John William Holliday was born in Ireland. I have no proof of where. He was the son of William & Sarah (Caldwell)Holliday. He came to America with his parents and sister Ann (B: April 5,1911) on The ship "Down" arriving in New York City on July 9,1817. ( from the book: "Ships from Ireland to Early America, 1623-1850, Volume 1" By David Dobson

From there they moved to Morristown, St. Lawrence county, New York. William & Sarah had their other 6 children there.

John was married first to Nancy Day. Dec 03 1832 at
Johnstown,Leeds Co.,Ontario, Canada John William moved to Wolfe Island about the year 1838 after spending time surveying for roads on the Island.

They had 5 children William, Sarah, David, John Christopher, & Shuben( also called Shib or Sherman), Nancy died in Nov. 1847 shortly after giving birth to Shuben.

A large chest that held their belongings when they moved to the Island always stood in the Kitchen. The first house was a three room log cabin which became part of the Holliday home on 400 acres.The house they lived in is still there on Holliday road at the end of Holliday Point. A descendant lives there now. (The house burned to the ground in late 2012) There were still Indians on the Island and they were hired to help with the clearing of the land & building the home.

John married Margaret Notter on July 1,1852. They lived the rest of their lives on Wolfe Island. John & Margaret had 7 children Charles Victor, Richard Justice (died at 4 months), Henry Murray, Mary Margaret,Charlotte, Eliza & another boy Richard Justice named after the baby that died.( a common practice in those days)The church in this cemetery has a stain glass window that is dedicated to the John William Holliday family with the children's names on a plaque. In later years after John died some of the children changed the spelling of their name to Halliday. My grandmother (his granddaughter) used to say he had long fingers and always wore a jacket with big pockets that he would keep candy in for his grandchildren, Gum drops and he would put the gum drops on the thorns of the crabapple tree at the end of the porch and tell the kids it was a gum drop tree. The tree is still there or may be it is another from it. He would often sit on that porch and watch storms as they came in he loved to watch the lightening. He was a sea Capt when he was younger.