Hello Tribune readers, what beautiful weather. Wish we could bottle it up and pass it out when the weather gets bad.
Leander J. Holland was born in 1865 to Pridgeon and Roxanna Melton Holland. On May 21, 1885, he married Viola Melton. Mr. William K. Hicks performed the ceremony. Viola was born in 1865 to John Franklin and Arella Brewer Melton. Mr. Leander was a mason, he passed away in 1941; she passed away in 1953. Burials were in the Fatwoods Methodist Cemetery.
There were five children born to this couple. A daughter died during World War 1, Anna born in 1888 married Allen Cuff, Donna married Monroe Allsbrooks, Crayton born in 1886, died 1949, he married Eula, she was born in 1887 and died in 1955. They are buried at Flatwoods. Marshall L. was born January 17, 1894 married July 1919 to Ila Melton, she was born in 1898 to Andrew Jackson and Mary Vanhuss Melton.
Mr. Leander owned property and lived in the Chestnut Hill Community. He also owned and farmed property in the Tennessee River Bottoms.
Mr. Lon Tippett owned several acres of land and ran a blacksmith shop and store where the Eva Post Office now stands.
Mr. Holland and Mr. Tippett exchanged property, this starting the store named L.J. Holland and Sons. The license to operate the store was bought in Mr. Marshall's name. This transfer was in 1919. The store handled general merchandise, groceries, farm equipment and patient medicine. Crayton was the one that worked most with the medicine and became druggist and the people of the community started called the store, Eva Drug Company. A soda fountain was added tot he store and managed by Mrs. Ila Holland.
The Hollands had routes where they delivered groceries. They were Cherry Grove, Chestnut Hill, Flatwoods and Harmons Creek. The first delieries were made in a "Hack," this was a wagon with heavy springs, props bent over the wagon, covered with a tarp, pulled by a team of horses. Crayton also made the routes, the deliveries were made twice a week. The Hollands carried corpses to near by cemeteries, especially Chalk Hill and Flatwoods. Later they bought an A model truck and extended the routes to Halls Valley, Sulphur Creek, and Luderton. People would trade chickens, eggs, and furs for their groceries.
Mr. Marshall L. Holland graduated from Benton Seminary in Camden, in May of 1914, and delivered an address in the class program. Since then he had made many speeches as a Sunday School teacher at Eva Methodist Church. He was also a teacher for two years and a street car conductor in Memphis. In 1964, fifty years after graduating together, Marshall Holland, Granville Ellis, F.C. Cole, Frank C. Leslie, E.L. McCollough and H. Rae Morris met for a reunion.
During World War I Mr. Marshall volunteered for service in the U.S. Army and served from September 1917 until May 1919. He was in France one year. After his discharge from service he stayed active in Veterans organizations. He also went to work in the store with his father and brother, as the licenses were in his name. After the death of his father and brother, Mr. Marshall and Mrs. Ila ran the store. He was appointed Postmaster at Eva March 2, 1935. He served several years as a member of the Executive Committee of the National League of Postmasters State of Tennessee.
Mr. Marshall retired May, 1960, and Mrs. Bessie Phifer took over the store and post office. She retired May 29, 1988, and a new Post Office was built in 1988, phasing out the store. The service window that was used by the customers of the first Post Office in Eva is now mounted in the service area of the new Post Office.
Mrs. and Mrs. Marshall Holland have two sons, Charlie and Donnie of Eva. Mr. Marshall died in 1978, and Mrs. Ila died in 1988. They are buried in Flatwoods Methodist Cemetery.
The property on which the Post Office sits and several acres joining that still belongs to the Holland family.
Charlie Holland, I hope you enjoyed the afternoon as good as I did going into the Post Office and recalling good memories of Holland's Drug Company and other businesses in Eva.
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