Thomas Franklin Holley Sr. was born to the late Thomas Holley (1850-1880) and Sarah Catherine (Witcher) Holley, whose first husband, John Greenwood, did not return from the War when it ended in 1865. Thomas & Sarah Catherine married in 1870 in Coryell County, Tx. Coryell was not far from where the Witchers lived in Hamilton County, and I suspect that the relationship between the Witchers and the Hamilton County farmers and merchants may have played a part in that decision.

Tom's father died six months before he was born, and his mother, with her orphan children moved to Montague County where her sister, Elizabeth Witcher Barnes already lived. Tom's grandmother, Jane Teel Witcher had also moved to Montague from Hamilton Co. Texas.

Tom was a very hardworking youth, and at the age of eleven years bought his first piece of land. He continued to work and save, as well as help support his mother, siblings, aunt and grandmother.

Nov. 4, 1908, he married Miss Edna Bondifield(sic) in Montague Co. They would eventually have five children. A son born in 1926 only lived for a little over a month.

Tom registered for the WWI draft in 1918 Montague Co., and he lived at Forestburg. His Occupation was Farmer; hair was black, his eyes were grey, One eye missing, Slender build; Height;Tall; Relative who will always know your address: Edna Holley of Forestburg, Tx. A photo taken of him in 1910 showed both his eyes, so the wood chopping accident that put out his eye must have happened between 1910 and 1918.

Before 1920 the Black Leg got into the cattle in Montague Co., so he sold his land in Montague and moved to Wheeler County, Tx. where he bought a half section of land (320 acres), located between Mobeetie and Gageby. Hard work brought him some measure of success, but the combination of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression doomed his and many other farmer's efforts to support their families. So, he had to borrow money from the bank in order to keep buying seed and supplies to try to raise another crop. Finally, he decided that in order to keep his good name that he would sell his farm for enough money to pay the bank loan with possibly some left over. When he went to pay the bank loan, the banker told him that the bank had had no intention of foreclosing on his property. Tom bought another farm near Lilly, just below the Salt Fork of the Red River in Collingsworth Co. Tx. Sandy land mostly. In 1936, leased his farm to his son Jonathan Paul Holley and son in law Lonnie Goodner, and bought another farm located near Devine, Tx, as he had been advised by a flyer sent out to farmers who lived in the Dust Bowl area, that good land was to be had there. The land may have been good, but without water there were no crops. In one letter written by his wife to their daughter, Hazel Holley Wofford in California she wrote "Times are so hard here that folks are eating shriveled weevilly sweet potatoes".

After they moved back to the Texas Panhandle, Edna wrote that " Tom made [picked] $4. worth of cotton, and the farmer acted like he didn't want to pay him".

While still a young man he lost one eye as a result of a woodchip flying up and going into his eye while he was chopping wood.

Since Tom had never seen his father, folks thought that he could cure the thrush in children by him blowing into the baby's mouth. Tom would do so, but whether or not he thought it would cure the thrush, he didn't say.

Tom suffered greatly from the rheumatism, no doubt brought on by years of hard labor.(Ron Holley with more later)