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G2
<br />NP9P0=10 -900 -x
<br />(Rev 8 -86)
<br />United States Department of the Interior
<br />National Park Service
<br />National Register of Historic Places
<br />Continuation Sheet
<br />Section number 8 Page 9
<br />married John Kelly, possibly the neighboring landowner or his son.
<br />OMB Approval Mx 1024 -0018
<br />Holden- Roberts Farm
<br />Orange County, NC
<br />The Holden and Kelly lands, or portions of them, were joined and farmed as part of a larger
<br />holding by an undetermined number of owners until in 1826, Young Dorch, a wealthy Orange
<br />County farmer, bequeathed 100 acres of land "... on which I now live, "and several slaves to
<br />his wife, Nancy, with instructions that at her death, the land should go to their daughter, Lucy
<br />Walker.27 Two deteriorated fieldstone chimneys located in woods north of the Holden - Roberts
<br />Farm may date from the period of his or Walker's occupations.
<br />On January 1, 1868, Isaac Holden purchased 146 acres, one rod, and twenty perches28 from
<br />Lucy Ann Walker, widow of George W. Walker, for $500.29 The deed shows that reversions,
<br />remainders, and rents were due to the buyer, implying that Lucy and her family had farming
<br />ventures under way that might be expected to yield produce or income, though the nature of
<br />these is not specified. Isaac Holden kept the farm only for a short period, and, on June 26,
<br />1871, he sold the 146 acres plus seven more purchased from James Hicks and wife, to his
<br />nephew, Addison L. Holden, for $856.87.30 A sum of $256.87 in cash was all that was required
<br />of Addison at the time of the sale, for the remaining $600 due was his share of his father's
<br />estate and already in his uncle's possession as trustee.
<br />At the time of his purchase, Addison Holden was a thirty-three-year-old Confederate veteran,
<br />a widower, and the father of several young children. His family was well established in North
<br />Carolina, and it is possible to determine something of his life from documentation that is
<br />available. He was born in 1837, and among the younger of ten children born to Thomas
<br />Whiffed Holden and his wife, Sarah Nichols Holden 31 The year after Addison's birth, his
<br />father advertised schooling for boys at a charge of thirty -six dollars for tuition and five months
<br />board 32 Education was important to the Holdens; Thomas's will of 1852 specifies that money
<br />be set aside to educate the three youngest children, and Addison is named as one who has
<br />already benefited from schooling. The family's main livelihood, however, came from a mill
<br />that Thomas Holden operated in partnership with John Lyon on the Eno River.. 34
<br />Despite his success at the mill, and the family's relatively comfortable circumstances, Thomas
<br />Holden was shadowed by a dalliance with Priscilla Wood (or Woods) before his marriage that
<br />had produced a son, William Woods Holden.' One source relates that this young man was
<br />taken from his im overished mother to live with his father's family after Sarah Holden learned
<br />of his existence Several decades later, William Woods Holden became North Carolina's
<br />controversial and unpopular Reconstruction governor.
<br />Thomas Holden and his family left Orange County well before the Civil War, moving north to
<br />Milton, North Carolina, and later to Halifax County, Virginia. There Thomas was, again, a
<br />successful miller, for his will gives instructions about the disposition of six slaves, and the
<br />handling of milling operations in which he and his sons were engaged 37
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