The Story of John McCay Holzendorf Sr.

Just north of Kingsland, off of a dirt road on property owned by the Kingsland Hunting Club, lies a historic burial ground known as Holzendorff Cemetery.  Sometimes called Holzendorff Cemetery #1, the 3.4-acre area holds over 1000 grave sites dating back over two centuries.  Wooden crosses that dot the cemetery’s landscape mark the graves of the formerly enslaved and their descendants who lived on one of the nearby plantations of Berne, Bencefield, and Cona owned by members of the Holzendorf Family. One of the people buried here is John McCay Holzendorf Sr., a once enslaved African American who became a Georgia state legislator and Civil Rights pioneer.

John McCay Holzendorf Sr., born in 1858 on either the Berne or Bencefield Plantations, was owned by John L. K. Holzendorf, a former Camden County Inferior Court Justice. Listed in the 1870 county census as a 12-year-old “mulatto”(a person with one Black and one White parent), J.M. Holzendorf Sr.’s parentage is unclear since he is listed in the census as living with James and Elizabeth True Blood, both listed as Black (however, records infer that he and two of his siblings are direct descendants of the Holzendorf family). Holzendorf most likely attended the school located on the Berne Plantation that began in 1867 to educate the recently emancipated African Americans and help them learn a trade. He married Lucilla Way in 1879 and, by 1880, moved to Jeffersonton, GA. The couple had five children: James, John M. Jr., Chester, Daisy, and Lenora.

The years following the Civil War in Camden County were unusual politically for African Americans compared to other parts of Georgia and the South. Reconstruction in the county saw many formerly enslaved people expand their freedoms, with more African Americans registering to vote and eventually outnumbering White registered voters by 1868. These formerly enslaved persons slowly began to see the strength of their voting power actualized in the years following Reconstruction. Three formerly enslaved African Americans –Thomas Butler, who served from 1879-1881; Anthony Wilson, 1881-1882 and 1884-1887; and John M. Holzendorf, 1890-1892 – successfully represented Camden County in the Georgia House of Representatives despite numerous obstacles. Increased threats, abuse, and legal intimidation swirled around them as the growing reversal of African-American rights occurred due to Jim Crow laws ratified within the state between 1865 and 1877. Despite this hostile climate, John M. Holzendorf Sr. and the other two representatives rose to power to represent the citizens of Camden County. 

Holzendorf officially began his political career at age 35 when he won the Camden County Representative election in October 1890 and was sworn into the Georgia State Legislature on November 5, 1890. One of only two African American legislators that session, he served on the Education and Special Agriculture committees. A proponent of Civil Rights and well-regarded by his community, he obtained permission for a representative from the Negro Alliance to speak on the State House floor in opposition to a Jim Crow bill  that railroad companies provide “separate but equal” rail and street car accommodations for their passengers. One of his colleagues sponsored the bill after a riot occurred when five Black preachers, on their way to a Christian convention, attempted to board a railcar occupied by Whites. He later changed his vote but proposed an amendment to the bill that forbade Whites and Blacks from entering the other’s railcars. Despite Holzendorf’s efforts, the bill, as it was, still passed in 1891. Holzendorf \ ran for two additional offices – the Georgia State Senate in 1892 and again for State Representative for the Georgia State Legislature in 1893– but lost both election bids.

In addition to serving as a state legislator, Holzendorf Sr. became a successful farmer, school teacher, and landowner. Throughout his life, Holzendorf owned approximately 900 acres and operated a profitable timber business and sawmill for many years. He is believed to have died around 1913. One of his sons, John M. McCay Jr., would eventually be appointed the Customs Collector for the Port of St. Mary’s by President Theodore Roosevelt.