Month: August 2021

Orlando Newton Hollingsworth (1836-1919?): New Light on the Mystery of His Final Years

William D. Lindsey1 Comment
Orlando N. Hollingsworth’s listing in United States Confederate Officers Card File Index, 1861-1865, compiled by Military Order of the Stars and Bars, Springfield, Tennessee; digitized at Fold3

Or, Subtitled: Texas Ranger’s Account Casting Light on a Mysterious Disappearance

As the previous posting indicates, though the life of Orlando Newton Hollingsworth (1836-1919?), son of Benjamin Benton Hollingsworth and Joicy Jones, is well-documented in a number of biographies, information about when and where Orlando died seems surprisingly difficult to find. Orlando was a Texas state legislator with a degree from the University of Virginia, a lawyer in Austin, founder of an academy in San Marcos, and was for some years Texas Superintendent for Public Instruction. The high profile he enjoyed as a public figure accounts for the several well-documented biographies written about him. But these biographies either state that his date of death is “unknown”[1] or that he died in 1919, with the day and month and place of death unspecified.[2]

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Children of Benjamin Benton Hollingsworth (abt. 1785-1844) and Wife Joicy Jones

William D. Lindsey1 Comment
Orlando Newton Hollingsworth, son of Benjamin Hollingsworth and Joicy Jones, from his biography page, “Orlando Newton Hollingsworth,” at the Legislative Reference Library of Texas website 

Or, Subtitled: Distinguished Careers in Public Service, Law Firms and Oil Wells, with a Mysterious Disappearance After the Law Comes Knocking at the Door

As we saw in the previous posting, in his 1 May 1841 Benton County, Alabama, will,[1] Benjamin Hollingsworth states that he and wife Joicy Jones Hollingsworth had had the following children: Stephen, Wyly B. (whose name appears as Wiley in other documents), Asenath (Allen), Mary Ann (Kelly), Hannah Belzora, Benjamin, Benton, and Orlando. The will notes that Wiley had predeceased his father. 

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Children of Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – aft. 15 May 1815) and Jacob Hollingsworth (1742 – 1822) — Benjamin Benton Hollingsworth (abt. 1785-1844) and Wife Joicy Jones (2)

William D. Lindsey1 Comment

[Resolutions] of the citizens of Benton County, 1836 June 6, Jacksonville, [Alabama to Clement C.] Clay, Governor of Alabama, Montgomery / [signed by] W[illia]m Wood … [et al.], a manuscript held by the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Felix Hargrett Papers, box 01, folder 01, document 01; online at the website of the Digital Library of Georgia of University of Georgia Libraries

Or, Subtitled: Long Trek of a Family from Franklin County, Georgia, to Tennessee, Alabama, and, Finally, Texas

At some point not very long after his 29 July 1831 sale of land with son-in-law Alexander E. Patton in Franklin County, Tennessee (with the deed being recorded 2 June 1834), Benjamin Hollingsworth moved to Benton (now Calhoun) County, Alabama — perhaps around 1835, Sadie Sparks thinks.[1] Benjamin was in Benton County by 6 June 1836 when citizens of Jacksonville in that county presented a resolution to Alabama Governor Clement Clay, noting that at the meeting at which the resolution was passed, a committee of six persons had been appointed to draft the “sense of the meeting.”[2] This committee included Col. Benj. Hollingsworth. Digital images of the first and last pages of this resolution are above, with Benjamin’s signature on the last page.

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Children of Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – aft. 15 May 1815) and Jacob Hollingsworth (1742 – 1822) — Benjamin Benton Hollingsworth (abt. 1785-1844) and Wife Joicy Jones

William D. Lindsey3 Comments

Letter of Benjamin Hollingsworth, Carnesville, Franklin County, Georgia, Governor David B. Mitchell, 7 December 1812, in Telamon Cuyler Collection, Series 1. Historical Manuscripts holdings at Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, box 46, folder 11

Or, Subtitled: “Honoured Sir — If your Dignity will permit me to make a statement to you in regard to our frontier county“

In a previous posting, I summarized the salient facts about the life of Benjamin Benton Hollingsworth, Jacob Hollingsworth and Mary Brooks’s last child — literally, the Benjamin of their declining years. As we see in the posting I’ve just linked, Benjamin was born after 1784 in Randolph County, North Carolina, and died 18 August 1844 in Benton County, Alabama.[1] We can conclude, more specifically, that Benjamin was likely born in or after 1785, since he does not appear with other males of his family on the tax list in Franklin County, Georgia in 1801, which indicates that he was not yet 16 or became 16 in 1801 after the tax list was compiled.[2] As Sadie Greening Sparks also notes, he does not appear as a drawer in the 1805 Georgia land lottery, and this means he was under 21 in 1805, therefore born after 1784.[3] Because Benjamin witnessed a deed of Joseph Dunnigan to Abner Dunnigan in Franklin County, Georgia, on 20 August 1803, a legal act that required him to be 18 years old at the time (though I’ve seen instances of minors witnessing deeds, too), I suspect he was born in 1785: see below for more about this deed.

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Children of Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – aft. 15 May 1815) and Jacob Hollingsworth (1742 – 1822) — James Hollingsworth (1777/1780 – abt. 1822) and Wife Mary Jones

William D. Lindsey2 Comments
Reproduction of what appears to be an oil portrait of Salina Zora Belle Hollingsworth Patton in Eddie Patton and Mary Ellen Patton Roberts, “The Pattons of Pelham and the Civil War,” The Pathfinder [Grundy County, Tennessee] 17,2 (June 2012), pp. 16-20, online at the Grundy County, Tennessee, History website

Or, Subtitled:

As we’ve seen, researchers have placed the birth of James Hollingsworth, the seventh child (and fourth son) of Jacob Hollingsworth and Mary Brooks, between 1777-1780 in Guilford or Randolph County, North Carolina (Randolph was created from Guilford in 1779). In their classic accounts of the Hollingsworth and Harlan families, J. Adger Stewart and Alpheus Harlan both have James born in 1777.[1] Sadie Greening Sparks thinks that he was born in 1780.[2]

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Children of Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – aft. 15 May 1815) and Jacob Hollingsworth (1742 – 1822) — Thomas Hollingsworth (1777 – 1836) and Wife Amelia Terrell

William D. Lindsey3 Comments
Southern Recorder (Milledgeville, Georgia), 31 May 1836, p. 3, col. 5

Or, Subtitled: “He was proverbial for his honesty and integrity.”

Thomas Hollingsworth was the sixth child of Jacob Hollingsworth and Mary Brooks, and was possibly named for Mary’s brother Thomas Brooks (bef. 1747 – 1805) (and see here and here). We’ve seen previously that his tombstone in Fairview Presbyterian cemetery in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia, states that he died 16 May 1836 in his 59th year: this places his birth in 1777.[1] He was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, and died in Lawrenceville, the county seat of Gwinnett, to which he and wife Amelia moved their family in 1825 from Franklin County, Georgia.

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