Zilpha (Edgerton) Hollowell (1824 - 1901)

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Biography

Zilphia (possibly Zilpha) Edgerton, daughter of Thomas and Absilla Pike Edgerton, was born 14 Jan 1824. She married Thomas Lancaster Hollowell on 25th of 9th month 1845 at Nahunta Meeting House Wayne County, by the Custom of Friends - witnesses Lazurus Pearson and Selah Griffin.

Thomas L and Zilphia has nine children, six of whom lived to be grown.

When Thomas died at the age of 50 with typhoid fever, Zilphia was left with four sons and two daughters from ages 19 down to two years. She continued to live at the old Hollowell home place. The War had just closed in April 1865. The Yankees were overriding the country and scalping all that was possible. Life was hard, days never long enough - spinning, weaving, cooking in the fireplace, quilting, making candles and soap and always the garden to plant and cultivate. Zilphia kept her children with her and sent them to school. on the nearby Massey farm with the Massey children. Richard Lloyd, the youngest, entered Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana the Fall of 1882 at the age of 19 and graduated in 1885, completing the four year course. As they grew older they married and settled in Wayne County. Then they moved to other sections of the State.

Zilphia died April 4, 1901, age 77 years in Greensboro, NC, where her daughter Elizabeth Grantham and son Richard Hollowell were living. She was brought back to Wayne County for burial in the old Hollowell cemetery beside her husband.

Name question

The given name also appears as Zilphia in Hinshaw, original Quaker records, and on her gravestone. Zilpha also appears in Quaker records and Hinshaw, along with census records (1850, '60, '70, 1900). I am not certain which spelling is correct. Yet another Quaker record spells her name "Zilpia." This seems very unlikely since it occurs nowhere else that I've seen. It also appears as Zelpha in a couple of places - similarly unlikely to be correct. She is given the middle name Catherine in some genealogies, but without supporting documentation.

North Carolina, Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998 ^{[citation needed]}

Sources

• William Wade Hinshaw. Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol I, p. 287. Gives birth date, parents, 10 siblings (incl. Zilphia/Zilpha). As Zilphia Edgerton; as Zilpha Hollowell. Links to Ancestry.com.

• Hollowell, Lucy Elliott. The Hollowells. June 1969.

• U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935 (as Zilphia Edgerton). Death. Showing her as Zilpha Hollowell. Ancestry.com.

• Vicky Hollowell Highfield Hollowell Generations Project

• Find a Grave memorial page.