Contra
Costa County
Biographies
CHARLES
HIRAM HOLLIDAY
CHARLES HIRAM HOLLIDAY. Among the business men of Pinole mention must
be made of Charles Hiram Holliday, who is successfully conducting a meat market
in this place. He is the son of Beverly
R. Holliday, whose sketch appears in another part of this volume. He was born in Martinez, Cal., May 31,
1858, and was reared and educated in that location. When only fifteen years old he took up the responsibilities
of life by accepting work on the ranches in the neighborhood, in which work he
continued until his twenty-fifty year.
He then began renting land, being located on a ranch at San Miguel, San
Luis Obispo county, where he also carried on a
market. Two years later he sold out and
returned to Martinez, where he worked as a butcher for three years. Purchasing then a half interest with George
Kilpatrick, he worked in this association for the ensuing two years, when he
also disposed of that interest and located in Pinole, which has since remained
his home. In 1896 he bought out Manuel Lema and established a market which he has since conducted
with marked success. In addition to his
business interests he has served acceptably as town recorder for two terms.
The marriage of Mr. Holliday united
him with Emma Christian, born in California, the daughter of George W.
Christian, now deceased. Born of this
union were five children, namely: Violet K., bookkeeper for the Oakland
Gas & Electric Light Company; Charles H., Jr., a delivery clerk
in the employ of his father; Percy, a student; and Jennie and Albert, who died
in youth. In fraternal organizations
Mr. Holliday is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees, the U.P.E.C. and
Pinole Lodge No. 335, F. & A. M., having served officially in the last
named organization. Both himself and wife are also connected with the Eastern Star.
[Inserted by D. Toole]
HOLLIDAY
ARTICLES:
Charles
H. Holliday
1917 Sep 3, Berkeley Daily Gazette, P4,
Berkeley, California
List of 150 Men Included in Fourth Call
in District One
Notice of Call and to Appear for
Physical Examination
Local Board for Division No. 1, City of
Berkeley, State of California, 3004 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley, Cal.
The following named persons are hereby
notified that, pursuant to the Act of Congress approved May 18, 1917, they
are called for military service of the United States by this Local Board. The Serial number and the order number of
each of such person is shown below. They will report at the office of this Local
Board for physical examination on the 6th day of September, 1917, at 8 o’clock
a.m.
<snipped>
Order No. Serial No. Name Address
on Registration Card
<snipped>
735 1760 Charles Hiram Holliday 2310 Sixth Street [Berkeley]
1931 Dec 22, Berkeley Daily Gazette,
P18, Berkeley, California
Pacific Grove Man Dies on Visit Here
Charles Hiram Holliday, 73, of Pacific
Grove passed away yesterday at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Clarence G.
Betz, 1535 Delaware Street. He had been
ill since coming to Berkeley two weeks ago to visit his daughter. Mr. Holliday was a native of Martinez and
lived there for many years, going to Pacific Grove 10 years ago. At one time he lived in Berkeley and has been
a visitor here frequently. He was a
retired business man. Surviving are his
widow, Mrs. Emma M. Holliday; a daughter, Mrs. Betz, and two sons,
Charles H. Holliday of Berkeley and Eugene P. Holliday of
Calistoga. Funeral services will be held
Thursday afternoon at 2 o’clock at Curry’s Chapel, Martinez. Interment will be in Sunset View Cemetery.
1953 Jan 25, Oakland Tribune, P90,
Oakland, California
Mrs. Holliday, Bay Resident 92 Years,
Dies
Berkeley, Jan. 24 – Mrs. Emma Mary
Holliday died here today after living her lifetime of 92 years in Alameda
and Contra Costa Counties. The only girl
in a family with seven brothers, she was born near San Pablo where her father,
George Christian, was a pioneer settler.
He operated a blacksmith shop when the town was a tiny Spanish
settlement. She was married 70 years
ago in Martinez to Charles Hiram Holliday, who died 21 years ago. Their married life was spent in Martinez,
Pinole and Berkeley. Since his death she
has lived with a daughter, Mrs. Violet Betz, of 1535 Delaware
Street. She also leaves a son, Charles
Holliday of Richmond, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Ben Christian of Pinole is her only surviving
brother. A charter member of the Pinole
chapter of Eastern Star, she would have celebrated a half century of membership
next month. Services will be held
Tuesday at 11 a.m. at the Ellis-Olsen Chapel, 727 San Pablo Avenue,
Albany.
Father,
Beverly Richmond Holliday
History of Contra Costa County, California with
Biographical Sketches of The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development from the Early Days to the Present; Illustrated;
Complete in One Volume; Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1926.
Page 225.
On August 15, 1908, in the Alhambra
Valley, Beverly R. Holliday passed over the Great Divide. He was a pioneer of 1849 and the first
educator in Martinez, where he opened the first seminary in 1850. He was born in Warren County, Ky., December 22,
1823. From 1840 to 1849 he taught school
in Illinois. In March, 1849, he set out
across the plains with ox-teams, and in January of 1850 he came to Contra Costa
County. He was elected justice of the
peace in 1850 and was chosen as one of the associate judges of the Court of
Sessions in 1854. In 1853 he engaged in
farming, and he was a pioneer in fruit culture.
In 1858 he subscribed funds to help found the Gazette. He married Jane A. Holliday August 19,
1855, and left six children.
Page 285
Chapter XVIII, Educational, Early
Martinez Schools
The first school in Martinez, in the
early part of 1850, was taught by Beverly R. Holliday. Holliday had his first experience in
school-teaching in Illinois, at the early age of fifteen years. After coming to Martinez, he passed an
examination and was declared qualified to teach. His school at first consisted of five or six
pupils from two or three families. These
pupils gathered in the Blossom house, later known as the Gift house, near Thomas
Hill, at the entrance of Bay View Park.
During the two terms that Holliday taught the number of pupils increased
from six to twenty-six. In the fall of
1850 Holliday was succeeded by M. Laughlin. <snipped>
Page 578
December 22, 1823. When but two years of
age he was taken by his parents to White Hall, Greene county, Illinois, and
there resided until 1832, when they removed to Morgan county, in the same
State, where our subject received his education in the common schools, learned
the trade of wool carder (at which he worked until 1840), and dwelt until
coming to the Pacific Coast. Was engaged
in teaching from 1840 to 1849, in Scott county,
Illinois. In March, 1849, Mr. Holliday joined a company bound for the Land of
Gold, and traveling, with ox-teams, by the Old Emigrant Route, arrived at
Johnson's ranch, Placer county, October 1st, of the
same year. Thence he proceeded to the mines on the American river, where,
however, he remained only a short time. We next find him engaged in getting out
lumber, in the San Antonio redwoods — lumber being, at that time, worth four
hundred and fifty dollars per thousand lineal feet. In January, 1850, he came
to Martinez, where he was employed, at seventy-five dollars per month, to take
charge of the school at that place — it being the first seminary opened in
Contra Costa county, with an average attendance of six
pupils, which increased in six months to twenty-six pupils. Here Mr. Holliday
continued "to teach the young idea how to shoot" until the Fall of 1850. In December, 1850, he opened a dry-goods and
grocery store — firm name, Hunsaker & Co. — and
continued in that business three years, during which time he also acted as
Deputy Treasurer of the County, under Judge D. Hunsaker.
In 1850 he was also elected Justice of
the Peace, an office he filled until 1854, and was chosen one of the Associate
Justices of the Court of Sessions, which was abolished in 1855. Our subject now
turned his attention to farming, and first located on the property now owned by
Mr. Blum, near the farm of N. B. Smith, where he resided until
1867, and then moved into Franklin canon, one mile from Martinez, and located
on public land, where he resided until 1875, when he purchased his present
place of sixty-four acres, three miles from Martinez, where he is now engaged
chiefly in fruit culture. He married, in Lafayette, August 19, 1855, Jane
A. Holliday, a native of Pennsylvania, and has six surviving children — Mary J.
(now Mrs. Thomas Scott), Charles H., William B., Minerva L, Eliza E., George Edwin.
Transcribed by Donna Toole.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 1026. The Chapman Publishing
Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Donna Toole.
Contra Costa County Biographies