JURILLA MARGARET GREEN AND JAMES OLIVER HOLLAND

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James Oliver Holland (b. 20 February 1849, d. Aft. 1894)

James Oliver Holland (son of Franklin Harper Holland and Priscilla Ruth Wilson) was born 20 February, 1849 in Gaston Co. North Carolina, and died Aft. 1894 in Goias, Brazil.  He married Jurilla Margaret Green.

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Notes for James Oliver Holland:

On April 20th 1869 he wrote a letter from Jardim, near Campinas, to Sarah Torrence, his cousin, telling about day-by-day live in Brazil and giving cousin June (William Junius Torrence) directions how to send his money to Brazil: 

Dear Cousin,

     It is with pleasure that I seat myself to write you a few lines to let you know how I am getting along. At present wee have now been in Brazil more than two years and I suppose you are surprised that wee have not yet bought land and settled down for good yet.We are now living on the Amundoing (Amendoim?) River, 24 or 25 miles from Campinas, which is our nearest post office, and from 45 to 50 miles from Santa Barbara and wee are doing very well. Itve have arm (warm?) through to do us this year and will make some cotton for sale which we can sell for 3 ¾ per pound at our door. Picked cotton is worth 22 and 24 cts. per pound in Santos, the port town of this province, where it is shipped for England or France. Corn is generally 58 cts per bushel, bacon is 122 cts per pound and hogs are a great deal easier raised here than they are in the States. Shuga is 15 cts and coffee 10 cts for lb. Rice is 64 cts per bushel in the husk. I bu in the husk will make some of the clean rice. And have very fine sweet potatoes which we planted on Christmas day. Our oranges are now beginning to ripen. Well we have a great many other kinds of fruit. All wee lack is a parcel of American to settle near us. I can fear the language tolerable, well it is so different from the English that it takes a good deal of time to understand it. I will send you a sample of it in this letter. I will send a news paper to Uncle Lawson soon, it is the Brazilian Reflector printed in Rio de Janerio by an American. I have no neuze of importance to write to you. Write soon and often. I have received but two letters from your family since ever came to Brazil and I have written three or four to yourself and a great many to my other Cousins and received but one from Cousin Sallie P. Torrence. Write soon, I remain as ever your cousin until death. Excuse my short letter as I am in a hurry.
James O. Holland.

Then he wrote, up side down, in the bottom of the letter:

     Mother sent cousin June directions how to send our money to us, but for fear he does not receive the letter you will please show to him this. Draw a draft on Gion & Co., Liverpool, payable to P. R. Holland in English gold. He will get eight bills. Send number one and wait untill we receive it. Then send the others one at a time. He can get them at Charleston, SC or Augusta GA or New York through a Commission merchant.
J. O. Holland

     Dr. Leonidas Chalmers Glenn reported in a letter of March 26, 1946 that James Oliver wrote him a letter dated Oct 22, 1894 where 7 children were mentioned. He accidentally shot himself in the leg in August 1875 and was several years in completely regaining its use. He became a public land surveyor and as such had to live much of the time on the remote frontier away from his family for long periods. Apart the letter received from Dr. Glenn no extra information has been added as to clarify the whereabouts of his family. Excepting that concerning the last son, James Ingram, whose descendants still live in Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, between Campo Grande, Cuiabá and Ponta Porã. They had other two dead children for sure. Probably one just older and another just younger than Olivia, his fifty living child. 

     After the death of Priscilla, James got Franklin Holland’s family bible but for some reason his wife burnt it. It seems they were living at Itatiba, near Campinas at this time, and several of his children were born there. Their oldest child was William Joseph Holland born October 25 1873, no further information. The next was Franklin Holland born about 1875 and dead two years later. Then they had Ruth in 1877, Edna Lee in 1879, Angelina in 81, Olivia in 85 and Eliza in 91, but we do not have information about any of them. 

Children of James Oliver Holland and Jurilla Margaret Green are:

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1. William Joseph Holland, b. 25 October 1873, d. date unknown.                                                           William Joseph Holland, was the eldest son of James Oliver Holland. He was known by friends and nephews, and appears in some documents, such as Guilherme José. With his wife, Maria Rufina ____, he was godfather to several nephews in Ibitinga between 1899 and 1910. He lived in Cafelândia, in São Paulo, during that period. We don't know if he had children.

2. Franklin Holland, b. 1875, d. Abt. 1877, Campinas, SP                                                                                         No further information

3. Ruth Holland, b. 1877, d. date unknown.                                                                                                            Maria Ruth Holland, born in 1877, married, at an unknown date and place, with Luiz Veash. We discovered only one daughter, Julia Margarida, born on August 19, 1911 and so named in honor of her maternal grandmother, in Ibitinga. We don't know where they lived or whether they had any more children, or anything about the life of Julia Margarida Veash.

4. Edna Lee Holland, b. 1879, d. Bef. 1990.

5. Angelina Holland, b. 1881, d. Bef. 1990.Angelina Russell Holland, was born on January 16, 1881, in an unknown location, possibly Santa Bárbara d'Oeste. She was the daughter of James Oliver Holland and Jurilla Margaret Green. Her parents' fourth child, the second female.Angelina married at the age of 17, on June 28, 1896, in Ibitinga, with José Sotero Telles de Menezes, son of Gonçalo Vieira Telles de Menezes and Maria José da Purificação. José Sotero was born in Sergipe and came to São Paulo after an argument with his parents. He owned the Ibitinga registry office. They had six children, all were born there.José Sotero Telles de Menezes was organizing a visit to his family in Sergipe when he caught pneumonia and died very young, in May 1909. His youngest son was born in the same year. Despite being the owner of the registry, with her death Angelina was not in a good financial situation so she and her sister Olivia made bobbin lace - the famous Ibitinga lace - to help with the family budget.We have no further information about the life that led Angelina and José Sotero. Angelina died on August 11, 1945. It seems that she felt bad during a visit she was making to one of her relatives in São Paulo. She was buried in São Paulo. Her daughter Olga said that she had a funny American accent.

6. Olivia Holland, b. 1885, d. Bef. 1990.Olivia Priscilla Holland passed away single in 1945, is buried in Cafelândia, near the grave of her niece Olga's husband, Francisco Figueiredo Netto.

7. James Ingram Holland, b. 1889, d. 1945.  James Ingraham Holland, was born in 1889 in an unknown place. He was the seventh son of James Oliver Holland and Jurilla Margaret Green and his nickname was Little Jim. He married Sarita Bahrain, born on August 26, 1896 in Alegrete, in Rio Grande do Sul. We were unable to discover the location of his wedding or the names of his wife's parents. Nothing is known about James' childhood and youth. Possibly he accompanied his father in his activities as a pioneer of public lands in the interior of the country and for that same reason he ended up moving to Campo Grande at some point. James died around 1945 and Sarita, from 1965, probably both in Campo Grande. Between 1917 and 1937 James and Sarita had twelve children. All died before 2011, except Dinorah who is alive (in 3014).

8. Eliza Holland, b. 1891, d. Bef. 1990.  Eliza Olivera Holland, was born around 1891 and was baptized on September 8, 1895 in Ibitinga. She was the eighth and final daughter of James Oliver Holland and Jurilla Margaret Green. Eliza married in Ibitinga on December 7, 1907 with Dr. Ernesto da Gama Cerqueira. The name Olivera, must be a reference to the name of your ancestors and not Oliveira, a current surname in Brazil, hence the spelling.  Ernesto da Gama Cerqueira was born in 1875 in Ouro Preto and moved to Ibitinga after becoming a lawyer. He was the son of Caetano Augusto and Ana Emília da Gama Cerqueira, paternal grandson of Cesário Augusto da Gama and Emília da Gama Cerqueira, a traditional family from Minas Gerais whose ancestors can be traced back to João Annes de Villas Boas, Lord of Torre de Airó, who lived around the years 1350 to 1380, during the reign of D. Afonso III, in Viana do Castelo, Portugal. One of his father's cousins, Eduardo Ernesto da Gama Cerqueira was governor of Minas Gerais from 1891 to 1892. There is a street in the Center of Ibitinga with the name of Ernesto.  Ernesto and Eliza only had their first daughter, Corina, in 1913, six years after their marriage. After her, they had only two more girls, Edith, in 1915 and Clarice in 1916. They lived for many years in Ibitinga and then moved to Itápolis. His daughters got married and went to live in São Paulo. We will talk about them later. We do not know other details of Ernesto and Eliza's life. They had 5 grandchildren.

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About James Oliver Holland

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On April 20th 1869 he wrote a letter from Jardim, near Campinas, to Sarah Torrence telling about day-by-day live in Brazil and giving cousin June (William Junius Torrence) directions how to send his money to Brazil.

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James Oliver Holland, was born on February 20, 1849 in Crowders Creek, Gaston County, North Carolina. He was the second son of Franklin Harper Holland and Priscilla Ruth Wilson. He was four years younger than his older brother Wiley. He had two brothers, Leroy, born in 1951 and Mary Priscilla, 1854.

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Little we know of his childhood. The house in which he was born had been built on lands his maternal grandfather had given to his parents when they were married and originally was part of his farm. Her uncles and grandmothers and maternal cousins ​​all lived on the same farm but little knew the maternal grandmothers because her grandmother died when he was two years old and his grandfather when he was five.

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His paternal grandparents, Oliver and Polly, lived northeast of his house, about two miles away. Both his father and grandfather's father died in 1857, when James was eight years old. And her grand-mother Polly when she was eighteen.

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His childhood friends must have been his cousins ​​Clisby Torrence, who was the same age as his older brother Wiley, and his cousin Sarah Clementine who was about the same age, both children of his aunt Mary Wilson Torrence; and Sarah Priscilla Torrence, daughter of her aunt Sarah Torrence, two years younger. On the side of his father there were only two cousins ​​about his age but they did not live so close and probably only met in church or on special occasions. It is interesting to note that one of them, Mary Ann, daughter of Jasper, also married a member of the Torrence family.

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When James was 12 years old, the war between the states began, and much of his childhood memories were likely to be very sad. At the age of eighteen he moved to Brazil with his mother and brothers.

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As we relate about your mother's life. The early days in Brazil were full of change and hard work. They lived in several cities, always working as farmers. James was the first to marry his brothers. Must have married around 1871 or 1872. His wife was Jurilla Margaret Green, originally from Dallas, Texas. James met her in Santa Barbara d'Oeste.

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On October 25, 1873, his first son was born, named after William Joseph, who was both the name of his elder brother and his maternal grandfather. In 1875 his second son was born, who was named after his father, Franklin. In August of this year James accidentally shot himself in the leg. It took many months to fully recover its movement. At that same time his elder brother, William Joseph, died, and at the beginning of the following year Priscilla, his mother. With Priscilla's death, James inherited the family bible, where all the records and births of the Holland and Wilson were. For some unknown reason, they say his wife burned this bible.

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In 1877 his son Franklin died and Mary Ruth was born. We know that James was living in Santa Barbara d'Oeste in 1879 because there he was born Helena Lee, the fourth of his children. Then came Angelina Russell in 1881, Olivia Priscilla in 1885, James Ingraham in 1889, known as Little Jim, and finally Eliza Oliveira in 1891. The name Ingraham, has been written in various forms throughout our research. Since we have no information on the correct spelling, we have here the way to write the name used by its living descendants that have this name today.

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James Oliver, or Big Jim, as he was called by the brothers, kept in touch with his cousins ​​in the United States because in 1894 he wrote a letter to the son of his cousin Sarah Priscilla Torrence, Leonidas Chalmers Glenn, on October 22, 1894 telling that he had become a land clearer for the government and that for this reason he spent much of his time in remote frontiers of the country, away from his family. As reported by Leeonides in a letter dated March 26, 1946, in the letter Big Jim mentions his seven children who have reached adulthood.

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They were living in Ibitinga at this time, and probably because of the difficulty in maintaining their Presbyterian religion where there were no temples or ministers, they became Catholics. On Sep-tember 8, 1895, he baptized his daughter Eliza in the Matrix of Ibitinga. Eliza was already three years old.

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We know that James died relatively young, between the ages of 45 and 57, that is before 1906, as it is recorded in the marriage registry of his daughter Helena.

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After his death, there was virtually no contact, or at least no news, between the family of Big Jim and his brothers Lee and Mary Priscilla. According to the family tradition, James's wife and Lee's wife disliked each other. Over the years and Lee's death, no one else knew the whereabouts of his descendants except for occasional contact with the descendants of Little Jim, who had moved to Campo Grande. However, even the children of Big Jim lost contact with Ibitinga's cousins. They have not known about them for the next hundred years. Not even if they lived there. So close to the descendants of Lee and Mary

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Jurilla Margaret Green, wife of James Oliver passed away in 1935, probably more than eighty years. Olivia, her fifth daughter, as mentioned before, passed away single around 1944, at about 60 years of age.

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James's mother was Priscilla Ruth Wilson

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Priscilla Ruth Wilson (b. 22 May 1818, d. 28 February 1876)

     Priscilla Ruth Wilson, was born 22 May 1818 in Lincoln Co. NC and died 28 February 1876 in Porto Feliz, SP, Brazil6.  She married Franklin Harper Holland on 13 December 1843 in Gaston Co. NC, son of Oliver Wiley Holland, Sr.and Mary E. Moore.

 Notes for Priscilla Ruth Wilson:

     Priscilla was very unhappy and disappointed with the situation of the South. In 1857, before the war, five Holland men had died, same year, her husband included, then came the war and she lost nephews. After, and above all, the later humiliating situation she couldn't abide, she left her home in Gaston County,in the Morning at half past nine, February 15th, 1867, to Brazil with her four children. They sold their place at Crowder's Creek to Dr. William J Torrence, who lived there the rest of his life. They went to New York. When waiting to get on board of the ship South America in February, 23 or 25th, 1867, they sent several letters to relatives and friends in North Caroline. (Some of those letters were in power of Robert Hoffman in 1963, where can it be now?)

Arrived in Rio de Janeiro on 22 Of March 1867, not sure if later the ship went to Santos or not.

     Already in Brazil they first settled in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, as we can read in Judith McKnight Jones book, "Soldier, now you may rest", p. 166: Lived also in the Retiro Neighborhood, at American Colony, near Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, the widow Priscilla Holland, who came from Carolina with her children William, Jim, Leroy who was nicknamed Lee, and Mary, the youngest.

     And in p. 253: The Hollands didn't stay longer in Retiro Neighborhood, moved to several places, among them the city of Tatuhy, however Lee was witness (p. 287) of a deed sale of the Tanner's property in 1887, at Santa Barbara.

     They lived in several places in the Sao Paulo State. In 1875, they were living at Porto Feliz (Happy Harbour), her older son Willie died unmarried and young (30), then in Feb. 1876 Priscilla died also. I think James had married and moved, by this time. So left Leroy and Mary, both unmarried. I think, feeling alone, they came back to Americana since soon both married Americans.

More About Priscilla Ruth Wilson:

Fact 1: 1867, emigrates to Brazil.
More About Priscilla Ruth Wilson and Franklin Harper Holland:
Marriage 1: 13 December 1843, Gaston Co. NC.
Marriage 2: 13 December 1843, Lincoln County, NC.

Children of Priscilla Ruth Wilson and Franklin Harper Hollandare:

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1. Stillborn Daughter Holland, b. 05 August 1844, d. date unknown.

2. William Joseph Holland, b. 17 December 1845, Gaston County, NC, d. 1875, Porto Feliz, SP, Brazil.William Joseph Holland, was the eldest son of James Oliver Holland. He was known by friends and nephews, and appears in some documents, such as Guilherme José. With his wife, Maria Rufina ____, he was godfather to several nephews in Ibitinga between 1899 and 1910. He lived in Cafelândia, in São Paulo, during that period. We don't know if he had children.

3. +James Oliver Holland, b. 20 February 1849, Gaston Co. NC, d. Aft. 1894, Goias, Brazil.

4. +Leroy Chalmers Holland, b. 10 June 1851, Gaston County, NC, d. 06 November 1921, Itirapina, SP, Brazil.

5. +Mary Priscilla Holland, b. 07 February 1854, Gaston County, NC, d. 31 July 1916, Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil.