LAST RITES FOR JOHN HOLEMAN, PIONEER CREEK COUNTY RESIDENT, HELD AT FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH

Body Laid to Rest At Brooks Cemetery On Bland Ranch, where Holeman Worked and Lived As Son of Early Settlers

Impressive funeral services for the Rev. J. W. Holeman, 54, pioneer resident of this section, who died at his home near Drumright early Tuesday following an illnes of several weeks, were held Thursday afternoon at the First Baptist church with the Rev. W. T. Colson, Vinita, assisted by the Rev. J. S. Glenen, Yale, officiating. Burial was made in Brooks Cemetery on the Bland ranch near Oilton with funeral directors from the Stubblefield Funeral home in charge. The site of the burial is marked by the fact it was a "feeding ground" where Holeman as a boy fed cattle on the Bland ranch. The Baptist church was crowded for the services and many followed the body to its last resting place. Reverend Holeman, an ordained minister of the Church of God for a number of years, was born in McDonald County, Missouri on August 6, 1987. He moved to Oklahoma with his parents when he was a small boy and had resided in this section since that time. Twenty-two years ago he purchased the farm six miles east of Drumright in the Olive community where he lived until his death. When his parents first came to this section, the territory in and near the site of the present city of Drumright was an unsettled country. Indians at that time still held sway. Parents of the young Holeman were of the true pioneers of Oklahoma. When he was a boy, Holeman experienced hair-raising escapades with Indians and desperados who gained notoriety for their boldness as outlaws of the Indian Territory long before Oklahoma became a commonwealth. Much more could be said of the sufferings and privations endured by those early settlers in the territory among which the Holeman family played their part and earned their share of honor in years to come. But to pass on as the years passed on and the then young Holeman grew into young manhood. When he became 18 years of age he met and admired the then beautiful Miss Vida Harvel. Miss Harvel, an orphan, resided with her uncle and aunt, (David Richard F. Bellew and Mary Jane Potter Bellew), who lived on another ranch about three miles east of the Bland Ranch, where the Holeman family worked and lived. Shortly after their marriage the young couple moved to a farm near Olive, where they lived several years, after which time they moved to New Mexico. They returned to Oklahoma and purchased the farm east of Drumright, which has since become known as the Holeman farm, where they resided until the time of Reverend Holeman's death. Mrs. Holeman planned to remain on the farm another year, she told a representative of The Derrick. The Reverend Holeman is survived by his widow, 10 daughters, Mrs. D. W. Means, Bristow; Mrs. W. L. Culp, Mrs. L. J. Marrs, Mrs. F. C. Bruce and Mrs. Edith Baker all of the Drumright-Olive community and Juanita, Loleta, Florence, Lorine and Betty, all of the home address, and two sons, Lawrence and John David Holeman, both of the home.