Holland

   "Holland" is English and Scottish: a habitational name from Holland, a division of Lincolnshire, or any of the eight villages in various parts of England so called, from Old English hoh (‘ridge’) + land (‘land’—duh!). The Scottish name may also be from places called Holland in Orkney, Houlland in Shetland, Hollandbush in Stirlingshire, and Holland-Hirst in the parish of Kirkintilloch. The Irish variant reduced the Anglicized form of the Gaelic Ó hÓileáin, a variant of Ó hAoláin, from a form of Faolán (with loss of the initial F-), a personal name representing a diminutive of faol (‘wolf’).
   The Coat of Arms is blue with a silver lion rampant surrounded by silver fleur de lis. The Crest features an arm holding a lion's paw. The Family Motto translates to: "Let peace be done."
   The family was first found in Lincolnshire, where they were seated from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 A.D. But the Hause family lineage to the Hollands can be traced back to CHARLES HOLLAND, born in Ireland around the start of the 19th Century. He traveled to Canada and settled in Ingersoll, a town on the Thames River in southwestern Ontario, Canada (Oxford County). The area was well known for cheese production, and was home to the first such factory in Canada from approximately 1840:

In 1866, a 7,300 pound round of cheddar cheese was created by three Ingersoll cheese factories as part of a promotional campaign to market Oxford County cheese to England, Paris and the U.S.

Brown

   Before 1849, Charles married MARJERY BROWN, another transplant from Ireland who had traveled to Canada with siblings. The surname Brown was first found in Cumberland, where the Brown family was seated from very early times, having been granted lands by Duke William of Normandy, their liege Lord, for their distinguished assistance at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D. The Family Coat of Arms is a blue shield with a gold chevron between three gold fleur de lis. The Family Motto translates as "Let majesty flourish."
   The legend in the Marchant Family Bible, owned by Gloria Benson of Minnesota, intones: "Seven Brown sisters came from N. Ireland (County Caven): Margaret, Sarah, Mary, Elizabeth, Marth(a), Marjorie and Lucy." Charles and Marjery were married in Ireland, and he left her and daughter Rebecca (b. @ 1848) behind and went to Canada look for a place to settle, with his sister-in-law Margaret. The narrative on the back of Marjery’s photo says that seven Brown sisters embarked on the Atlantic crossing, but it did not say they were all single at the time. Genealogist Mark Folkestad discovered a rare passenger manifest from the period that is tantalizing: The Anna, a ship of the J. & J. Cooke Line, in an 1851 voyage from Ireland to Quebec, had a Charles Holland, no age given, from Omagh (County Tyrone, Northern Ireland) and a Margaret Brown, no age given, from Douglas Bridge (also in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, about a hundred miles from County Cavan). When Margaret returned to Ireland to gather the rest of her family, Charles might have taken a job in Quebec to earn money while he waited for the arrival of his wife and her family.¹
   Charles and Marjorie had five children:

CHILDREN OF CHARLES HOLLAND AND MARJERY BROWN

REBECCA HOLLAND was born in Ireland² @ 1849, and married WILLIAM MILHOY GLOVER (b. 1841) of Scotland, who worked as a store clerk (1871 Ontario Census: Sub-district: Bothwell Town). They were witnesses for the marriage of Martha Holland and William Marchant in 1870. They had he following children: Robert (b 24 Jun 1872), and Mary Ann (b. 7 Jul 1876), according to the 1881 census. William died on 2 Mar 1885. Rebecca died on Friday, January 18, 1895: In London, on the 18th inst., Mrs. R. Glover, wife of the late William M. Glover of Bothwell, and sister of Mr. W. C. Holland, and Miss S. L. Holland of Ingersoll, aged 47 years (Ingersoll Chronicle; Thursday, January 24, 1895, Pg: 8, Col: 1).

SARAH L. HOLLAND was born @1853. She was listed as a "Tailoress" in the 1881 Ontario census, and a "Confectioner" in the 1894/95 Ingersoll directory. She lives with Marjery and niece Mary Ann Glover in London, Middlesex, Ontario in 1901. After Marjery died, she was a boarder to Mary Ann Glover (Black) and her husband Archilald Black in Wellington South, Ontario ( 1911, 1921 census). By 1930 the Black family had emigrated to Chicago, but Sarah wasn't with them.

MARTHA LOUISE HOLLAND was born on 14 May 1852 in Ontario, Canada. On 26 Oct 1870, she married WILLIAM HENRY MARCHANT (26 Dec 1850 - 9 Mar 1896) in Bothwell, Ontario. They had three children: Fredie, Lillie and Marjorie. They moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA, where William died in 1896. After William's death, Martha became a housekeeper in the home of Civil War vet Manley Sage Gilbert, whom she then married on 06 Nov 1902 in Memphis, Macomb, Michigan. Martha was killed in a streetcar accident on 16 Jan 1911.

WILLIAM C. HOLLAND was born @ 1855. He married ALICE M. POTTS, of Fingal, on 16 May 1886, at the Methodist Church, Fingal, by the Rev. George Brown (Ingersoll Chronicle & Canadian Dairyman, Thursday, May 27, 1886. Pg: , Col: 9), according to the 1894/95 Ingersoll directory, he was the publisher of Farm Orchard & Garden.

JANE HOLLAND was born @ 1858, according to the 1861 Canada Census. By the 1871 census, she had disappeared.

Marchant

   In the 1861 Canadian Census, Charles is not listed with the family, and is never to return. We can only speculate that he passed away, as no records of him, leaving or dying, have been found (although later census reports state that she was a widow). Marjery would never remarry, and through frozen winters, deadly floods from the Thames, she raised the children herself, working as a shopkeeper.
   The 1871 Census shows Marjery in Bothwell, with her children (minus Jane, who would have been about 13). Martha, recently married to WILLIAM HENRY MARCHANT, is still living at home as well, listed as "MARTHA MERCHANT." Funnily enough, she's also listed as living 182 km away with her husband (and still spelled "Merchant") and his uncle Samuel Read's family in Niagara, Ontario. So either the census was taken on different days, or somebody was fibbing.
   Then by the 1881 Ontario Census, Marjery was living on the south side of King St., 6 east of Thames St. in Bothwell, with:

CHILDREN OF WILLIAM MARCHANT AND MARTHA HOLLAND

FREDIE THOMAS MARCHANT, b. 10 May 1872. Died 10 Feb 1873, age 10 months.

LILLIE MAUD MARCHANT was born 11 Jan 1878 in Ontario, Canada. She became a music and art teacher in Minnesota and married HENRY NATHANIEL BENSON (1 Aug 1872 - 10 May 1960), who served as a state senator and Attorney General in Minnesota. They had three children: Alice Merle (1908-1986), Margaret Lucille (1909-1993), and Henry (1917-1993), and lived in St. Peter, Nicollet, Minnesota. Lillian died in 1942. Henry Benson, Jr., passed away at Green Lake on November 30, 1993, and his sister Margaret passed a week later in Thief River Falls. Lillian is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Saint Peter, Le Sueur County, Minnesota.

MARJORIE EVELYN MARCHANT was born 5 Apr 1892. She grew up in Macomb County, Michigan, near a boy named CARLISLE HAUSE. When her mother died, she moved to Minnesota with her sister. Carlisle then traveled to Minnesota, proposed, and brought her back to Michigan. Her death in 1939 was so unendurable for Carlisle that he set fire to all of his photographs of her, trying to burn her from his memory. The only images that we have of her today are from in-laws. Burial: Evergreen Cemetery, 19807 Woodward Ave., Detroit 48203-1593 (313) 368-1330

Gilbert

   The family moved to Michigan in the United States, but on 9 Mar 1896, William Marchant died. Martha is listed as widow with daughter, Marjorie, in the 1900 census in the 1900 census of Richmond Township in Macomb County—as a servant of day laborer MANLY C. GILBERT (b. 1862), a widower with daughter Mabel, 10, and son Russell, aged two. But in another twist, on 06 Nov 1902, Martha married Gilbert, in Memphis (in the wedding document, he's named Charles S. Gilbert, born 1842 in Memphis, Macomb county, Michigan. Film number: 2342522; Digital GS number: 4032371; Image number: 387; Reference number: v 3 p 177 rn 3737). But curiously, Martha and Marjorie are living alone in the 1910 census. It was about this time that Marjorie graduated from high school, and was being courted by CARLISLE HAUSE. But Martha then apparently moved to Detroit.
   By the year 1910, Detroit's population had reached 465,766, and was doubling every ten years. The main way to get around the bustling city was by the new marvel of the age, called the streetcar. The Detroit United Railway provided street railway service in the city of Detroit and its surrounding suburbs, on more than 400 miles of interurban lines and 187 miles of city street railway lines. Detroiters initially enjoyed riding in streetcars, despite the overcrowded cabins and the continious clang of the trolleys. But with the population expanding so rapidly, the DUR found itself struggling to handle the increasing crowds. Service became so bad that The Detroit News ran cartoons, editorials, and articles criticizing the company's poor service. On February 10, 1910, the newspaper assigned a reporter to study just what it was like going home on the Baker Street streetcar line. The reporter had boarded a westbound 6:15P.M. car at Michigan Avenue and Griswold:

"With the inside of the car full, soon every inch on the front and rear steps were occupied by men clinging to the car. Other would-be-passengers, unable to find footing on the step, piled on the fender and rested against the front of the car. A winter blast howled down Michigan and, as the car started, it beat into their faces, but they knew that those at home were waiting for them and they were too cold to bother about a little thing like pneumonia. They stuck to the fender and cursed the DUR when the motorman pleaded with them to get off." (The photo at right, from The Detroit News, shows how the passengers on a crowded Baker line trolley in 1910.)

Newspaper Article File Image Title: Port Huron Times-Herald; Memphis page Subject: Martha Holland death notice Publication Date: Jan 21, 1911 View File

NOTES FOR THIS PAGE:

¹—There are no comprehensive ships passenger lists of immigrants arriving in Canada prior to 1865. Until that year, shipping companies were not required by the government to keep their passenger manifests.

²—The birth country is Ireland, according to her death certificate as well as the 1861, 1871, 1881, and 1891 census records, while her siblings all list their birthplace as Ontario. This lends support to Genealogist Mark Folkestad's theory that Charles and Marjery were married in Ireland, and Rebecca came to Canada with her mother as an infant.