Bledsoe Holder is buried in Georgetown Cemetery, near Pottsboro, in Grayson Co. Tex. His stone reads: 20 Dec 1783--14 Aug 1862. His estate papers, however, are dated 7 Oct, 1861, so it looks like the stone date is a year off.

Bledsoe Holder was born, according to his gravestone, 20 Dec 1783, probably in TN, or possibly N.C. or VA. There were several Holder families in Franklin Co. TN and across the state line in Jackson Co. AL. The story is that Bledsoe married Elizabeth Stewart, daughter of George P. Stewart (supposedly the Stewart family came from Scotland) and Anna Elizabeth Colbert, part Chickasaw Indian. Elizabeth Stewart could have been only about one fourth Indian, at the most, and probably was less, since we don't know who her Stewart grandmother was, but the family tradition was that she was a "Chickasaw Indian", and that her brothers were William and Benjamin F. Stewart.

Bledsoe was named the administrator for a Martin Holder's estate in 1823 in Jackson Co.,, Ala, and from this, it seems likely that he was Martin's oldest or only available son; ( I believe Martin my have been a brother or even a child, I find no records of an older Martin in this line, If Martin was his father why did he not name a child after him, he had several chances)a Sally is listed as buyer of dresser, bed and furniture, a cow, hogs, stove, etc. so it seems likely that she was the widow.

Bledsoe and Elizabeth or "Betsy" as she was called, were probably married in TN. about 1815, but soon settled in Jackson Co., AL.. Land records show a Bledsoe Holder purchasing 38.25 acres of Section 12 (#2422) and 76.81 acres of Section 19 (#2415) on July 8, 1830, and 38.67 acres of Section 18 on 20 June 1832 (#4980), but he probably had been living in that area for ten or more years, as his children list AL. as their state of birth. Possibly he merely purchased land he had already been using, when the government opened it for sale. There are 8 children in Bledsoe's home by the 1830 Jackson Co. Ala census. According to census reports and her gravestone, Amanda was born Jan 1816, and Samantha was born about 1818, but in various lists given later of the children, Amanda is listed after Samantha, leading us to speculate that Samantha was the elder of the two.

The story is that William January Looney, born abt 1837, was carried by his widowed mother, Samantha Holder Looney, in a basket of wool as they left the Indian lands and moved toward resettlement in OK.. (Samantha's first husband, Benjamin Looney, had died after drinking cold water when he was over-heated from working in the field.)

In route, several families from Jackson Co. Ala., stopped and settled in Polk Co., MO., where we find them in the 1840 and 1850 census reports. Here Samantha became the second wife of John Looney, and her brother, William Lawson Holder married Mary Ann Looney (April 1840), one of John's daughters by his first wife, Elizabeth. Another brother, James L., married a Sarah Looney in adjacent Greene Co., Mo. in 1846. These three families, as well as son Benjamin and family, accompanied Bledsoe and Elizabeth to Grayson Co., TX. about 20 years later. (County, records show them all purchasing land there in December 1858, and they appear in the 1860 census.) Three of the married sons remained in MO.-- John Charles, Moses Franklin, and Martin Austin.

"at the sale of Bledsoe's estate in 1861"
Among the list of persons who bought estate items, we find: J. L. Holder, B. A. Holder, B. B. Holder, J. A. Holder and W. Bray. W. L. (William Lawson) Holder was named administrator.
At the final settlement, 7 years later in 1868, his heirs are listed as follows:
Elizabeth Holder wife of deceased
Samanth Looney daughter of dec'd
Amanda Bray " "
W. L. Holder son of deceased = William L. Holder
Martin Holder " "
John C. Holder " "
M. F. Holder " " = Moses F. Holder
J. A. Holder " " = Jackson A. Holder
B. B. Holder " " = Benjamin B. Holder
B. A. Holder " " = Burton A. Holder
Then "It further appearing to the court that J. L. Holder, son of deceased, departed this life leaving the following heirs....." so we can see that J. L. died between 1861 and March of 1868. The census lists his last child born in 1863, so that narrows it a little more.
In the Dade Co., Mo records, there is another estate document, which also provides a list of heirs and their places of residence:
Samantha Looney of Grayson Co. TX.
Amanda Bray " "
William L. Holder " "
Martin A. Holder Dade Co. Mo.
John C. Holder Polk Co. Mo.
Moses F. Holder " "
Jackson A. Holder Grayson Co. TX.
Benjamin B. Holder " "
Lewis L. Holder " "
Burton A. Holder " "
Elizabeth Holder " "
Comparing the two lists makes us realize how common errors are even in court records. Benjamin's middle initial is B., probably for Benten, if the 1880 census is to be trusted. We suspect Lewis L. is the same man as James L., and that he was really James Lewis, and called Lewis. One family story is that "Jared Hastings killed Lewis Holder" (reported by Early Looney who knew the Holder family well), and another story is that "Lewis Holder was killed during the Civil War". More research needs to be done in this matter, obviously.

Although the above document indicates Amanda Bray was in Grayson Co., TX, she has not been located yet in the 1860 census. By 1880 she is living with her daughter Nancy Wheeler and her family in Dade Co.,, MO., and she died there in 1907. Amanda's daughter Samantha Jane was living in Greene Co. Mo. in 1900 with her husband Thomas Douglas Murray and their two youngest children, Sam and Miriam. From Grayson Co.,TX marriage records it appears that Samantha married Tom Murray in a double wedding with her sister Elizabeth who married James Murray, March 21, 1861. We have not yet traced this other couple, nor any of the Bray sons. Only 3 of Amanda's six children were still living in 1900, according to what she reported in the census.

Amanda's sister Samantha was widowed, living with son Thomas M. Looney in the 1880 Grayson Co., TX census. She said she was born in 1818 in Tenn, and reported both parents born in Tenn. We do not have a death date for her yet, nor many of her children's families traced. Samantha gave testimony in 1896 during Indian claims proceedings, so she died some time after that.

From: darran@juno.com (Darran N Huggins)
To:

Bill Holder<CLIMAX.SPRINGS@worldnet.att.net>

> 12--Somehow you might want to indicate that some of the info in the
> National Archives material is in error: Bledsoe's son #4 is John C.
> Holder instead of John P. Holder; and the children listed as #8 and #9
> are his grandsons, rather than his sons, as well as John P. Holder, who
> was correctly identified as the son of William Lawson. Then, in item
> #2, Elizabeth Ann was the daughter of George and Elizabeth Colbert
> STEWART, rather than HOLDER, as Holder is her MARRIED name.

1. John P. Holder, son of Willam Lawson Holder, filed an application and proof of citizenship in Chickasaw Nation Sept. 10 1896 to A.S. McKennon Dawes Commissionar. Ledbetter Bledsoe of Ardmore, Okla.Terr. was his lawyer. The Holder's/Looney"s that they were Chickasaw as they were decendents of Elizabeth Stewart, a half-breed who married Bledsoe Holder in the Indian Territory of Mississippi about 1817. The children born in
the Chickasaw Nation:
1) Martin Austin Holder, b. 3 Mar 1824 in Jackson Co. AL( per Mary Urban, decendent of Wm. Lawson)
2) William Lawson Holder, born 1820, married 16 Apr 1840, died 1878
3) Lewis Holder
4) John C Holder
5) Franklin Moses Holder
6) Samantha Ann Holder, born 1818, married Benjamin Looney and after
his death, John Looney Jr.

The children born out of the Chickasaw Nation:
7) Jackson Al Holder , born 1832 in Alabama
8) Benjamin F. Holder, born 1871, ? Texas
9) Burton Allen Holder, born 1863, ? Texas
10) Amanda Holder

2. On the 15August, 1896 before the notary J.E.B. Stewart (Notary Paker Co., Texas), John P. Holder stated that his grandmother, Elizabeth Ann Stewart Holder was the daughter of George and Elizabeth Ann Colbert Holder.

3. On 8 August 1894, J.S. Wolfe, 82 y.o slave of Jim Wolfe who lived his entire life with the Chickasaw, that Elizabeth Ann Stewart Holder was the granddaughter of Old John Colbert. He acted as the interpreter for Old John at the indian land sales in Ponotoc, Mississippi. He related that George Stewart , (Eliabeth Ann Colbert's Husband) who died after being snagged under the eye with a cane. He personanaly knew Ben, William, and Lewis,
children of Elizabeth Holder.

4. On 20 Aug 1895, S. W. Coyce (then 73 years old), before the Notary Public W.M. Lucas in the County of Tishamingo, Chickasaw Nation Ind. Territory, stated he knew George Stewart was a Chickasaw in Mississippi and that he married Old John Colbert's daughter and that George and Elizabeth Ann Colbert Stewart's daughter married a man named Holder.

5. Isaac Williams on 14 July 1891, swore before Luis A Turman, Notary
Public, in the Chickasaw Nation, I.T. before Witnesses Jonas Baum and
W.R. Sparkman, he stated he was a slave of Old John Colbert and had acted
as an interpreter in the land sales in Ponotoc, Mississippi. He
personally knew Elizabeth Colbert Stewart, her husband George who died at
Horn Lake, Mississippi, Elizabeth Stewart Holder, their daughter. He
also knew Elizabeth Stewart Holder's children Ben, William and Lewis.

6. July 18, 1895, in the Chicasaw Nation, Pontotoc County, MS Charles Goodull swore that he knew and was taught by his mother to know the relationships of the below mentioned parties . George Stewart married Old John Colbert's daughter, he George Stewart had a daughter Elizabeth Stewart, she married a man by the name of Holder. I, also, know the Stewart's and the Colbert's to be Chickasaw Indians. Notarized by Fred J. Erdwusun.

7. On 24 August 1896, before W.S. Martin, Notary Public, Indian Terrritory, Chickasaw Nation, at the age of 78, Samantha Looney stated "my mother's name was Elizabeth Stewart, a Chickasaw by blood. She married Bledsoe Holder. Elizabeth Stewart's father was George Stewart and he married Anna Elizabeth Colbert. Bledsoe Holder & family came from
Mississippi with the Chickasaw Indians when removed by the U. S. Government and stopped about 20 years in Southwest Missouri and then came to Texas, remained in Texas about 20 years came to Chickasaw Nation I. t. Okla. and have lived there since. The right of Elizabeth Stewart - as a Chickasaw has never been disputed.".

John P. Holder in a letter to Commissioner McKennon, " I have been living in Texas all my life. I came to the Territory with my family August 1st, 1898.
Ardmore, Okla Sept.23, 1898.

A letter from the Commissioner from Mudkogee, Indian Territory, December 18th, 1899, to John P. Holder "The enrollment of yourself and of your children, Rosebud Holder, John Holder, Pearl Holder, Minnie B. Holder, Martha S. Holder, Marcia R. Holder, and Colbert B. Holder as Chickasaw citizens, is refused, on the grounds of non-residence prior to June 28th, 1898".

24th Congress, No. 1414, 1st Session, "Adverse To The Location of The Reservations of the Choctaw Indians in Mississippi" communicated to the House of Representatives February 1, 1836; John Colbert was one of the memoralist listed.

Martin Colbert, uncle to Anna Elizabeth or Elizabeth Ann and daughter to Old John Colbert, was assigned special duties of trust in the Article IV of the treatey of 1834.

In a letter from William Armstrong, acting superintendent, western terrritory, dated Chickasaw Agency, April 22, 1842, "the old wife of Martin Colbert" has arrived in the West "accompanied by her nephew W. P. Stewart". William P. Stewart (Stuart) appears as "payment No. 53" of the Chickasaw annuity paymentof 1884 and again in 1845 under payment "no. 65" - account of A. M. M. Upshaw. W. P. Stewart was the brother to Elizabeth Ann Stewart, children of George and Elizabeth Ann Colbert Stewart. Elizabeth Ann Stewart Holder married Bledsoe Holder in 1817. By 1837, they in the company of 600 Chickasaw's were escorted from the Old Chickasaw Reservation of Mississippi and Alabama by Federal Troops.

The following is from International Genealogical Index - 1993 Edition - Version 3.02
James Logan Colbert (b. 1721) had the following children (b. birth dates)
:Sally Colbert, b. 1748, William Chooshemeata Colbert, b. 1750, George Tootemastubbe Colbert, b.1764, Samuel Colbert, b. 1765, Joseph Colbert, b. 1767, James Isaac Colbert, b. 1768, Susan Colbert, b. 1770.

In my oppinion, Old John was born sometime between 1750 - 1764. He did not go west in 1837. Did he die at that time? If he was born about 1757, in 1836 when he helped with the land sales, he would be about 79, and this would be doubtfull. His daughter, Elizabeth Ann Colbert, I imagine would have been born around 1777. She could have married George Stewart and Elizabeth Ann Stewart Holder was born by 1797. She in 1817 did marry Bledsoe Holder (b. 20 Dec 1783) . Martn Austin Holder was probably born that year.

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If you believe your line is in this tree, we need your help in this tree.  More DNA tests are needed in this tree to determine who belongs. 
At this time we have conflicting DNA tests.    Some current members of one, (possibly both) of these lines do not belong in this tree:

2      Moses Franklin Holder    b: Abt. 1780    d: Abt. 1870            HOLDER DNA test (Grp E1)  
...        +Margaret ?    b: 1790 SC   

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