in Leon County on Saturday before the second Sunday in October 1894 and was ordained Dec. 15, 1905. I was in the constitution of Mt. Zion Church at Wealthy in April 1904, and I am the only living charter member.

During my ministry, I have served the three churches in Leon and Madison Counties, one of them (Shiloh) for 47 years. I have served as moderator of our association for 19 years. I have united in marriage 210 couples. I have estimated that I have been in 750 funerals. I have baptized 169 persons.[i]

WRITTEN BY DAVID MONTGOMERY: Elder Holleman had a wide influence in southeast Texas, and the memory of his ministry still lingers in the hearts of the Primitive Baptists in that area. He served the Fellowship Church in Madisonville, Texas for 45 years. He was a civic leader, being instrumental in the extension of rural electrical service into his area. He was postmaster of Wealthy, Texas from 1905 to 1914. He ran a general store at Wealthy for several years and almost went bankrupt when he accepted cotton for more than its value in lieu of money just to help his neighbors out. He served as a school trustee and was a member of the Leon Country Volunteer Parole Board. He was well respected in the church and in his community. He was laid to rest September 12, 1969 at the age of 95 years and 14 days.

The above is taken from Biographical Sketches of Primitive or Old School Baptist Ministers, Volume 2 –  Published 2001 by David Montgomery and Mark Green, and used by permission.

Additional information from his niece, Opal Holleman Miller, who described him as “a gentle smart man”:

• R. V. Holleman was baptized by Elder J. C. Denton on Sunday October, 14, 1894, the morning after he united with the Union Primitive Baptist Church by experience.
• R. V. Holleman taught music and was a song leader, in addition to his preaching ministry.
• R. V. Holleman resigned the pastoral care of his churches in 1952, but continued to serve Mt. Zion and Union in other ways, including church clerk.
• Beginning in 1948, couples he had married started a tradition of visiting Elder Holleman and his wife every 3rd Sunday in May, and continued the tradition until his death.[ii]

---

[i] Sometime after writing this, Richard Holleman remembered one other baptism he had forgotten, bringing the total to 170. A complete list of “Baptisms Held by Elder Richard Valentine Holleman, Primitive Baptist Minister” can be found in Leon Hunters Dispatch, Vol. 14, No. 3, Spring 1993, pp. 80-85.

[ii] When Gilford Vaughn pastored Crossroads Missionary Baptist Church at Normangee, Texas, he told me that R. V. Holleman had married most all of the older couples in his church.

R. T. Holleman

Today I post brief bios of two first cousins, Richard Valentine Holleman (1874-1969), son of Clinton Marion Holleman) and Roe Thomas Holleman (1884-1912), son of Robert Houston Holleman). These were previously posted on my other blog, here and here.

R. V. was a Primitive Baptist preacher. R. T. was a Missionary Baptist preacher. Both were first cousins of my maternal grandmother, a daughter of Moody Valentine Holleman. One candle burned brightly and quickly. Cousin Roe Holleman died of spinal meningitis in the 27th year of his age. He was licensed to preach in March 1901, and ordained December 21, 1902 – making his time in the ministry about ten years. The other candle burned slowly and steadily. Cousin Richard Holleman died in the 95th year of his age, after nearly 63 years in the ministry. He was ordained December 15, 1905. Surely now any religious differences they had are all resolved!

At least two other Holleman-side first cousins were also preachers – Nehemiah Morris “Nead” Holleman, son of John Lawrence Holleman, and Moody Cunningham Hays, son of Parmelia C. Holleman Hays.[i] I have little biographical information on either of these, but may be able to post something later. I once heard the following story about Nead Holleman. He received a call to a church to the south – perhaps around Livingston where he is buried. He moved, did not harvest his crop, but left it for his neighbors to harvest and to have.

The youngest man ever to serve as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Nacogdoches was Roe Thomas Holleman, in 1907 and 1908. He was born on September 27, 1884, in the Oak Flat community between Mt. Enterprise and Laneville, Rusk County, Texas. His parents were Robert H. Holleman and Nancy Jane Vaughn.

Roe Holleman attended rural schools in Rusk County, and graduated from high school at Cushing, Nacogdoches County.[ii] He felt the divine call to preach at the age of seventeen. He was licensed by Smyrna Baptist in March 1901. In the March conference Smyrna church elected a committee “to investigate the matter in regard to Brethren Roe Holleman and Edwin Stanford’s application to preach.” The committee retired forthwith, evidently in consultation with the prospective ministers, came back and made their report in the same meeting, and the two were given “the privilege to preach.” Roe Holleman began preaching in rural churches in Rusk County.

Roe Holleman conducted divine services in the Smyrna Church conference of July 1901, and again in August. He enrolled in Jacksonville Baptist College, and seems to have attended there 1902-1904. On October 18, 1902, Smyrna Church considered the request of W. B. Perry, representing Mt. Enon Church, for ordination of Bro. R. T. Holleman to the full work of the ministry. Ordination of Brethren J. W. Bryan and J. A. Jones to the deaconship was already pending, the first date for the deaconship service not having been kept “on account of Providential hinderance (sic) in the form of rain.” Consequently, the two deacons and the minister were all ordained on December 21, 1902. Bro. J. A. Lee preached the ordination sermon; other members of the presbytery were Elders E. C. Rice, M. L. Vaughn, Wm. M. Pruitt, V. T. Vaughn, Jas. A. Long, and J. J. Burks.

In 1906-1907, he served as pastor of both the Sacul Baptist Church in Sacul and the Central Baptist Church in Cushing, both in Nacogdoches County. In 1908 he served the Baptist Church at Mt. Enterprise, Rusk County. His reputation as a preacher soon spread to the town of Nacogdoches, where the First Baptist Church secured his services as pastor. After resigning his Nacogdoches pastorate, he returned to Cushing where he again served as pastor for a time.

In his earliest ministry, Roe Holleman apparently maintained his membership for the most part of the time in the Smyrna Church, though he was pastoring elsewhere. His ministry began in turbulent times for associational Baptists in Texas. Disgruntled members (and possibly some non-members) of the Baptist General Convention of Texas – often designated as the “church-party” – formed the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas in 1900. Smyrna Church supported the “church-party” and the BMA of Texas. Supporters of the BGT of Texas were termed the “board-party.” Roe Holleman struggled with his affiliation. In February 1905, the church voted to “receive the credentials of Bro. R. T. Holleman for the present by his request to wait for further developments.” Subsequently the church voted to restore the credentials of Brother Holleman on July 15 of the same year. This circumstance likely was related to the division and his attempt to find his place in it. Eventually Roe Holleman cast his lot with board-party (Convention) Baptists.[iii]

Roe Holleman married Ola Menefee of Huntsville, Texas on December 30, 1908, who was at that time teaching in the Cushing High school. To this union were born two sons, Irvin Thomas Holleman and Samuel Brooks Holleman. At some point, he enrolled in and attended Baylor University, with 1911-12 being his senior year. Roe Holleman died during that senior year on January 18, 1912, of cerebral meningitis. While attending Baylor, he had an appointment once a month at Cushing. He had traveled from Waco, filled his appointment at Cushing on Sunday morning January 14, and then went to his parents’ home in the Oak Flat Community. He became sick Sunday afternoon, and suffered greatly from what was diagnosed as spinal meningitis. He died on Thursday in the home of his parents.[iv]

Roe Thomas Holleman was considered a very brilliant young preacher, who, had he lived a longer life, might have become one of the foremost preachers in Texas.[v] From the sources we know that Roe Holleman pastored at least these churches in his brief career: Central Baptist, Cushing, Nacogdoches County; Cool Springs Baptist, Rusk County; First Baptist, Mt. Enterprise, Rusk County; First Baptist, Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County; Minden Baptist, Minden, Rusk County; Mt. Enon Baptist, Rusk County; Sacul Baptist, Sacul, Nacogdoches County.

This biography combines information from Seventy-five Years in Nacogdoches by William Tellis Parmer, Centennial + 5 by James Wyatt Griffith, East Texas Family Records, and family information passed down.

---

[i] Roe also had three first cousins on the Vaughn side who were Baptist preachers, Robert Raymond Scruggs, Benjamin Lewis Vaughn, and William Wyatt Vaughn.

[ii] Likely because the rural schools did not have as many grades as the schools in towns. Even in the 1930s when by parents were in high school, Oak Flat had 10 grades, and both went to other schools to attend the 11th grade.

[iii] Planning a simple memorial service for Roe Holleman was not so simple. The following incident reminds us of the super-strained feelings from the Baptist division of 1900. “Unended bitterness resulted from this schism of Baptists. Especially was there strong feeling in the beginning. The most apparent case in the Smyrna Church was that involving Bro. Roe Holleman. After the untimely death of Bro. Holleman January 18, 1912 some desired to hold a memorial service in the Smyrna Church building, with Bro. Leland Malone, a Convention pastor, giving the message. This was not allowed until, on March 12, ‘on motion the church granted Elder Leland Malone the use of the church house to hold Bro. Roe Holleman’s funeral service the third Sunday in April, 1912.’” Centennial + 5: History of Smyrna Baptist Church of Rusk County, Texas, 1873-1978, J. W. Griffith, Henderson, TX: , 1978, p. 18.

[iv] There are some conflicts on his death date. Seventy-five Years in Nacogdoches gives January 17. An obituary reproduced in East Texas Family Records (Vol. 7, No. 2, Summer 1983, p. 29) says he died “Friday morning at 7 o’clock” – which would have been the 19th of January. Engraved on his tombstone is January 18, 1912, which I have accepted as correct and consistent with our family records.

[v] Seventy-five Years in Nacogdoches: a History of the First Baptist Church, 1884-1959, William Tellis Parmer, Dallas, TX: Dorsey Company, 1959, pp. 207-208. His widow, Mrs. Ola Parker, gave some of the biographical information given by William T. Parmer.

National Baptists, African-American Churches

I believe there are at least 5 general bodies for African-Americans that are or can be considered Missionary Baptists. Four of the five have the words “National Baptist” in their name. There are also national or general African-American bodies of Free Will and Primitive Baptists. However, I do not believe they are represented in Rusk County. The five national bodies are:

• Institutional Missionary Baptist Conference of America
• National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.
• National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc.
• National Missionary Baptist Convention of America
• Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.

A History of Rusk County, Texas

A History of Rusk County, Texas by Dorman Hayward Winfrey (1961) can be found on Archive.Org.

Mostly history of county, towns, communities; not much mention of specifics about churches.