William Henry Holland

Owner of arm buried in Granbury Cemetery

By: Pete Galik as related to him by his mother, Amanda Elizabeth Holland Galik

Editorial Note:
This was written by Pete Galik, 4 November 1998, after reading Jon McConal’s Fort Worth Star Telegram Column concerning an arm buried in Granbury Cemetery.

My Mother, maiden name, Amanda Elizabeth Holland told me this story:

“My half brother, Henry Holland, fell out of a pecan tree and broke his arm when he was just thirteen years old. He was just a young child and they amputated his right arm at the wrist, blood poison had set in, gangrene was what they called it in the old days. Then, just below the elbow and the last time they had to cut off right there at the stump (she put her finger on her arm over half way up between the elbow and her shoulder). But he didn’t want any help at rolling a Bull Durham cigarette. He’d hold his paper in his left hand and tuck it up (the Bull Durham pouch under his right arm pit) and put that Bull Durham in there and he’d pull that string (to close the pouch) with his teeth, he would strike his own match to light his cigarette. He’d lace and tie his own shoes and he buttoned all of his own clothes, underwear, shirts and pants and everything, and I think that’s really wonderful. My father bought him a half moon shaped knife. On the back side of it, on the end of his knife, was a five prong fork. He always ate T- bone steaks & did not want anyone to help him. He was a pumper for Frisco, the Frisco Railroad Company and pumped water for trains, freight and passenger that ran through Granbury, Texas.

“He also had a knife with a curved blade, like a half moon, that would fold up into a round case that looked like a quarter, he would use it to cut the ends off of his cigars.

Amanda tells how Henry died. “He died in a Fort Worth hospital. His wife’s maiden name was Gola Rash, who fried some fish and took it to the hospital. He sat on the edge of the bed and ate the fish and fell over backward on the bed and died.

“Baby grave on left: Infant of J. J. and Margaret Caroline Holland Middle: Nov. 18, 1895 – Arm of W. H. Holland Amputated: (the article has Nov. 10 could be, but the year 1975? No way! Because William Henry Holland was born in 1882)
Right: Infant of J. J. and Margaret Caroline Holland.

John J. and Margaret Holland had twins and another baby that died, year unknown. I do not know who the two baby graves are but I would guess, that the twins are buried there.

If you would check out the adult graves, I think that you would find that Henry’s Father, John Jay Snead Holland is resting in the middle grave between his first wife, Margaret Caroline Tow Holland and his second wife Annie Alabama Obel Holland. I think that this is unusual.

Mr. Monroe Davis(a city employee who cared for Granbury Cemetery when Jon McConal made his visit) might be surprised to learn that John Jay Holland, among other things, would dig graves, he made some head stones, and some of the residents of Granbury would hire him to clean graves for them.

John Jay Snead Holland, William Henry Holland’s father, was one of Granbury’s early settlers. Snead is the given name of John Jay Snead Holland. He is the son of John Jay Holland. I guess they didn’t want a JR.

Pete Galik
5851 Larchwood Drive
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70812
GalikP@AOL. com