Vermilion county Illinois, ZACHARIAH C. HOLLOWAY ==================================================================== Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives Joy Fisher ==================================================================== p. 232, 235 ZACHARIAH C. HOLLOWAY. Among quite a company of young men who came to this county at different times in the spring of 1853, was a young man named Holloway, plainly attired and with no means to speak of, quiet and unobtrusive in his demeanor but with the fixed purpose of giving the Western country a fair trial in the building up of a future home. He was not prepared to purchase land and so was obliged to locate upon a rented farm in Blount Township which had been but slightly improved and offered few advantages to the pioneer. Upon this amid many difficulties he prosecuted farming for a period of four years, then changed his residence to Newell Township where he sojourned two years. His next removal was to a farm adjoining that which he now owns and occupies, in the southern part of Ross Township. This brought him up to 1859 in which year he purchased eighty acres of wild prairie and two years later established himself upon it with his young wife in a log cabin. Mr. Holloway began the cultivation of his land with an ox team and in the meantime made his home in Newell, then a very unimportant village. In the spring of 1860 he hired thirty acres plowed, which he planted in corn. From that time on he labored industriously early and late until he had eighty acres under a high state of cultivation and had erected a neat and substantial house and barn besides effecting other improvements. As opportunity permitted he planted fruit and shade trees and after a number of years found himself in a condition to purchase additional land and thus invested his surplus capital until he became the owner of 400 acres. For many years he has dealt in cattle realizing therefrom handsome returns. Our subject generously acknowledges that he has been greatly assisted and encouraged in his labors and struggles by his excellent wife, who bore with her husband the heat and burden of the day and assisted him in saving as well as earning. They are the parents of four children, all living, namely: Albert, Alford, Frank, and Ivy, the wife of C. E. Crawford, of Ross Township. Upon becoming a voting citizen Mr. Holloway identified himself with the Republican party and later cordially endorsed Republican doctrines. He has made a speciality of attending to his own concerns and consequently has meddled very little with public affairs, having no desire for the responsibilities of office. His pleasant home with its attractive surroundings and his intelligent family have largely supplied his social needs, although he is not lacking for troops of friends among the people whose intelligence always leads them to respect the man who has been the architect of his own fortune and who has made the most of his opportunities, adding to the talent with which nature endowed him. John Holloway, the father of our subject, was the son of Elijah Holloway, a native of Maryland and one of eight children. The others were named respectively, Adam, William, Elijah, Armel, Frances, Hettie and Mary. John also was born in Maryland, where he was reared to man's estate and married Miss Elizabeth Davis. About 1804, with a party of probably eighty persons, they set out across the mountains with teams and landed in Ross County, Ohio, where it is believed the grandparents also settled. The journey at that time was a dangerous one, the country being infested with desperate characters, who frequently murdered travelers for their money. The trip occupied about six weeks and the Holloway family fortunately were not molested. The parents of our subject settled in the heavy timber of Ross County, Ohio, where Zachariah C. was born June 16, 1824, and where the parents spent their last days. The father died in September 1863, at the age of eighty-five years and the mother at the same age, in March, 1865. Both were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the faith of which they serenely passed away. Many and great were the hardships endured by the pioneers in the wilderness of Ross County and our subject like his brothers and sisters was taught to make himself useful at a very early age. He assisted in clearing the farm and received a limited education in the subscription school. His life passed quietly and uneventfully during his boyhood and youth, and like the other young men of that day and place, his chief ambition was in due time to have a farm and a fireside of his own. Our subject continued a resident of his native county until his marriage, in 1849. The maiden of his choice was Miss Mary, daughter of Joshua Shockley, formerly of Delaware, but who, like the Holloways, was an early pioneer of the Buckeye State. Mrs. Holloway was born in Delaware and was take by her parents to Ohio when about two years old. Her father died there, in 1841. The mother later came to this county and made her home with her daughter, her death occurring in May, 1888.