ANCESTERIAL TRAILS

by

ALVIN LEE HOLT
WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 2001
In honor of our mother who's last years were spent in the pursuit to find her family ancestory.

This will be the story of how our families (Smith & Holt ) made their many travels through a lot of the same lands and finally came together to unite in marriage and give me this opportunity to finish the work my mother had started

WITH LOVING MEMORIES
DEDICATED TO

OPAL DEAN(SMITH)HOLT
2-27-1925 TO 6-11-1994

NOW THAT YOU HAVE PASSED YOU CAN REUNITE WITH THOSE THAT YOU SEEK, AND MAY YOUR REUNION BE AS WONDERFUL AS THE PERSON THAT YOU WERE.


Page One : The Smith's of Tennessee

Page Two : The Holt's of Germany

Page Three : The Smith's Journey to Arkansas

Page Four : The Holt's move to North Carolina

Page Five : The Smith's leave Arkansas

Page Six : The Holt's move to Tennessee

Page Seven : the Holt's leave Tennessee

Page Eight:The Holt's and Smith's meet

Page Nine : these pages has all the descendancy

chart's and pedigree chart's for everyone to help

follow the line's of this story

THIS STORY WAS WRITTEN FOR THE DESCENDANTS OF

FORREST TAYLOR HOLT
and
OPAL DEAN SMITH

The Smith's of Tennessee


Our story start's out with a man named Bennett Smith. As of yet I have not found his place of origin, but I do know that he lived in Rutherford County , Tennessee during the 1830's. He married a woman named Judy , we have not found her last name. He appeared to be a farmer by all account's and was a rather succesful buisness man. He had accumulated a rather large sum of land that he later left to his heir's.
Bennett and Judy developed a rather large family as the years passed by , with a number totaling eleven children, their were six girl's and five boy's . Of one of the boy's that became our Great Great Grandfather Morgan Joseph Smith.
The other children of this union were,Amanda, Elizabeth J, Martha A, Thomas L, William D , Robert D, Andrew J, Esther B, Susan L, and Parlee M Smith.
Our G-great Grandfather Morgan Joseph married his wife while still living in Tennessee, Emma Dixon was most likely born in Tennessee also , during their time in Tennessee they had at least two of their many children . This family consisted of four girl's and six boy's , which in order of birth were, Bennett Thomas, Mollie Betty, William Taylor, Lou Ella, Benjamin Davis, Robert Donald, Rosa Lee, Andrew Jackson, Joseph Hampton, and Hortense Eula

The Holt's of Germany


The Holt family had their origin from Germany during the 1600's. The original spelling was Hold and later changed after their arrival in america.Hans Michael Hold was born in Wurteemberg Germany , 30 December 1690. He married about 1718 to Anna Elizabeth Sheible, daughter of George Sheible.
This union took place after their arrival in Virgina, they were originally destined for Pennsylvania, but for what reason is unknown they landed in Virginia. There they became a part of what is known as the Second Gemanna Colony. They arrived in Virgina in 1717 , and worked for Governor Spottswood as indentured servant's , because he had paid for their passage to America.
They continued to live in Virgina until sometime around 1725 , when by that time most were tired of the colony and had at least not paid their passage as yet , for Governor Spottswood sued most of the colonist in the courts of Virginia trying to collect monies he claimed owed to him
Most of these cases were settled out of court , even though a few tried to win but only to the favor of Spottswood.
Michael then along this time period gathered his family and moved to the great state of North Carolina where they took up residence in Orange County.

The Smith's Journey to Arkansas

Morgan Joseph loaded his family and came to what is now known as Pike County , Arkansas. I am not exactly sure as to what year but they are listed in the 1860 census.His brothers Andrew and Robert came a few years later. Morgan was told to be a fine furniture maker and was also told to be a hide tanner.
The results of whatever proffesion he was in was indicated by a scarf that he wore upon his head and around his neck that was never taken off, not even during pictures. We were told that the chemicals from the tanning solutions had caused some problems with the scalp and also his ears.
It was also rumored that he did not want to fight in the civil war , so he had claimed to have injured his foot and at the end of the war , he let out a yell and threw away his crutch and never walked with it again.
William Taylor Smith was born in Pike county april 21 1864, where he met and married Carrie Gertrude Grice. There are stories following this women and only one that I know to be a fact was that she was only ten years old at the time of her marriage in 1887 to William .
They had one girl and seven boy's who were Morgan James, Claude, Otis, Arthur, Iva, Albert, Bennet Taylor and Marvin who was by his second marriage .Which of this marriage was our Grandfather Morgan James Smith


The Holt's move to North Carolina

Michael Holt gathered all or most of his family and journied to Orange County, North Carolina about 1725. Their they raised their family and many more Michael's were born and to one of which had a brother , our G-G-Great grandfather Anthony Holt. He was born about 1784, the 1850 Tennessee census records of Wayne County show him to be 60 years old, but the 1860 census have him at 76 years of age so I will speculate on his birth date.
During Anthony's time spent in Orange County he met and married a lady names Phobe Pyle, the daughter of Caleb Pyle also of Orange County. They were married in the year of 1812 as noted by county records.
During the 1790 census records there were only 14 Holt's listed as head of household's and all of these were descendant's of the Michael Hold line and to which of one was born Anthony.
Anthony and Phoebe lived in Orange county where they started their family of five boy's and one girl, of which the first two were born in Orange County with the others being born in Tennessee.
The Holt families of North Carolina were succesful people with some becoming of some importance as shown by the accomplishments of Governor Michael Holt who was luetinant governor , and was succeded int office for the end of the term for governor of North Carolina.

The Smith's Leave Arkansas

The Smith family headed by Morgan Joseph lived in Pike County for several years with most of the family members staying close to their father and mother. After the death of their parents in the early 1900's most of the family started moving on westward and to the southwest.
The family of Joseph Hampton continued on in to Oklahoma and finally settled in the Oklahoma City area where a lot of that family still resides today
The family of Robert Donnell also came to Oklahoma and finding there home near the coalgate area where they lived until their death.
Some of the families went on to the Texas areas of Waco and Walker county areas. As presumed that our G-Grandfather William Taylor Smith must have in order for our Grandfather to meet our Grandmother Katy Jordy. I have done numerous searches and the Jordy family resided in the Huntsville area of Texas which we really all know this because of the land that is owned by the family that is there.
Morgan James Smith and family with my first memories lived in the southeastern part of Oklahoma, Pusmataha County where they resided Until after the death of our grandmother Katy in 1937. The family consisted of seven boy's and two girl's. Who were Willie Bennett, Leon Vernon, Opal Dean, Hubert Veston, Ernest Newton, Alvin Bearl, Odis Frank,Oda Lona, and Kenneth James

The Holt's move to Tennessee

Anthony gathered his family and left Orange County some time before 1830 as evidenced by the birth of his children. With a breif layover in Bedford County Tennessee , before winding up in Wayne County Tennesse where he took reidence and raised his family between the towns of Clifton and Waynesboro.
It was in this area that our G-Great Grandfather Henry Calvin met and Married Martha Ann C. Davis which led to the birth of Jeff Holt Our Great Grandfather. The family of Henry Calvin consisted of Martha A, Amanda A, Calvin Israel, William E, and Jeff Holt our great grandfather born in 1863.
The Holt's were listed in the census records as being farmers , but having been to that part of Tennessee the only thing being farmed was timber with an occasional garden in some of the valley's between hills.
Most of the Holt's of that area were succesful people as referenced to in the many archived papers that still remain in the county courthouse and on internet sites. This area of Tennessee was quite populated with many Holt's spawned of the Holt descendancies.
Not much is known at this time about Jeff Holt , but that he did marry in Tennessee and had several children with one being our grandfather William Taylor Holt who was born in the Clifton area about 1893 and lived there as a child.

The Holt's Leave Tennessee

While William Taylor was a child his father Jeff , moved to the Northeast part of Texas with his family with no mention of his wife. I have heard stories of Jeff but never his wife.
William Taylor being of his fathers blood also did not leave a trail that is easy to follow , although he left a trail full of many mysteries.
He did spend time as a soldier in world war one prior to his marriage to our grandmother miss Margaret England about 1919. William Having wandering blood also made a trip back to Tennesse in 1920 where he stayed for a few months and also decided to get married again. He married a miss Lulu Mae Bawcum no children were born of this marriage and the story around Wayne County is that one day he just dissappeared and no one ever saw him again. I met Lulu's Daughter Blanche at the reunion in Tennessee and she had memories of her mother talking of this event in her life.
William also had another wife of which I am not sure where she lived but did have children in that marriage.
William and Margie Holt had a family of four of which were three girl's and one boy,Ruth,Bobbie,Mary and the boy being our father Forrest Taylor Holt.
Dad had to start work early in life which put him wandering around the areas of Texas and Southeast Oklahoma, and in those wanderings he happened to meet our mother Opal Dean Smith.
The Holt's and Smith's meet

After the death of Katy the family of Morgan James had moved from Pushmataha County to the Northeast part of Mcurtain County, and at that time Forrest Taylor lived in the Southeast part of that county. Near our mother's sixteenth birthday Forrest and Opal met and after some time were married in 1942.
They , mom and dad lived in the area of Idabel Oklahoma when ther first child was born, and after that continued the wandering lifestyles that their ancestors had left in their memories, with some of the children that followed being born in places such as Oregon and California.
Of this union of Forrest Taylor Holt and Opal Dean Smith there were seven children born as follows in order of birth, Billy Harold, Jimmy Forrest, Glenda Jean, Patsy Lynn, Jacky Dale, Alvin Lee, and Steve Allen Holt.
Forrest and Opal came back to Oklahoma from California in 1964 and thereafter remained .
Of the children born of this marriage all but one still remain in Oklahoma although they have scattered through most of the state with the one residing in North Carolina back to the earlier origin .
Mom and Dad are both gone now, they are back with all the people I have discussed in this report of family findings.
I know that they are both happy and are looking into our futures now

1870 CENSUS OF PIKE COUNTY

1900 PIKE COUNTY CENSUS