WILLIAM HARRISON HOLLIDAY

Los Angeles County

Biographies

WILLIAM HARRISON HOLLIDAY

HOLLIDAY, WILLIAM HARRISON, Banker, Los Angeles, Cal., was born at St. Louis, Mo., July 27, 1863. His father was Samuel Newton Holliday and his mother Maria (Fithian) Holliday. He married Flora Adeline Baldwin at Los Angeles, October 3, 1889, and to them was born one child, Maria Louise Holliday. Mr. Holliday received his early education in the schools of St. Louis and upon completion of his studies there went to Phillips Exeter Academy to prepare for university work. Graduating from the Academy in 1881 he entered Harvard University the following year and was graduated in 1886. Upon completion of his education Mr. Holliday went on a tour of Europe. He remained abroad for an entire year, visiting practically everyplace of interest in the Old World, and then returned to the United States.

His first employment was in a bank, and the story of his career, beginning there, is the chronicle of a financier growing up with the business. He went to Los Angeles upon his return to his native land, and in May, 1887, became a bookkeeper in the Farmers and Merchants’ Bank of that city. He remained there for two months and then took charge of the books of the old Southern California National Bank of Los Angeles.

When the Southern California National Bank was succeeded by the Merchants’ National Bank, Mr. Holliday went along with the assets and good will, and has been with that bank ever since, a matter of more than 24 years. In quick succession he went from the bookkeeper’s desk to the teller’s window, from that to assistant cashier, and in 1895 he was made cashier of the institution. This office he held until 1906, when he was elected president of the bank, a trust he has administrated to the present. That, in a few words, is the story of how Mr. Holliday rose to the top of his profession and acquired the knowledge which makes him one of the leading financiers of the West, but it does not tell the whole story of his activity in the commercial and banking life of the city of his adoption, for he has not confined himself, in later years, to directing the affairs of one bank. Instead, he is interested in a multitude of concerns and the busy life he leads may be gleaned from the following lists:

He is president of the First National Bank of Covina, Cal., and is on the Board of Directors of the Security Savings Bank of Los Angeles, the First National Bank of Azusa, Cal.; First National Bank of Glendale, Cal., and the First National Bank of Artesia, Cal.; Title Guarantee and Trust Co. of Los Angeles, and Globe Grain and Milling Co. of the same city.

The banks in which Mr. Holliday is interested form a financial chain in and around Los Angeles and control many millions of dollars, in the administration of which he is a powerful factor.

In addition to the above, other financial associations have claimed much of his attention. For one term he was President and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles Clearing House Association, preceding Mr. Stoddard Jess in that office.

With one exception Mr. Holliday is the oldest active banker, in point of service, in the City of Los Angeles. He has been continually in harness for nearly a quarter of a century, and with the exception of the two months he put in with the Farmers and Merchants’ Bank when he first went to Los Angeles, has been connected all that time with the same house.

Individually and as a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Holliday has aided greatly in the upbuilding and modernizing of Los Angeles and is regarded as one of its civic leaders.

He is a thirty-second degree Mason, a Mystic Shriner and a member of the California and the Los Angeles Country Clubs.

Transcribed 7-18-08 Marilyn R. Pankey.

Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 114, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.

GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES

GOLDEN NUGGET INDEX