INDEX TO
BIOGRAPHIES
JOHN W. HOLT
| John W. Holt, a successful general agriculturist and stock-raiser of section 36, Centreville Township, Linn County, is a self-made man and representative American citizen, and from small beginnings has with natural ability and unswerving industry steadily won his upward way to a comfortable competence and position of usefulness and influence. Mr. Holt is by birth an Ohio man, a native of Knox County, and was born September 16, 1838. His parents, Jonah and Betsy Elizabeth (Mathews) Holt, were the descendants of long lines of thrifty and hard-working ancestors. The father was born in Pennsylvania, and the mother, a native of the Buckeye State, was born, reared, educated and married in Knox County, where the parents continued to reside for a number of years. Finally they joined the steady stream of emigration to the further west and journeyed to Taxewell County, Ill., where after lives of care and busy toil they passed away mourned by many friends and relatives. Eight children had blessed their fireside and been cared for tenderly through the early years of infancy and childhood. The sons and daughters who clustered in the old home were: William, Sarah A., Fidelia, John W., Thomas, Jesse, Jonah and Carrie.
John W., reared to twelve years of age in the old Knox County home, attended the district school fo his birthplace, and was a sturdy lad when he accompanied his parents to Illinois, where he attained to manhood. When the Government issued its appeal for troops in the disastrous days of the Civil War, our subject patriotically responded, and with courage enlisted in August, 1862, in Company B, Seventy-third Illinois Infantry, serving with brave fidelity until the close of the war. At the fierce battle of Franklin, Tenn., he was twice knocked down, once by the concussion of a shell, and at another time by his gun being struck. Among the engagements in which Mr. Holt actively participated were the battles of Perryville, Ky., Stone River, Tenn., Chickamauga, Ga., Resaca, Ga., Kenesaw Mountain, the Atlanta campaign, Dallas, Ga., Peach Tree Creek, Ga., Atlanta and Jonesboro. Our subject also took part in the campaign after Generals Bragg, Johnston and Hood, and although constantly exposed to death and capture, escaped without any serious wound and, mustered out of service in Springfield, Ill., at the close of the war, returned at once to his home in Taxewell County. For the next few years Mr. Holt continued to till the soil of Illinois, but in 1870, in the spring of the year, located in Kansas, and renting land on Lost Creek, remained in that locality for two years. He then worked out by the month at farming during the busy seasons and in the winter labored at anything his hands could find to do. Carefully and prudently our subject managed to accumulate a small capital, which he invested in his present farm of one hundred and sixty – seven acres, now under fine cultivation and one of the most productive homesteads in the township. Mr. Holt has added improvements from time to time and owns good stock of a high grade. Before leaving Taxewell County, Ill., John W. Holt and Miss Louisa Kellog were united in marriage. This excellent lady, a native of Taxewell County, did not long survive, but lived to become the mother of one child, who died in infancy. The young mother also passed to her rest in the home of her youth. A second time entering the bonds of wedlock, our subject married in Centreville Township Miss Sarah Vinton. She was a native of the sunny south and was born in Mississippi. Of the large family which brightened the Kansas home seven children now survive. Macy is the only son; then follow in the order of their birth, Blanche, Mary, Bertha, Jesse, Maud, Ella and Elsie. The latter is now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Holt are valued members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and together with their family are active in the social and benevolent enterprises of their denomination and home neighborhood. Our subject, interested in both local and national issues, has held with efficient discharge of duty the position of Road Overseer. His record as a citizen, a soldier and business man is untarnished, and possessed of sterling integrity of character, John W. Holt receives the deserved confidence of his fellow-townsmen. (Portrait and Biographical Record of Southeastern Kansas, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County, Chicago, Biographical Publishing Co. 1894, Page 170 - 171, Transcribed by Lisa Smalley) |