My Genealogy Hound

William T. Holman, another successful farmer and stock raiser of Watkins Township, was born in Overton, now Clay County, Tenn., in 1844, and is the son of William and Nancy (Barksdale) Holman, and grandson of William Holman, a native of North Carolina and an early settler of Tennessee, where he died. The parents of our subject were natives of Tennessee, where they remained until 1845, when they moved to what is now Dent County, Mo., where they improved a good farm. In 1860 they removed to Washington County, where the father died in 1886. The mother had died many years previous, and after her death the father had married Miss Zilla Woods, whose father was one of the first settlers of Washington County. Mr. Holman was a successful farmer and stock raiser, and one of the pioneers of Dent County. He raised a company of soldiers, of which he was made captain, and started to assist in one of the Indian wars, but his services were not needed. He was a member of the Christian Church. William T. Holman, subject of this sketch, was the third of six children, and was educated in the common schools, and a few months at Arcadia. He remained with his father in Washington County until 1870, when he returned to Dent County and assumed charge of the old farm then owned by his father. He was married in 1871 to Miss Levicia A., daughter of Abner and Jane Harrison, natives of North Carolina and Tennessee. Her parents came to Dent County in 1852, and there they have since lived. Mr. Harrison is one of the wealthiest farmers and stock raisers in the county. He was born in 1818. Mr. Holman, after his marriage, lived on the old farm until 1886, when he removed to his present farm, a tract of land containing 1,085 acres, the most of it the result of his own efforts in farming and stock raising. To his marriage were born six children, three now living. He is a Democrat in politics, casting his first presidential vote for Seymour in 1868. For ten or eleven years he has been successfully engaged in breeding Short-horn cattle, beginning with a two-year old heifer, which he paid $110 for, and now has probably the finest herd in the county. He was among the first to introduce the stock in the county, and he has also been engaged in breeding Poland-China hogs, of which he has a fine lot.