John Holland
(abt 1798 - aft 1869)
Descendant List and Notes
John Holland appears on the Gadsden censuses of 1830, 1840 and 1850. In 1830, he is located in the area of Concord, in the northeast part of the county, as he is surrounded by family names known to be residents of Concord. In 1850 he is listed as a shoemaker, but no longer surrounded by Concord families. His tax roll entries do not refer to any land. By 1860, still a shoemaker, he has moved to Decatur County, Georgia (P. O. Cairo, which was in Thomas County and now is in Grady), and by 1870, he is a farm laborer in Thomasville, in Thomas County, Georgia.
Two of his daughters, Emily and Margaret, married into the Merritt family. Florida State Genealogical Society Florida Pioneer Application #382 (copy at Florida State Archives) documents descent from Emily, who married Jacob George Merritt of Cairo, Georgia, and lived in the Tired Creek area. Margaret married Jacob's brother, Jonathan William Merritt and they are both buried at the Thompson/Burns Cemetery in the Concord community of Gadsden County, Florida.
In 1860, William and Margaret Merritt are listed in Concord adjacent Isaiah, James and Keziah and David Gray. Is there any connection between this Holland family and the Gray families of Concord, or is it just a coincidence that they lived side by side?
John Holland is not listed on the 1845 Gadsden tax roll, but he does appear in 1846, along with a William Holland. Both paid tax on one male over 21 and under 50. Both are listed on the 1847 roll with 0 males 21-50, but at the end of the roll, John appears in a list of those "doubletaxed by default for nonattendance" - $1.00 for one male, normally fifty cents per male. It does not specify to what the "nonattendance" referred (possibly militia duty, but he was over 45 and should not have been required to be in the militia).
In both 1848 and 1849, John was taxed for one male, no land, but William was no longer on the roll. If John was born in 1798-99 as indicated by the 1850-70 censuses, then he should not have had to pay the male head tax for 1850, since he had turned 50 by then, but he is still listed in 1850 as paying tax for one male 21-50. It could be that his son, Haywood, had turned 21 about that time and was still living in his father's household as shown on the 1850 census.
After 1850, the name John Holland disappears from the Gadsden tax rolls until 1856 when it reappears taxed for one male 21-50 and for $350 in notes. John, the shoemaker, was well over 50 by that time and his son, Haywood, was nearing 30 and probably no longer in his father's household. This implies a different John Holland, probably the one who sold the lots in Sect 28 T1N R2W of Leon County in 1856 as "John Holland of Gadsden County." He had been designated as "John Holland of Leon County" on the patent he received in 1852.
