Notable Burials: John M. Holloway

John M. Holloway

Picture shows the grave marker for John M. Holloway, the patriarch of the family in the North Texas area.

John M. Holloway was born in old Edgefield district, South Carolina, before the removal of the family to the west. He was three years old when his father located in Limestone county, Alabama, and ten when his father died. His early advantages in the way of getting on in the world were therefore limited. He left Alabama in the fall of 1837, when he was in his twentieth year, and went to Louisiana, locating in Bossier parish. He lived there till the fall of 1867, when he moved to Texas, locating in Grayson County, buying and settling on the tract of land where he now lives, in February 1868. The country was then comparatively new, and the land which Mr. Holloway then purchased was all wild and in a state of nature. He bought a good sized tract and improved it, some of which he has since parcelled out to his children who have married and settled around him. He has left 240 acres, 160 of which he has under cultivation.

Mr. Holloway married Mary, daughter of Miles Covington, of Richmond county, North Carolina, June 20, 1841. By this marriage he has had born to him seven children, all of whom reached maturity, are now married and settled in life. Their Christian names are -- Calvin, Elizabeth, Margaret, John M., Jr., Mary J., Carolina and George W.

"Mr. Holloway is a man of very quiet tastes. He goes from home but little, is very much attached to his family and looks industriously after the welfare of all around him. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and is an active and consistent member of the Baptist church." (Biographical Souvenir of Texas, 1889)

Francis Ellen Hynds Blythe

Picture shows headstone of Frances Blythe

Francis was the mother of seven children. Her fourth child was William "Willie" Jefferson, born Jan. 21, 1882 in Mississippi and married Birchie Lou Ayers in August 1906. Willie and Birchie moved from Mississippi to Wise County, Texas with their two young sons between 1909-1911 and soon after, lived in Howe, Texas at the Oscar Kirk place. Here they had three more children. In 1918, they moved to Sherman, bought land and had another son, William "Bill" Jefferson II. After a while, they purchased what is now known as the “old Blythe place” on North Travis in Sherman and had three more children. Willie died of cancer in 1935. His mother, Frances Blythe, died in 1936.

Their son, William “Bill” Jefferson II, married Virginia Cassidy. Bill was killed in a car accident in June, 1946, in Sikeston, Missouri while en route from Chicago to Hope, Arkansas to visit Virginia, who was expecting their first child in August. Their son, William Jefferson III was born August 19, 1946. A few years later, Virginia married Roger Clinton in Hot Springs, Arkansas. At age 16, William Jefferson III changed his name from Blythe to Clinton.

William Jefferson Clinton served as Arkansas Attorney General from 1977 - 1979; Governor of Arkansas from 1979 - 1981 but is probably best known as the 42nd President of the United States.

To simplify: President Clinton’s paternal great-great grandmother, Frances Blythe, is buried in our Holloway Cemetery.