Abraham Hollingsworth
In taking a review of early settlers of Adams County, the above name is not to be forgotten.
Near historic Winchester, Virginia, not a mile out of town, there stands a grand old stone house, surrounded on three sides by a clear, limpid, spring-fed creek, bordered by large shade trees. The stream is called Abraham's Creek, and was so named by Abraham Hollingsworth, who built the house before the Revolution. Across the stream to the left of the house is a stone flour mill as old as the stone mansion. The estate originally consisted of some four hundred acres, and was taken up by the Hollingsworth family about the time of Lord Fairfax's grant from Charles the Second. Lord Fairfax claimed his right to be prior, but the Hollingsworth of that day held out stoutly for his rights, and compelled a quitclaim from the English lord, who, though a lord by title, was a boor in his manners and style of living, and there have been Hollingsworths at Winchester from that day to this.
Here on the twentieth of August, A. D. 1782, the subject of our sketch was born. His father's name was Robert, born in 1744, and died in 1799. His mother was Susanna Rice, born August 24, 1751, and died in 1833. Abraham was the seventh child of his parents; he had eight brothers and five sisters. The eldest son and child was born December 25, 1770, and the youngest December 13, 1796. These were the days when people believed in large families and had them.
The family to which Abraham Hollingsworth belonged, originated in the county of Cheshire in England, in the eleventh century. The name was originally Holly'sworth. There were abundance of holly trees grown on the original Hollingsworth manor, in Cheshire, England, and "worth" in original Saxon meant farm or fief, and "Hollyworth" meant Holly manor or farm, and the family took its name from the manor. The family had and has a coat of arms in the Herald's College; the shield contains three holly leaves vert, and the crest a stag's head. The motto is "Disce Ferindi Patienter"—Learn to endure patiently.
The stone house was started to be built by Abraham Hollingsworth, the great-grandfather of our Abraham. He made his will in September, and died in November. He must have owned an immense quantity of land, for he gave one son 250 acres, part of a tract of 1.050 acres which he owned on Opequan Creek. He willed to his son Isaac the stone house then unfinished, with the materials to finish it, and the lands which were with it. Isaac's son Robert was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. In England the family can be traced back to 1022, and in this country to 1682, when Valentine Hollingsworth, in England, came over with William Penn. There was a John Hollingsworth in England in 1559, who was a gentleman and occupied Hollingsworth Hall. He was an officer of the Herald's College. The Valentine Hollingsworth who came over with William Penn was the founder of the family in America. He was a Quaker as most of the Hollingsworths have since been. It seems he had a son Thomas married in 1692 in the form the Quakers used, and a certificate of the marriage, with the names of the subscribing witnesses, has been preserved and the following is a copy of it:
Whereas, That Thomas Hollingsworth, of ye county of New Castle and manor of Rockland, and Grace Cook of ye county of Chester, township of Concord, having declared their intentions of marriage before several monthly meetings of ye people called Quakers, held 12, 8, and 1, 14, 1691-2, at Concord in ye county of Chester, whose proceedings were allowed by said meetings.
Now these are to certify, all whom it may concern for ye full accomplishment of their said intentions, this 31 day of the first month, one thousand six hundred and ninety two.
Ye said Thomas Hollingsworth and Grace Cook appeared in an assembly of people, at a meeting for ye purpose, appointed at ye house of Nathaniel Park in Concord, and ye said Thomas Hollingsworth taking ye said Grace Cook by ye hand, did, in a solemn manner, openly declare that he took her to be his wife, promising through ye Lord's assistance, to be to her a loving and faithful husband until death should separate them. And then and there in ye said assembly Grace Cook did in like declare ye that she took said Thomas Hollingsworth to be her husband, promising through ye Lord's assistance, to be unto him a loving and faithful wife until death should separate them. And moreover, ye said Thomas Hollingsworth and Grace Cook, (she according to ye custom of marriage assuming the name of her husband) as a further confirmation thereof, did then and there to these presents set their hands, and we, whose names are hereunder written, being amongst others present at the solemnization of their said marriage, and subscription in manner aforesaid as witnesses thereunto, have hereunto set our hands the day and year above written.
| Valentine Hollingsworth. |
Henry Hollingsworth. |
| Nathaniel Park. |
Jacob Chandler. |
| Lydia Hollingsworth. |
Richard Hilaria. |
| Samuel Hollingsworth. |
Thomas Moor |
| George Robinson. |
William Britton. |
| William Powell. |
Robert Hutchinson. |
| Robert Pile. |
Nathaniel Newland. |
| Nathaniel Cartmell. |
Mary Conoway. |
| Thorn. Hollingsworth. |
Grace Hollingsworth. |
| Thomas Cox. |
Ann Hollingsworth |
| Eliza Park. |
|
Abraham Hollingsworth grew up at Winchester, Virginia, with the usual education that was then afforded in that locality. He learned the tanner's trade at Charlestown, Virginia, and went from there to Louisville, Ky., where he made a tanyard, and after living there a few years returned to Connellsville, Pennsylvania, where he was married to Miss Nancy Connel in 1814 and soon went back to Louisville, Ky., to reside. He remained there about three years, when be removed to West Union Ohio, where he engaged in the business of tanning and currying, which he carried on until 1834, at the yard now owned by Louis Smith, when he retired from all business and lived a life of ease and comfort until his death on March 7, 1864. Directly after his marriage he started back to Louisville with his wife. At Pittsburg they look a flatboat to Louisville, which was then a small place—so small that he personally knew everyone living there.
He was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church from 1820, and faithful in attendance on all the public services of his own church. At the weekly prayer meeting, he was always present and took part. The writer thinks he would have been more at home in the Presbyterian Church. He did not like the revival meeting of his own church, though he attended them until after the sermon, when he would get up and leave. The scenes about the mourners' bench were distasteful to him, and he would not witness them; and he certainly believed in the Presbyterian doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints for he practiced it.
His religion was the same yesterday, today and forever and be was always in grace.
At many of the Methodist revival meetings I have seen him at the close of the sermon take his grandson, Pat Lockhart, and retire in the most dignified manner. He was a thin, spare man. tall and straight as an Indian and he always walked with a dignified carriage.
In politics he was a Whig, and afterwards a Republican. He was a great admirer and follower of both Danici Webster and Henry Clay.
In the year 1824, when Adams, Clay and Jackson were candidates for the Presidency, there was a light horse militia company in Adams County of which Mr. Hollingsworth was a member. At one of their muster days, after the drill and muster was over, and the company was dismounted, the commanding officer drew a line on the ground for his sword in front of the muster and requested all who favored Henry Clay for the Presidency to step out of the muster and cross the line. Mr. Hollingswort, Gen. Joseph Darlinton and John W. Kincaid promptly came out of the ranks and stepped across the line.
Though not an Abolitionist at the outset, he did not like to live in a slave state and for that reason left Kentucky. He first undertook to be in favor of the removal of the blacks from this country by colonization, but finding that impracticable, he became an ardent Abolitionist, and in his dying hours, he was greatly comforted by the fact that President Lincoln had freed the slaves.
He never held any public offices, except those of School Director and Justice of the Peace, two terms.
His home in West Union he owned from the time he came there in 1817, and the present Hollingsworth home, built on the plan of "Abraham's delight" at Winchester, Virginia, was built in 1836, in place of his former home taken down to make place for the new one.
The Maysville and Zanesville Turnpike was built between 1838 and 1840, and he superintended its construction between Maysville and West Union. He had three daughters. The first married a Mr. Lockhart. and reared a large family. She died three years ago at the home of one of her sons in Kansas.
Another daughter, Susan M., was one of the victims of the awful scourge of Asiatic cholera, and died July 7, 1895, aged twelve years. Mr. Hollingsworth's wife survived him several years and died at the ripe age of eighty-six.
Mr. Hollingsworth's daughter, Caroline, never married. She lived in West Union all her life and was most highly esteemed. She furnished the data for this sketch in 1894 and since then she has joined the silent majority.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900