Individual Details

Living with Sidney, Ada and the children, in 1900 was Sidney's mother Sarah and a servant Sallie Camp and her daughter Eva. Sallie & Eva were Black; Sallie born Sep 1876; Eva born Dec 1891.
Sidney and Ada had been married eight years.

The Daily Constitution, Atlanta, GA, 26 Oct 1903.
Sidney Holderness a Candidate
Carrollton, Ga., October 25 - (Special) - Colonel Sidney Holderness of Carrollton, is a candidate for solicitor general of the Coweta Circuit, when the present term expires. Mr. Holderness has long been recognized as one of the ablest young lawyers of this section and has achieved eminent success in that profession. He is now solicitor of the city court of Carrollton.

The 1920 Census show little has changed within the nuclear family. Sidney was 55, Ada 49, Claire 22 and Sidney Jr 20. Young Sidney was still in school; his father was a lawyer in general practice. The family lived at 48 Dixie Street in Carrollton, Carroll Co, GA.

1930 Census, Carroll Co GA, Military District 714, p.6b, household 128
Sidney Holderness age 65, b. GA; Ada, age 60, Claire age 32. He was still practicing law.

The University of West Georgia, Irvine Sullivan Ingram Library, holds family papers of Sidney Holderness Sr. and Jr. Much of the collection consists of their property records. Here is a further description:

Prominent attorney and city court solicitor, Colonel Sidney Holderness Sr. (1864-1939) came to Carrollton from Whitesburg to practice law in the late 1800s. In 1896, Holderness married Ada Clare Long (1871-1940) daughter of famed Carroll County statesman, Benjamin McFarland Long (1827-1903). In the early 1900s, Holderness had a building designed and built for his law office by the Atlanta architectural firm, Morris and Butt. Pioneering female attorney and author, Betty Reynolds Cobb served as a secretary to Holderness during this time period and the position allowed her to secretly study law as she prepared to take the bar exam. The building, located at what is currently 201 Newnan Street, was owned by the Holderness family until the 1970s when Sidney Holderness III sold it to Reuben M. Word. Around the time he established his law offices on Newnan Street, Sidney Sr. commissioned the Morris and Butt architectural firm to design his family's home at 48 Dixie Street (currently 301 Dixie Street). Sidney Holderness Sr. and Ada Clare Long had three children together: Ben Scott Holderness (1895-1896), Clare Holderness (1897-1943), and Sidney Holderness Jr. (1899-1974). Clare Holderness married Brooks Oliver Pittman and the two lived in the home on Dixie Street after Sidney and Ada passed away. After Clare's death in 1943, Brooks Pittman married Margaret Sprout Long (first cousin to Clare and Sidney Jr.) and had two daughters, one of whom lives in the home on Dixie Street as of 2014.

In addition to his status as a prominent figure in turn of the century Carrollton, Sidney Holderness Sr. also owned and operated the farm of his father, William T. Holderness, in Douglas County. Sidney Sr. operated the farm with his son, Sidney Jr., who was also a prominent Carrollton attorney. The Holderness farm was often referred to as the "Rabbit Farm" by family members, a name that derives from the rabbit hunting enjoyed by the family on the property. Before his death in 1939, Sidney Sr. persuaded his son to abandon the practice of law and to take on the complete management, control and operation of the family farm. After much persuasion, Sidney Jr. became a full-time farmer with the agreement that his father would equip the farm with the sufficient stock, tools, and implements to operate the farm and would leave it to him as his own after his death. However, Sidney Sr. failed to leave any written record of this father-son agreement and, at the time of his death, left a will appointing the First National Bank of Atlanta as executor and trustee of his estate. In 1940, Sidney Jr. and his sister Clare petitioned against First National Bank and by 1945 were granted the full land and mineral rights to all properties owned by their father. Petitioning on behalf of Sidney Jr. and Clare during this process was Alexander Stephens Mitchell, brother of Gone with the Wind author Margaret Mitchell. Sidney Holderness III provided supplementary information regarding the properties owned by his family members in a phone interview with the Graduate Research Assistant, Brian Crews, conducted in April 2014.

Georgia Death Certificate #16500.
Sidney Holderness died 18 July 1939 at the Piedmont Sanitarium in Atlanta, Fulton Co, GA, where he had been for five months. His residence was 48 Dixie Street, Carrollton, Carroll Co, GA. He died of prostate cance metastisized to the spinal cord. He was born 17 Apr 1864 in LaGrange, GA. He was married; his wife's name Ada Long, age 68. He was an Attorney-at-Law. His father was William Thomas Holderness, born Chipley, Florida; his mother Sarah Scott, born Meriwether County (?GA). The informant was Clare H. Pittman of Carrollton (his daughter). Buried on July 19th, City Cemetery, Carrollton.

Birth	17 Apr 1864	Georgia
Marriage	18 May 1892	Walker County, Alabama - Ada Clare Long
Death	18 Jul 1939
Burial		Carrollton City Cemetery, Carroll County, Georgia

Spouse	Ada Clare Long (1871 - 1940)
Child	Ben Scott Holderness (1895 - 1896)
Child	Clare Holderness (1897 - 1943)
Child	Sidney Holderness (1899 - 1974)

Father	William Thomas Holderness (1826 - 1893)
Mother	Sarah Jane Scott (1827 - 1909)
Sibling	Henry Scott Holderness (1853 - )
Sibling	Walter Holderness (1855 - )
Sibling	William T. "Will" Holderness (1859 - )