Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Welcome to the Holliday's Blog

I'm been doing some research about our family and I have lots of information that I would like to share with you. Please feel free to write me with any questions\answers that you have about the Holliday and O'Daly family. If you have any Photos that you like to share with us, we would appreciate. George Holliday Washington, Dec 1, 2007.

Eu estou fazendo uma pesquisa sobre a nossa familia.Os Holliday-O'Daly e gostaria de receber Fotos ou Documentos relacionados com a historia da nossa familia no Brasil.
George Holliday

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Jim's Letter to his Mother 1910

Chicago, August 16th 1910.

My Dear mother.

I am now in Chicago and I have so much to say about what I have seen and done that I do not know how to begin; however, I will first of all tell you of my happy trip across the Atlantic and then my good fortune in meeting a particularly nice family on board and how good and kind they have been to me. I recollect Mr. Pease once saying that when one had an American friend, one had a friend who was willing to do anything for you and since then, I have learned that it is so. It may seem strange to you hearing me speak of having American friends in this short space of time, but I met some Americans on board and I feel as if I had known them for years. Of these I will tell you later on in my letter but for the present I will busy myself in going on full account of my voyage.
We left Tilbury(2) docks on Saturday afternoon at about 3:30 p.m. in the best of good weather but being the first day and consequently not in the best of spirits I went to my state room at 8:30 p.m. to find that I had two delightful companions. The first one I met was a young American boy measuring 6 feet 2 in, in height and just nineteen years of age. By the end of the trip we were close friends and when we landed at New York, he very kindly showed me round the city. My second companion was an Englishman of 32 years but who had been in America as a Mechanical Engineer, since de age of 24. He is a man of many parts and very interesting to talk and in the three concerts we had, he was the pianist.

Sunday July 13th 1910.
I woke up this morning just after six and after enjoying a good bath I went on deck when I made a few acquaintances and to use a slang phrase I began to feel my way on board. After the morning service that ended at 10:45 a.m. I played shuffle-board, not so much for the game as to get acquainted with more people. It was during this game that I made the acquaintance of Miss Helen Lafferty only daughter (1) of the family I mentioned at the beginning of this letter. After the game was over we had a short chat together at the end of which I felt as if I had known her all my life. American men and women have a way of conversing which instills this feeling and this a think is the greatest characteristic of the American people, for since meeting Miss Laferty I have met forty and is the same way into all of them. More if this later as I am digressing and I will say everything about today when I inform you that when I went to bed at 10.30 p.m. I was more or less acquainted with half of the passengers on board.
Nothing of special note took place till Thursday night when we had our first concert and this day onwards there was more excitement on the “Minneapolis” paralleled by none of her previous 114 voyages across the Atlantic. The amount of entertainment talent on board was just short of marvelous: there was Mrs. Haydn an actor for profession who sang and recited; Lord Hill made a short speech on the necessity of the House of Lords” and oh stars!!! That we had the pleasure of hearing

>Rev_nd Anna Shaw the American suffragist. She had came to England to speak at the suffragette meetings in Trafalgar Square, and Hyde Park. The speech she made nevertheless was very disappointing as I expected some excitement, but she was not a militant suffragette. Her speech was so interesting that the following night there was a suffragette meeting which was attended chiefly by the ladies on board, I myself preferring to sit out on deck.

Friday was the busiest day and most exciting day we had. In the morning a shuffle-board tournament was held. In this Miss Lafferty and myself managed to get into the final but no further. At 2:30 prompt and as I was asked to arrange everything, I had had a busy time the previous day collecting the money for the prizes and setting all the entries, there were twelve events and everybody on board said they had not laughed so much and so long in their lives before; considering that the sports did not finished till 6:30 p.m. you can imagine what a laugh they had I am sending you a program of the events as it will no doubt interest you. The events which were especially laughable were the Potato Race, Needle and Cigarette Race, Bobbing the (….)(…) , and the Spar and Pillows Fight. I may mention in conclusion that the hero of these very athletic? events was James Holliday who performed the unprecedented feat of winning five of the twelve events.

After dinner when I felt like more like going to bed than doing anything else, we had a dance – the deck being decorated for the occasion and when everybody was tired of dancing we sang songs till 12 p.m. when we all retired.

There was another concert on Saturday night and here Miss Lafferty showed what a beautiful pianist she was. She afterwards told me that when she is settled down at home she practices five ours every day – this of course, speaks for itself.

Sunday, the day of rest, everybody rested. Monday we ended our frivolities by the captain’s dinner and another dance.
And then, Oh Horrors!!! We landed in New York City at 9:30 a.m. Thirty minutes later and Mayor Gaynor – the best and most popular Mayor New York ever had was shot but not fatally and according to the papers there seems every hope of his recovery.

I will now relate the second half of my story – that is, all my doings since I have landed and all about Mr. Lafferty, Mrs. Lafferty and Miss Lafferty.

As an introduction I must tell you that Mrs. and Miss Lafferty and a few friends were returning from a trip to Europe and by some unknown reason Mrs. Lafferty was very much attracted by me and she afterwards told me that she saw you say good-bye to me in the station and having seen you she was certain she could like your son and as I am so fortunate as to be the son of such a mother I enjoy a good many privilege which otherwise I could not do. Next to yourself I have never known a more “striking” woman than Mrs. Lafferty, and this is not my opinion only but of the people on board the ship. She is a very difficult person to describe and I can only describe her as a beautiful and dignified woman and in whose face one sees everything that is good and kind. Mr. Lafferty who was unable to go to Europe with his wife on account of an (…..) engagement is very similar in character to Mr. Pease and has been helping others all his life with every disregard to his own interests. Up to two years ago he was a judge but had to give up that position on account of ill-health and is now the Deans of Law at the Kentucky University.
On my telling Mrs. Lafferty what my errand to the United States was, she asked me to come to her home in Lexington, Kentucky and of I was naturally only too pleased to do so as I did not look forward to arriving in America knowing not a soul there.

So I stayed in NY one day and on Wednesday at 4.55 p.m. I caught the train for Lexington where I arrived at the same time on the following day. My journey on the train was an experience but Oh so hot and dirty; not that the carriages themselves were dirty but it is the soot from the engine which makes traveling in America anything but agreeable. I forgot to state that on Wednesday night the train stopped at Washington, the spotless city of USA – for a quarter of an hour and I thought I would have a look at the station and what a marvelous sight was in store for. '>Washington Station or as they say in America depot cost 20.000.000 dollars or 4.000.000 Pounds and the waiting hall there is the greatest hall I have ever seen. The floor is marble and the ceiling is decorated and painted white. It is worth while to come to America to see the railroad stations alone. If an English railroad were to build a station like that at Washington it would be bankrupt there and then. I tell you, I am in love with America and I think it is a great country, but I wish it was not so hot. As soon as I get settled down I am going to get weighed as I am sure I lost at least 28 pounds. I must now return to where I started and tell you what I did in Lexington (population 30,000). The night I arrived, Mrs. Lafferty kindly invited me to dinner and this was my first experience of an American home. By the home they had I soon realized that Mr. Lafferty was a wealthy man but apart from his home you would not think so. The impression left in England of Americans is that of one whose people love to display of wealth but this is wrong as I have learned in my short stay. The very rich American is generally a self made man and consequently, as he becomes rich he naturally likes to show off to the world, hence the erroneous impression they have give in England. Mrs. Lafferty herself told me that the real society in America is composed of those who can trace their families back to England and therefore, although America calls itself a democratic country is not so much so as I think it is.

Mrs. Lafferty house is not a large one as the family only numbers three, they naturally don’t want a large one, but what there is of it is of the best. What is specially attractive about the American houses is the very spacious porch they have – sometimes the porch extends right round the houses as Miss Lafferty said to me , she did not care about the inside of the house one got , as long as it had a good large porch.

Well; I enjoyed my evening very much but I was very glad to get to bed as I was tired. Next morning Miss Lafferty took me round to see the sights of Lexington and in the evening she took me to a dance, which not ended till 3 in the morning. That night I was introduced to about 50 people, and could remember only six of the names. That there was an Englishman in Lexington seemed to cause considerable excitement. At the end of the dance, many young ladies were very anxious to know whether I was shocked at them, as I said, No! much to their relief. American ladies know they are allowed great liberties so evidently this was the cause of my being asked if I was shocked at them. There is no doubt about it dear mother, you and father and George must come to America some day. You would think there would be some similarity between English people and American people, but as far as I can see, there is absolutely none. Although all Americans came originally from England yet they are no more like their people in the “Old Country” (as they call it) than chalk is like cheese. Last Saturday night one of the University boys called Mr. Bain gave a dinner in my honor etc. etc. When I put all what has happened down, in black and white, it all seems as if I have had a long dream. I never thought when I left you in St. Pancras[3] Station that a few days later , I would be having the time of my life, in the social life of Lexington. On Sunday afternoon Miss Lafferty took me for a long motor drive round Lexington. It was a lovely drive through fields and fields of rich land covered with tobacco, corn, hemp and I do not know what not.

On Monday we went to see Mr. JB Hoggins farm which is considered the finest in the world. Mr. JB Hoggins is said to be worth about 81,000,000 dollars or 16,000,000 pounds and farming is just a hobby of his, and his wife is said to have the finest collection of pearls in the world..

At 7 p.m. Miss Lafferty saw me off at the station and I arrived here this morning at the same time but Oh! all alone. A very uncomfortable feeling crept over me this morning when I got off the train. I said to myself here I am in Chicago and I do not know one soul here. It is the worst feeling I have ever had in my life; one feels an outcast in a strange land and how one does yearn for home. But it has to be and in a few weeks when I shall begin to feel my way this miserable feeling will go, and what a good thing it does not last. If it did last I could not.

When I said good bye to Miss Lafferty, she told me that if ever I should be in any trouble or want anything, I should write to her. And to all this kindness I could only say thank you so much and it seems such a little to say. Be that as it may the fact remains that by great good fortune I have fallen in into kind hands and next to my own father and mother there is no one I respect so much as I do the Lafferty family. Why should they be so good to me I am at a loose to say but there it is. Besides doing all this, Miss Lafferty is writing to several boys working at the Western Electric Co. who graduated at the Kentucky University and are friends of hers, to do everything they can for me in the way of finding lodgings etc.etc.

And now I think I have told you all there is to tell about the happy time I have had and after I have said a few words about work, I will have finished a letter which I have commenced several times but torn up all my previous attempts.

I was only a few minutes at the Western offices in NY I saw Mr. Wilkins who at once transferred me to Mr. Hayes at Hawthorne in Chicago, who I am going to see tomorrow, Wednesday, and I shall probably commence work next Monday. As soon as I see Mr. Hayes, I shall write and tell you all the arrangements that are made.

It has taken me five hours to write this letter so I hope you will find it interesting as that is what I have tried to make it.

I hope you have got your L 60 and if you haven’t I am sure you will hear more of it before the affair sinks into oblivion.
So good bye dear mother. Give my love to Baby and Erin and accept the same from your loving son.

Jim

P.S. I’m writing to father but not such a long letter as this which you can show him when you get home.


(1 ) Consulting the registers on William Lafferty, Dean at Law at the Kentucky University, we could learn that he and his wife , had recently lost an younger daughter and the trip was probably part of the process of recovery of the family.. Also that Helen Lafferty married Ward B.L. NISBET.They had one child:Louise ,and She married Warren ROBERTS Jr..

(2) Tilbury Docks, 27 miles West of London.

(3) St. Pancras Station. Camden, London, very close to London College, and 12 miles from Richmond.

(4) The Minneapolis was owned by ATL Company

Joaquim Nabuco's Funeral


The family had a city house at Sta.Thereza, a very quiet neighborhood were many foreigners used to make their "chacaras".(country houses), to avoid the crowd and hot downtown. Their neighbors were the Nabuco family, to whom they got close. The head of the family was Joaquim Nabuco, politician and diplomat. George Frederick, was a friend of Carolina, who became a successfull writer in hers elderly days, and of the elder of Nabuco's son, later a priest known as Monsenhor Nabuco.
In 1910, Joaquim Nabuco suddenly died in the U.S.A. He was, by then, Brazilian Ambassador and his body was brought to be buried in Brazil. George was invited to the guard of honor, formed to receive the body. George was 25. We can see for the pictures taken during his lives that the four children of James and Elizabeth alternate living in Brazil and England till their maturity. This was mainly because of the studies , and they used to visit their parents in Brazil, very often. We know that at least once Elizabeth took a trip to England to visit their children, but it seems that this happened other times.

The Armada Rebellion 1893


The Holliday and The Armada Rebellion.

In 1893 erupted the rebellion of the Navy against the recently established republic in Brazil. The Navy was loyal to the ancient monarchy regime, and disagreed with most acts of the provisory government. So, Admiral Luiz Felipe Saldanha da-Gama leaded the rebellion against the government and for many days a constant bombing happened between the land fortresses and the war ships in the Guanabara Bay, forcing all merchant ships to stand off the port at the bottom of the bay. Gama is told to have said " If I were in Brazil when they proclaimed the republic, things wouldn't have happened that way". Four years before in 1889, when the army took the government and exiled the Emperor D.Pedro II and his family, Gama was serving in the U.S.A. as military attache to the embassy of the Brazilian Empire. But the movement didn't result as expected and the government troops defected the rebels after a few time of navy confrontation, with the ships exchanging shots with the land fortresses, and started hunting their leaders. It was told then that James and Elizabeth gave protection to Saldanha da Gama and some of the officials, and kept them in the house's basement, till things get a little more calmer, and even was told that Elizabeth claimed that "government troops won't enter this house unless they face my gun". Later was told that government troops indeed went looking for the rebels in the island but it seems that they weren't there anymore, even this way they wanted James and Elizabeth to come with them to the city in order to make a statement to the army. She refused to leave the island without her children, the two boys, George was eight and Jimny was only one , and ordered the maids to prepare and pack the things. Facing the negative and probably the fact that they were British subjects, the soldiers back off and left.
This version which is known only by the family is supported by a historic version published by the Brazilian writer Rocha Pombo in his 'Brazilian History", vol.lX that says that at a certain moment of the conflicts of the "Armada Rebellion", witch was the name given to this episode, Admiral Saldanha da Gama had completely disappeared and nobody seemed to know were he was, but they know that he would certainly be in one of the islands of the many in Guanabara Bay. Besides this, Patrick Holliday still keeping today, the glass with the name "Luiz Felipe", Gamas first names, and a little cane presented to James and Elizabeth, by Saldanha da Gama.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Letter from Elizabeth to Erin, 1919

Theresopolis, Aug 28 1919 Thursday

My dear Erin
I have just opened the parcel of note paper that Father brought up on Saturday and was most agreeable surprise to find two letters enclosed, one from you the other from Betty, for which accept my thanks and also for the note paper.The weather up here is simply perfect and although I am quite alone I have just enjoyed the change. With yard the rats and mice I think are all dead, at least those which invaded the house. Yesterday Julio found six large rats dead, in the baracao so you can imagine what harm they would have done had steps not been taken to get rid of them. I noted that you say about going out in the morning and nights air.I am very well so far but I do get very tired during the day. Today a Boy has come to do the scrubbing and I shall leave everything nice and clean. Father is coming up on Saturday, + Betty and perhaps George. Why don’t you come too?We all shall return to Rio next day Sunday, 31st. I feel very much annoyed to hear about the shortness of water. I must try to do something when I return. Hoping you are all quite well. With much love to yourself and Betty and Aunty, your affectionate mother.
I have written to Aunty and Betty.

See Original Letter Here