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from James Hicks and wife, to his nephew, Addison L. Holden, for $856. 87 . 10 The sum
<br /> of $ 256 . 87 in cash was all that was required of Addison at the time of the sale for the
<br /> remaining $600 due was his share of his father' s estate, and already in his uncle' s
<br /> possession as trustee .
<br /> At the time of his purchase, Addison Holden was a thirty- three-year-old
<br /> Confederate veteran, a widower, and the father of several young children. His family
<br /> was well established in North Carolina, and it is possible to determine something of his
<br /> life from documentation that is available . He was born in 1837, among the younger of
<br /> ten children born to Thomas Whitted Holden, grandson of Thomas Holden, the
<br /> weaver, and his wife, Sarah Nichols Holden. 11 The year after Addison' s birth, the
<br /> senior Holden advertised schooling for boys at a charge of $36 for tuition and five
<br /> months board . 12 Education was important to the Holden; Thomas' s will of 1852
<br /> specifies that money be set aside to educate the three youngest children, and Addison is
<br /> named as one who has already benefited from schooling . The family' s main livelihood,
<br /> however, came from a mill Thomas Holden operated in partnership with John Lyon on
<br /> the Eno River. 13 ;
<br /> Despite his success at the mill, and the family' s relatively comfortable
<br /> circumstances, Thomas Holden was shadowed by a dalliance with Priscilla Wood ( or
<br /> Woods ) before his marriage that had produced a son, William Woods Holden. 14 One
<br /> source relates that this young man was taken from his impoverished mother to live
<br /> with his father' s family after Sarah Holden learned of his existence. 15 Several decades
<br /> later, W. W. Holden became North Carolina' s controversial and unpopular
<br /> Reconstruction Period governor . 16
<br /> Thomas Holden and his family left Orange County well before the Civil War,
<br /> moving north to Milton, North Carolina, and later into Halifax County, Virginia. There
<br /> Thomas was, again, a successful miller, for his will gives instructions about the
<br /> disposition of six slaves, and the handling of milling operations in which he and his sons
<br /> were engaged . 17
<br /> Addison Holden enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861, serving as a private
<br /> in Company E of the 23rd Regiment, Virginia Infantry . He was stricken with
<br /> " something so that [he] could not walk. " 18 Though disabled 111 this fashion, he had
<br /> recuperated sufficiently to serve as an attendant at a hospital in Danville at the time of
<br /> Robert E . Lee' s surrender at Appomatox . 19 After the war, he returned to North
<br /> Carolina and married Loretta Lyon, perhaps a daughter or relative of John Lyon, his
<br /> 10 Book 48, pages 397-8, Orange County Register of Deeds Office, Hillsborough, NC,
<br /> 11 Holden, Addison, Application for a Pension as a Civil War Veteran, Raleigh, NC, collection, North Carolina
<br /> Archives, 21 June, 1915. This document lists Holden's age as 78 in 1915.
<br /> 12Blackwelder, Ruth, Age of Orange, Charlotte, Loftin, 1961 , p . 129.
<br /> 13 The stone foundations of this mill are in the Eno River State Park,
<br /> 14 Browning , letter, p . 7.
<br /> 15 Browning , letter, p. 7. .
<br /> 16 Will of Thomas W. Holden dated July 27, 1852 , Book G. pages 15&61 . Orange County Estate Records,
<br /> Hillsborough, NC.
<br /> 17 Will of Thomas W. Holden .
<br /> 18 Holden, Application for Soldier's Pension,
<br /> 19 Holden, Application for Soldier's Pension.
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