| Robert Gamaliel (R.G.) was the fifth child of Robert Barclay and Julia
Ann Francis (Whittington) Hollingsworth, who made Coleman County their
permanent home, after migration from Gonzales, Texas, in 1892. Robert
Barclay had assumed the position of head of the household following the
death of his father, Isaiah, who never returned from a journey toward California
in search of gold in 1850. The children of Robert Barclay and Julia
Ann Francis were: Dora, Eugene, James Barclay, Henry, Phoebe, Robert Gamaliel,
Louvenia, Mary Jane, Sally Whittington. R. G. and his older brothers
aided in the erection of a barn and house on 160 acres purchased by their
father about 1 ½ miles south of Santa Anna. The family lived
in a tent until the barn was completed and in the barn until the house
was finished.
An interesting event in the life of the Hollingsworths was the transportation
to Santa Anna via rail of a 1903 model Franklin, chain drive automobile
purchased by Henry in Michigan. Intentions to drive the car back
to Texas were thwarted by lack of roads, hence the shipment by rail.
When the car arrived in Santa Anna, it was the first car between San Angelo
and Brownwood and created quite a stir in the town. Henry’s continued
interest in things mechanical and scientific resulted in his construction
of a telephone from information gleaned from his reading of progressive
magazines and papers of the day. Lines strung along barbed wire fences
were the humble beginnings of The West Texas Telephone Company ultimately
combining exchanges in Brownwood, Brady, Ballinger, Goldthwaite, Lometa
and Winters. Following sale of the telephone company, Hollingsworth
purchased the Coleman Democrat-Voice newspaper in 1911 and published it
until 1915. The main occupation of R. G. was making real estate loans
following several years teaching at Mayo School, Dublin, and Goldthwaite.
He served in many capacities in public life: Chairman of the Board of the
Central Colorado River Authority; Chariman of the Board of the Coleman
County State Bank, later the Coleman Bank; aiding in the organization of
the Welfare League of Coleman, forerunner of the present day Holiday Hill;
he was for many years Chairman of the local chapter of the American Red
Cross; served on the Advisory Committee of Rivers and Harbors Congress
in Washington, D.C.; Member of the Governor’s (Price Daniel) Advisory Committee
on Aging, and on the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Water Planning.
R. G. and Emma Jones Martin (see M. A. Martin) were married in 1903;
two children: Ruth and Robert Barclay. Emma passed away in 1953 after
many years as first a teacher, then a woman active in the Presbyterian
Church in Coleman, of which the entire family were members. She was
a charter member of the Shakespeare Club of Coleman, a longtime member
of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the United Daughters of
the Confederacy. She was honored in a resolution passed by the Texas
House of Representatives following her death. R. G. married a second
time in 1956 to Lura (Durham) Hollingsworth, a widow, and of no relation.
Lura was a retired Home Demonstration Agent and had two sons named Hollingsworth,
John Carroll and George Samuel. R. G. passed away December 22, 1973,
both he and Emma are buried in Coleman.
(Image to be added)
Julia Ann Francis (Whittington) Hollingsworth and grandchildren Robert
B. and Ruth
R. G. Hollingsworth and children Robert Barclay and Ruth
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