52 Ancestors: #20 Clyde Ellison Holtzlider and "The Old Homestead"

Left to right: Stella, Clyde, Russell, Omar, and Gertie standing in front of their barn in Pierceville.

My great grandfather, Clyde Ellison Holtzlider, was born on March 3, 1895 in North Vernon, Jennings County, Indiana. His parents were William Holzlider and Ella Dorothy Smith.  Clyde's grandfathers, George Holzlider and Andrew Smith, were both immigrants and Civil War veterans.  They were even in the same regiment.  Clyde had five siblings: Mary Gertrude (Gertie), Stella, Omar, Russell, and Bertha.  Clyde was first of his family to add a "t" to their last name, changing it from "Holzlider" to "Holtzlider."

"The Old Homestead" in Pierceville.

The family bought a 40-acre farm in Pierceville, Indiana for $700. Clyde and Omar helped their father clear the land.   In Pierceville, there was a church, a store, and a blacksmith shop.  Clyde's sister Stella later married the blacksmith, Mason McCammon.

When Clyde was about 13 years old, the family's house in Pierceville caught on fire, and the family Bible was destroyed. The two youngest children, Russell and Bertha, were carried out of the house and placed on a featherbed in the yard.

Clyde met Dola Worland at the United Brethren Church (now known as the New Bethel Church) in Pierceville.  They were married on August, 30 1916. They had five sons and three daughters together.  Four of their children (Ellison, Garnet, Marian, and Milburn) served in World War II.  Milburn was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart after he was shot by a sniper at Iwo Jima.

Stella, Clyde, and Gertie at their childhood home in 1968.

In his later years, Clyde spent many hours playing pool and liked to take roadtrips with his siblings.  In 1963, he took a trip to Hollywood, California with Stella and Bertha.  Clyde, Stella, and Gertie revisited "the old homestead" in Pierceville on July 24, 1968.

Clyde died on December 26, 1980 in Greensburg, Indiana.  All of the Holzlider siblings lived to be at least 80 years old and remained in Indiana throughout their lives.