After his discharge from the army he came home, and on the 2d day of July, 1865, was married to Harriet Williams, whose father, a respectable farmer, is living--and was at the time--three miles north of the Trading Post. After marriage he resided with his father-in-law, spending his time in building a house on his mother's farm, some three miles distant, and in occasional raids for plunder, with Foster, who was his inseparable companion. Foster was a member of the same company, and on their discharge from the army made his home with Holderman at Mr. William's, and intended to marry a younger sister of Holderman's wife, though her father seriously opposed the match. It was generally supposed by the citizens of the vicinity that they were engaged in lawless enterprises, but we have no proof of more than one act during that period, the robbing of a store at Barnesville. THE MURDER FOR WHICH HE WAS HUNG. On the 25th of September, a middle-aged man, named John
Carver, came through the country on foot, claiming to have been a soldier
in a Wisconsin regiment, discharged from the service at Fort Smith, and
on his way home to Wisconsin. He stopped at Williams's, and requested the
privilege of staying a portion of the day, as he was suffering from the
ague. Holderman and Foster, and Ward, the other member of the trio, charged
with the murder for which Holderman was hung, were there together at the
time, and it seems laid the plot soon after the old man arrived to waylay
and murder him. Holderman and Foster left the premises sometime before
noon, leaving Ward with instructions to start the old man on the road at
three o'clock, and they would await his appearance at a suitable place.
The instructions were carried out, Ward going some distance on the road
with him. A mile and a half from Williams's a couple of teamsters overtook
the man on the road, and one of them, a farmer living near Mound City,
allowed him to get in the wagon to ride. At that moment Foster and Holderman
rode up and ordered
The teamster proceeded on his way, leaving him in their hands, and when at the distance of a hundred yards, hearing pistol shots, turned and saw the stranger falling and the two men still shooting him. Two other persons also witnessed it from a distance, but said nothing of it at the time, as it was not safe to meddle with that which did not concern them, and the driver of the wagon believing their statement that he was a rebel considered them justified in it and kept silent. The stranger's disappearance caused some surmise to the vicinity, but as his body was not found, no active measures were taken in the premises. Six or seven weeks afterward his bones were accidentally found in a ravine near the spot, and a coroner's inquest held over them, in which it was proven by the clothing that it was the stranger, and furthermore, that he came to his death by violence. Holderman himself testified to the clothing before the jury. A number of persons in the vicinity entertained suspicions as to who the murderers were, but from want of proof kept silent at the time. Holderman and Foster still remained in the neighborhood until some two months after, when they were arrested for robbing Hugh Kirkendall. He was coming from Fort Scott to Paola, and when at the crossing of the Marais des Cygnes, four miles from the latter place, they rode up one on each side of his buggy, presented their pistols and demanded his money, which under the circumstances he was compelled to give up. On reaching Paola, Kirkendall telegraphed a description of them, up and down the line of the road, and early the next morning they rode into Olathe, and while purchasing some articles in McBride's store, were recognized by that description. McBride quietly procured assistance and arrested them without resistance, and they were sent to Paola and placed in jail. Three weeks afterwards, they broke jail, stole a pair of horses and returned home. After laying there in concealment for a day or two they went to Arkansas, where Foster's father was living, four miles from the battle-ground of Pea Ridge. |
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