U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Holsberry, John D. (d. 1862) ------------------------------------------------------------------- The History of Barbour County, West Virginia, From its Earliest Exploration and Settlement to the Present Time by Hu Maxwell The Acme Publishing Company, Morgantown, W.Va., 1899 Pages 396-397 The Holsberry Family. The great-grandfather of John D. Holsberry came to Pennsylvania from Germany when sixteen years of age. All the people in this county of that name are descended from him. He had three sons, Samuel, Conrad and John. Samuel married in Pennsylvania but died without children; Conrad and John went to Ohio and bought land near Zanesville. Other settlers, from New Jersey, located there about the same time. The locality proved unhealthful, and after much sickness the colonists arranged to return to the East. They arrived in Barbour and settled among the foothills of Laurel Hill in Glade District. Among the families so settling was one named Poling, and Margaret Poling belonged to the family. Before she left Ohio John Holsberry became acquainted with her, and desirous of possessing so estimable a young lady for a wife, he sold his land for almost nothing (it afterwards became very valuable) and followed the Poling family to Barbour, where he was soon successful in winning the hand of the charming girl. They built their house where Kalamazoo now stands. When the War of 1812 began, John Holsberry volunteered, and became a commissioned officer and went to Norfolk; but on account of sickness in his family he resigned before the close of the war. His family consisted of six children, all of whom married and now have descendants living in Barbour County. The children were Rachel, who married Andrew Stalnaker; Nancy, who married John Regan; Samuel, William, Catherine and Martha, who is now the only one living. John Holsberry died in 1862 at the age of eighty-two, and was laid to rest in the M. P. White Oak Cemetery by the side of his companion who had gone on before. The descendants of Conrad Holsberry drifted from Ohio down the Mississippi and are now in Texas. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Barbour County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/barbour/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------