Henry A.N. Hole was Walt’s great grand uncle, brother to his great grandfather, John Swisher Hole.
Henry was born in on February 13, 1834 in Preble County, Ohio to James Anderson Hole and Mary Ann Swisher. By the time of the 1850 census, the family had moved to Darke County, Ohio. By the 1860 census, Henry was working as a farm laborer on the farm of Jacob and Eliza Pratt.
In September of 1961, Henry and John mustered into the 40th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. In December of 1864, they transferred to the 51st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Henry mustered out on October 3, 1865 in Victoria, Texas.
According to family lore, at some point he had an ear shot off. It isn’t clear if this happened during the war, or later on. He supposedly spent some time out west “mopping up stragglers” after the war. By 1880 he was back in Ohio, again working as a farm laborer.
Marriage to a young lady
In 1894, he married Ida Belle Wise. Ida was born in 1873, the daughter of Jacob and Sarah Wise. Within a couple of months of their marriage, their first child Leonard Albert Hole was born. They went on to have two more children, Jacob Mckinley Hole, born in 1897, and Joseph M. Hole, born in 1900.
Henry died on October 2, 1904 at the age of 70. In 1905, his brother-in-law, William Brown, the husband of his sister Sarah, applied for guardianship of his children. This wasn’t uncommon at the time. It was a means of ensuring that the children had the needed financial support. He posted a bond of $2000 dollars with the courts. The children still lived with their mother, but William was helping to support the family.
Henry is buried in Speelman’s Cemetery in Darke County, Ohio. I found the application for having a stone erected on his grave. Veterans or their families could get financial assistance for this. As you can see, this was done in 1940.
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