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Richard James D. Holden

My great grandfather, Richard James D. Holden, was born about 1835, in Tennessee, possibly in Wayne County. He was the son of Archibald Holden and Jemima (last name unknown).

Richard's family moved to Mississippi prior to 1842, according to the 1850 Jackson County, Arkansas, census that shows two of Archibald's children born in Mississippi in about 1842 and 1845. The family moved to Jackson County between about 1845 and 1849. They moved to Izard County, Arkansas, between 1851 and 1858.

Richard married my great grandmother, Martha Caroline George, about 1858, probably in Izard County. Martha George was born in 1838, in Tennessee, the daughter of James Sevier George and Nancy (last name unknown).

Richard and Martha appear on the 1860 Izard County census, in Sylamore Township, Green Bush Post Office. Listed with them is their one year old son, Presley S. Holden. This is the only record we have of the existence of this child. Richard was a farmer. Izard County records show that Richard paid taxes there in 1861.

Richard joined the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He was mustered into Co. G, 8th Arkansas Infantry, on September 1, 1861, at Pocahontas, in Randolph County, Arkansas. He enlisted for one year. Apparently he re-enlisted at the end of that time, because on October 9, 1862, Richard was detailed as a nurse to Harrodsburg, Mercer County, Kentucky. The best we can tell from the few papers available to us, Richard left Kentucky in late January 1863, to return to Arkansas. He wound up in a camp near Bell Buckle, in Bedford County, Tennessee. He appears on a list of absentees dated May 7, 1863. We do not know when he returned to Arkansas, or where Martha was during that time.

Records indicate that Richard and Martha had a child born in Mississippi in 1865. We assume they moved there soon after Richard returned from the war. We have been unable to locate the family on the 1870 census.

Martha died April 1874, in Stone County, Arkansas. Her youngest child (my grandmother) was about a year and a half old when Martha died.

Richard married Sary J. Moore on May 17, 1874, in Stone County. (She appears as Mary J. Moore in some records.) One record we saw said that Sary Moore 19 years old and Richard was 40. That does not agree with the age given for her on the 1880 census, however.

Richard and Sary (who is listed as Mary) appear on the 1880 Marion County, Arkansas, census in Buffalo Township. The census shows: Richard, his wife Mary, daughter Betty, age 15; son James, age 9; daughter Frances, age 7, daughter Nancy, age 2, and a Josephine Holden, age 11, born in Missouri. We are unsure of the identity of Josephine.

Richard probably died soon after 1880, as my grandmother, who was born in 1872, used to say that she grew up an orphan. She was raised by family members and friends or relatives of the family.