Sarah M. Holley/Holly (looking out the window) was
the granddaughter of two American Revolutionary Soldiers, Joseph Holley/Holly
and Henry Hatevil Fall. Her parents
were Numon Monroe Holley/Holly and Elizabeth Fall. She married Gilbert Graves on the 2nd
day of March in 1859 and lived in Ellisburgh, Jefferson County, New York
until 1877. Elizabeth
Holly, her mother, survived her father, Numon, and was executrix of his
will. I checked online resources to find
Numon’s will and estate settlement and wrote to the Surrogate’s Court of
Jefferson County to obtain copies. These
records have a wealth of information and have aided me in finding more
information on Sarah’s siblings. There
were ten children born to Numon and Elizabeth Holly; viz. Don Carlos, Sarah
Lucinda, Glorian, Lucinda Louise, Sarah M., Mary, Jane, Anson, Cynthia, and Preston. The
first two children died in infancy. Jane
and Preston died 12 May 1848 and have a joint
tombstone, Cynthia died in 1869. This
left Glorian, Lucinda, Sarah, Anson and Mary still living at the time the will
of Numon Holly was filed on the 12th day of June in 1871. Glorian married Samuel H. Chamberlain,
Lucinda never married and took care of her mother (as stipulated in her father’s
will), Mary married A. L. Freeman and Anson, married for a short time, was an
inmate at the St. Lawrence State Hospital until his death. Sarah and Gilbert had four children, Adella,
Wilbur, Florence
and Burleigh. Sarah raised and sold canaries. After her father’s death, Sarah and Gilbert
Graves left New York
in the winter of 1877. They arrived
first in Barber County, Kansas
with two of their surviving children, Florence
and Burleigh. Both children married in that county, Florence to Jared Hoag (that's them in the photo above) and Burleigh to Hattie
Jesse. Sarah and Gilbert made the Land
Run into Oklahoma
Territory on 16 September
1893. Sarah kept a diary, which is in
the possession of my aunt, of her life on the prairie. They built a ‘half log and half dug out’ cabin along a
creek. The painting below was done in watercolor by my aunt. It shows the log cabin after it was added onto two different times. The log/dug out cabin was built onto, first adding a kitchen. The farm was mortgaged in August of 1906 for $400 so that a 4 room two story addition could be built on to the dug out to accommodate family planning to visit them in 1907. The mortgage was paid off in August of 1911 and Gilbert died that November. They had a cistern (as seen in this painting) that caught rain water for their household use.
Sarah planted flowers on the roof
of the dug out portion and continued to raise and sell canaries. The dug out had a dirt floor which was swept
and then sprinkled down with water to reduce the dust. She draped sheets across the ceiling to keep
the dirt from sifting down. She lost one
of her canaries to a snake that had crept in through the roof and into one of
the cages. They kept milk and butter
cold by placing them in a bucket and lowering the bucket down into the water
well. They seined the creek for
fish. Their daughter
Florence died the 28
th
of November in 1897 of consumption and the grandchildren, Mitchell, Ray and
Elsie, came to live with them on the farm. For 10 years, 5 people lived in this little log/dug out cabin. Gilbert was granted a patent on his
homestead on the 25
th of June in 1901. Their son Burleigh decided to
move his family to Alva so that his children could attend
Northwestern Oklahoma
State University. Sarah moved to Alva with them, leaving the
farm to Mitchell, Elsie and Ray. Sarah
died in 1925 leaving her brother, Anson, as her only surviving
sibling.
Mitchell married Mary Steinmetz in 1924 and
they reared their family in the same house on the farm in Oklahoma.
My mother and her six siblings were all born in this house. A brick
brooder house for raising chickens as well as a hen house was erected on the
farm and was still standing in 1997 when I last visited. After Mitchell died, my grandmother Mary Hoag
hired movers to move the entire house into
Seiling, Oklahoma,
leaving the original log/dug out cabin behind. I
painted a watercolor of the log/dug out cabin in high school and it still hangs on the wall
of my parent’s home. My aunt has painted
many scenes of
Oklahoma
including the one above as well as the original home of Elsie Hoag who married
John Steinmetz, Mary’s brother. They
married the same year and month as Mitchell and Mary. Ray never married and lived in a one room
cabin on the farm. The family farm was
sold by the heirs of Mitchell and Mary Hoag, I believe it was in 2005 but I don't have a copy of that record.
My goal in researching
Sarah was to find as many original records and newspaper accounts of their
lives. I found her and Gilbert in the 1875 New
York State Agricultural Census listing the crops and livestock they owned and
sold, including butter and cheese. I
found marriage records for their two surviving children. I found photos of the tombstones for Adelle and Wilbur Graves, they are buried in Saxe Cemetery
in Jefferson County, New York.
www.nnygenealogy.com has been
a wonderful resource for finding gravestone photos and clues to more
information on Sarah and her family. In 2004, one of my cousins and I got together and scanned 65 photos of the Hoag, Graves and Steinmetz families. I then created a CD slideshow and mailed copies to all family members who wanted one. There are still more original records out there waiting to be discovered. I would like to visit Jefferson County, New York one day.
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