John holladay

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Children:

Susannah Fleming (1823-1823)

Lettisha Hollis (1823-1849)

Catherine Beasley (1824-1896)

John Daniel Jr (1826-1909)

Sarah Ann [Dowdle] (1825-1915)*

Caron Huppuch (1830-1915)*

David Hollis (1832-1874)*

Keziah Donnell (1834-1853)*

Thomas Wiley Middleton (1836-1921)*

Leonora McCray (1839-1853)*

* Spent winter of 1846-47 in Pueblo

John Holladay, also referred to as John Daniel Holladay, Sr., was a southern plantation owner who joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1844 or 1845. He, his wife Catherine Beasley Higgins, and seven children travelled west with the Mississippi Saints in 1846, and spent the winter of 1846-1847 in Pueblo, CO. Another daughter, Sarah Ann Holladay Dowdle, came west at the same time with her husband, Absalom Porter Dowdle. John Holladay was chosen to be one of the counselors of the Mississippi Saint Company that traveled west in 1846. Personal and family memories can be found on the following website. (A complimentary login to the FamilySearch website is necessary to view this content.)

https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/memories/LH7M-SYW

Several of the Mississippi Saints settled southeast of Salt Lake City, where the original main body of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints settled when they migrated west from Nauvoo, IL. Part of the area where this group settled was later named Holladay, UT, after John Holladay, who was one of the early settlers and an early bishop of the group of Saints in that area. Holladay was the first village established independent of Salt Lake City. For more information on Holladay, UT, please view the following websites:

https://holladayut.gov/government/about/history.php

https://utahhistoricalmarkers.org/category/cat/hol/

John Daniel Holladay (often identified as John Daniel Holladay, Jr.) was one of the seven men that did not spend winter of 1846-47 in Pueblo. These seven men returned to their homes to settle affairs and to return west, in some cases with their families, in 1847. In the case of John Daniel, he was to settle family affairs prior to returning in 1847. He was also one of the men in 1845-46 who traveled to Nauvoo and who served as a militia man to help protect church leaders.

Thomas Wiley Middleton Holladay, born September 2, 1836, was 10 years old when the Holladay family migrated west in 1846 and and subsequently spent that winter in Pueblo. Thomas is particularly known for having acquired a quantity of Taos wheat that the Holladay family planted in 1848. Here are two versions of that history:

The first story is taken from “LDS Biographical Encyclopedia” by Andrew Jensen:

     "Thomas Wiley Middleton Holladay, a Utah pioneer of 1847 was born September 2, 1836, in Marion County, Alabama, the son of John Holladay and Catharine Beasley. He came with his parents to Greater Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and later accompanied them to San Bernardino, California where he in January 1856, married Ann Hotton (Horton) Matthews, who subsequently bore him ten children. When he arrived in the Valley in 1847 he brought with him one bushel of wheat, which he obtained according to instructions from his father at a place called Taos in the State of Missouri (different sources say that the wheat was a variety called “Taos” wheat, and that it may have come from Alabama), carrying the same on horseback a distance of about 50 miles, to his father’s camp. This was a superior grade of wheat and after the arrival in the Valley Brother Holladay planted the wheat on the family farm at Big Cottonwood in the spring of 1848. It yielded 110 bushels in the fall of that year. The wheat was frailed by the Holladay’s who distributed the same to other settlers for seed wheat the following year (1849). From that small beginning commenced in Utah the so-called Taos wheat which is universally known in the great West as the best wheat that has ever been sown in the intermountain region. Great credit is due to the Holladays for bringing this cereal into the Valley. After residing in Utah for many years Brother Holladay removed with his family to Arizona and is now a resident of Fairview, Graham County, Arizona. The names of his children are George Thomas, Daniel Wiley, Archibald David, Julia Ann, David Hollis, Leonora, Charles Eugene, Henretta, Rhoda Polly, and Hollis."

As found in the Thomas Middleton Wiley Holladay Memories on FamilySearch.org.

A similar story of the life of Thomas is quoted in the Eastern Arizona Museum and Historical Society, Inc.:

     "Thomas, a pioneer born in Alabama came to Matthewsville, Arizona with his wife Ann Hotton Matthews and his ten children: George, Thomas, Daniel Wiley, Archibald David, Julia Ann, David Hollis, Leonara (Lenora), Charles Eugene, Henretta, Rhoda Polley and Hollis, arriving in January of 1880.

     "The family soon moved to Smithville, now Pima, where Thomas owned a farm near the Gila River. Here they reared their family and proved to be energetic and useful citizens. He owned a fine Livery Stable in partnership with his son-in-law John S. Green. Their horses were always admired and in great demand in the growing community.

     "Thomas is to be remembered for the Taos Wheat he brought into the Salt Lake Valley from the State of Missouri. As a young boy of eleven he went some fifty miles on horseback to obtain a bushel of wheat seed to bring to the West. This productive variety of wheat has subsequently been grown throughout the Inter-mountain West. (Andrew Jensen Biographical Encyclopedia) Thomas donated the land for the first brick Church House in Pima, just south of the present Public School Building. James Elias Jones, as a young man, made the bricks for the building.

     "Thomas died in Pima, December 11, 1921. He is buried in the Pima Cemetery."

Eastern Arizona Museum and Historical Society, Inc., 1979. Pioneer Town, Pima Centennial

History. 373 pps. Submitted by Ruby Holladay Hundley, page 92, and found in the Thomas Middleton Wiley Holladay Memories on FamilySearch.org.