Venango County Commissioner Oct. 1863 - Aug. 1865

PIT HOLE CITY.~The history of this place seems like a dream of romance. In rapidity of growth and excitement during its short career, it exceeded that of any other town in America. From a single farm house, in May, 1865, it suddenly expanded until, in September of the same year, a period of only five months, it had a population of fifteen thousand. It had its hotels, theatres, lecture halls, churches, and other public buildings, on a grand scale. It is situated on Pit Hole creek, from which it derives its name, about eight miles from its mouth, in Cornplanter township. In January, 1865, the first well was put down, on the Thomas Holmden farm. It was called the United States, and soon produced eight hundred barrels per day. This was far out from other wells. In June the Grant well was struck, flowing at the rate of twelve hundred barrels per day. This incited the country to fever heat. Capitalists rushed in; money flowed as freely as oil itself; and for three months, anything like a correct description of things would seem like fiction. The Holmden farm had been bought by Prather & Duncan, who laid it out in lots. These lots brought large prices; one of them $15,000. At the height of the fever the Holmden farm was sold for $1,300,000, and resold for $1,600,000. But business began to decline. The oil belt was found to be merely a small basin amid the rocks, and was soon drained. The town was deserted; property declined in value; the buildings that had been erected at great expense were removed to Pleasantville, Oil City, and Franklin; until the proud city became but an humble hamlet, sitting down to dream of its former glory.
Source:The History of Pennsylvania By William H. Egle, M.D., M.A. Published 1883.

Thomas' farm was 180 acres.
Came to Cleveland, Ohio via Allegheny Township, Venango, Pennsylvania probably about 1865. (see 1860 census)

CENSUS: 1850 Tionesta Township, Venango, Pennsylvania, dwelling 1123. Enumerated as Thomas Homden. His brother Walter and wife are in dwelling 1124. His brother John and wife are in dwelling 1126 along with their mother, Sarah, aged 62.

CENSUS: 1880
Thomas HOLMDEN Self M Male W 61 ENG Privateer ENG ENG
Jerusha HOLMDEN Wife M Female W 50 OH Keeping House OH OH
Mary HOLMDEN Dau S Female W 25 PA ENG OH
James MACKEY SSon S Male W 19 OH At School OH OH
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Source Information:
Census Place 12th Ward, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio
Family History Library Film 1255007
NA Film Number T9-1007
Page Number 350A

Thomas and his wife, Sarah, were the guardians of his brother John's two children, Edwin and Lydia.

OBIT: Name: Holmden, Thomas
Date: February 4, 1886
Source: Cemetery record; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #038.
Notes: Holmden- At his late residence, No. 829 Scranton ave., Thomas Holmden, in his 69th year. Funeral Thursday at 2 p. m. Friends of the family are invited to attend. Warren, O., papers please copy. 1817 - 1886. Monroe Cemetery Cleveland, Ohio.

1. Elbridge J. HOLMDEN b. Apr 1842, ,, Pennsylvania; d. Jul 1926, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio.
2. Charles W. HOLMDEN d. Jul 1935, Madison,, Ohio.
3. Lucy Jane HOLMDEN b. 21 Sep 1844, Cornplanter, Venango, Pennsylvania; d. 24 Dec 1885.
4. Eliza HOLMDEN b. Abt 1846, ,, Pennsylvania.
5. Henry C. HOLMDEN b. Aug 1847, ,, Pennsylvania; d. Jan 1919, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio.
6. Miles W. HOLMDEN b. Abt 1852, ,, Pennsylvania; d. Jan 1915, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio.
7. Mary HOLMDEN b. Abt 1857, ,, Pennsylvania; d. 2 Dec 1903, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio.
8. Edwin HOLMDEN
9. Lydia HOLMDEN

According to “The Holmden Family Tree,” Walter Holmden came to America in 1824 with his wife and four of their five children (John, the fifth child, would have been the only child born in North America). Walter, born circa 8 June 1788 in England, was a Baptist minister; he had married in 1814 Sarah Terry, born 26 June 1788

For more information on the Holmden line, see “The Holmden Family Tree, 1788 to 1915” (in the form of a chart), sent to the Venango County Genealogical Club by Richard Hammell, 5144 Strongs Ridge Road, Bellevue, Ohio 4484 (18 inches by 20 inches chart)

Thomas Holmden’s farm encompassed Big Pithole Creek; to the west of Thomas’s tract was the Walter Holmden farm; to the east, the Hyner Farm; to the south the John Holmden, or Blackmer, farm and Rooker farm; and to the north, the Copeland farm owned by Parcus Tilley Copeland.

The flatlands on the western side of Big Pithole Creek on the Thomas Holmden farm was to become the main part of Pithole City during the oil excitement of 1865,992 but the adjacent farms of his brothers, Walter and John, were in the same general area.

[source of all of the above: http://www.fleming.oilcreekgenealogy.net/content/oilc.html]

DEATH: aged 60y 11m 6da when he died
Most accounts show Walter as dying in 1840. The Fleming Oil Creek website shows his date of death for 1849.

1. 1. Thomas HOLMDEN b. 1817, ,, England; d. 1 Feb 1886, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio.
2. Walter HOLMDEN b. 1822, ,, England; d. 7 Nov 1864, Cornplanter, Venango, Pennsylvania.
3. John A. HOLMDEN b. 1825, , Venango, Pennsylvania; d. 25 May 1854, Cornplanter, Venango, Pennsylvania.
4. Elizabeth Ann HOLMDEN b. 23 Feb 1819, ,, England; d. 2 Feb 1894, Tidioute,, Pennsylvania.
5. Sarah HOLMDEN, [infant] b. 1815, ,, England; d. 1817, ,, England.