This article, written by Todd Preston, President of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the JULY 10, 2014 issue of THE SALYERSVILLE INDEPENDENT newspaper.

            We had my little neighbor in a couple of days this week.  She came to help us with some of our work.   Miss Tori Hall, daughter of Richard and Veronica Hall, participated in many activities of our 2013 Founders Day celebration and has maintained an interest in the work of our historical society.  It is encouraging to see the quality of our young folks these days and we want to commend Tori for her community spirit and certainly look forward to her coming again.

            Another very welcome visitor was our friend Dorothy Holderby who brought in Susan Wierman and Lois Holderby Wierman, both from Ohio. They met with a large group of their Holderby relatives here at the historical society.  We were pleased to learn that their Wierman/Wireman family connected with some people that we became acquainted with back in 1987 during the Wireman Founders Day.

Lois’s husband was a son of John Morgan Wierman and Myrtle Newkirk.  John Morgan was a son of Norval D. Wierman and Mary Elizabeth Bratton.  Norval D. was a son of Benjamin Wierman (a Civil War soldier) and Martha Ann Nolan.  Benjamin was a son of Jacob Wierman and Nancy Oney.  Jacob was born in 1795 in Tennessee and was the oldest of the three sons of John Wierman II.  His family relocated to Floyd Co. KY before 1810. 

            We had the help of Hugh Tipton and Orvil Wireman of Stanton, KY to assemble that family genealogy.  Hugh and Orvil participated in the Founders Days program and also attended many Wireman Reunions here in Magoffin.  We are grateful to them and one of their cousins, Charles Shouse for their contributions to our knowledge of this branch of the family.

The Wierman’s from Ohio were here to research the Holderby side of their family.  We did an ancestor chart for Lois and here is some of the information we were able to gather.  She is the daughter of Robert Holderby and his wife Elsie Holliday. 

            Robert was a son of James Lewis Holderby and Mary Alice Caudill.  We found James Lewis in the 1910 Magoffin County census.  At that time he was age 60 and his wife Mary Ann was age 39.  They had the following children in their household: (1) William A. Holderby age 16, (2) John P. Holderby age 15, (3) Robert B. Holderby age 12, (4) James L. Holderby age 10, (5) Salter H. Holderby age 6 and (6) Sarah E. Holderby age 4. 

            Going back another generation, James Lewis was a son of James Powell Holderby.  James P. was born in 1812 in Virginia.  He was a merchant and he and his wife Sarah Power were married in 1845 and lived in Morgan Co. KY.  The 1850 census shows them with a 20-year old Christopher Maxey in their household who worked as a store clerk. 

            The children of James Powell and Sarah Holderby were (1) Frances “Fanny” Holderby b. 1846 (married Anderson May), (2) James Lewis Holderby (see above), (3) Sarah J. Holderby b. 1851, (4) Mary Ann Holderby b. 1 Oct 1853 d. 30 Dec 1936 Lakeville, KY married Sam Fairchild, (5) William A. Holderby b. 1855, (6) Emily P. Holderby b. 1859 m. in 1878 to Lewis S. May. 

            James Powell Holderby was a son of William Holderby b. 1784 and died in 1870.  His mother was Rebecca Hoskinson b. 1785 d. 1893.

            It would have been nice if the Wierman’s could have been here a few days later as the annual Wireman/Wierman Reunion was held here in Salyersville on July 5^th.  We always look forward to having several visitors drop in to say hello during this time. This year we had Seldon Shepherd and his son Shannon, Ward Beecher Wireman, Colin and Patsy Salyer, Beverly Miller Hackworth and her family and Michael James Arthur.

There were several people we missed seeing this year and one of those was Beverly’s brother Norman Miller.  Norman usually was in charge of the flag raising for the 4^th of July affair.  Maybe he will get to come over and visit with us sometime soon. 

            Michael James Arthur of Sciotoville, OH spent quite a bit of time with us Saturday as he was interested in researching his Wireman, Hale and Shepherd ancestry.  He said he was “practically raised” by my late brother Henry Preston and we all share a Preston ancestor.