Lydia Wilson Holliday, 1802 – 1899

 

Lydia Wilson was born in Delaware on September 15, 1802.  At the age of 20, she married William R. Holliday and moved to Wheeling. William had been a farmer but after their marriage was associated with manufacturing and government interests. Lydia and William raised 7 children – 4 boys and 3 girls. Perhaps raising that many children led to a good knowledge of nursing, and Lydia put that knowledge to good use. Despite being nearly 60 years old at the time President Lincoln sent out a call for help during the Civil War, Lydia volunteered. She reportedly began at Wheeling Hospital but left soon after, commenting that the doctors there brought in “a bad sort of women” to nurse the sick, and she didn’t want to associate with their kind. She next volunteered as an Army nurse at the Sprigg House Hospital and then at the Atheneum Hospital, both in Wheeling.

 

Despite her age, she was called out to the battlefields and nursed soldiers during the first and second Winchester Battles and the Battle of Bull Run, often just back of the fighting line. She also cared for the wounded after the battles of Snickers Ford, Fisher’s Run, Opequan, and Cedar Creek. The soldiers affectionately called her “Mother” Holliday.

 

Lydia Holliday died in 1899 at the age of 92.  She was eulogized by West Virginia Governor G. W. Atkinson who stated that, “No other woman of our state played a more important part during the rebellion than Mother Holliday.”  General I.H. Duvall added, “Mother Holliday was a household name in our homes during and after the war closed and is a sacred legacy to West Virginians.”