WILLIAM FRANKLIN HOLT

Los Angeles County

Biographies

WILLIAM FRANKLIN HOLT

HOLT, WILLIAM FRANKLIN, Capitalist, Redlands, California, was born in Mercer County, Missouri, January 18, 1864, the son of James Holt and Nancy (Brantley) Holt. He married Fannie Jones at Galt, Missouri, August 16, 1885, and to them were born two daughters, Chloe and Catharine Holt.

Mr. Holt, who was born on a farm, was a hard worker in his youth and the only schooling he received was a few months’ attendance at the country schools each Winter. He remained on the farm until he was twenty-one years of age, when he decided to go into business for himself.

His first venture, a general merchandise establishment in a small Missouri town, proved unsuccessful financially, but in the five years he was thus engaged he acquired a valuable fund of knowledge as to business affairs and when he sold out his store was well equipped for subsequent efforts. He next went into the banking business in Missouri and conducted his bank for four years very successfully. He determined to leave Missouri, however, and in 1892, after selling out his bank, went to Colorado, where he worked for a few years in the employ of a large manufacturing concern.

Upon severing his connection with this house, Mr. Holt went to Southeastern Arizona and established banking houses at Safford and Globe. He became one of the leading business men in both of these places and during the four years he operated there was regarded as one of the most successful and enterprising men of the section.

In 1900 he sold out his Arizona interests and moved to Redlands, California, where he began a career of development that has placed him among the wealthiest men of the section and fixed him as one of the most effective modern upbuilders who have ever operated in California or any other part of the West. He became interested in the famous Imperial Valley of California with his arrival at Redlands and immediately began the work of placing it among the great producing sections of the country. Being possessed of considerable wealth, a wonderful business experience and unlimited energy, he embarked in a work, which, at the end of twelve years, stands out sharply in the history of Western development.

He has not confined his activities to banking, or any other single line of progress, but has engaged in a general career of upbuilding which includes practically all phases of modern industry, both agricultural and manufacturing. He saw early the possibilities of the valley and the necessity for a railroad and understood the building of the first line ever projected to that fertile section of California. He was really the first man to appreciate the value of Imperial Valley, but it was not long before the eyes of others were opened, and before he had his railroad completed the Southern Pacific Company made him an offer for it which he could not ignore and he sold the line.

Assured that the railroad would be put through and the country opened up to settlement and development, Mr. Holt then turned his attention to other lines and there stand today, as monuments to his work, scores of prosperous enterprises begun by him. He organized five banks in the five principal towns of Imperial Valley and, with his previous experience in this field, placed all of them upon a paying basis within a very short time. He also led in the organization of numerous business enterprises, including the organization of a telephone company and the construction of a telephone system throughout the valley.

Mr. Holt, in due time, started several newspapers, which advertised to the world the advantages of the Imperial Valley, and, as in all of his other ventures, took an active part in the management and direction of them. He established several dairies and built creameries, which are today supplying a large part of the dairy products consumed in Los Angeles and other parts of California, and when the lands began to produce fruits and other crops in abundance, he built a number of packing houses. Here the products of the Valley are prepared for shipment to the outside world, cantaloupes being the chief of them.

As the country grew in population Mr. Holt installed other utilities, including the Holton Interurban Railway, which crosses the Valley. He also built electric lighting plants in the five leading towns of the section, and supplemented these with gas and power plants, so that the residents of Imperial Valley, living in a beautiful country, enjoy all the comforts of the modern city. He caused the installation of adequate water systems and also laid out and supervised the construction of a splendid system of highways which make travel easy and pleasant and compare favorably with any roadways in the country.

Several years ago it will be remembered, the Colorado River broke its banks and cut a new channel, and for two years or so poured its waters in the Salton Sink, ultimately forming what is now known as “Salton Sea,” a great inland body of water approximately fifty miles long, fifteen miles wide and 100 feet deep at its central point. It was finally turned back into its channel by a wonderful piece of engineering work, done under the direction of Col. Epes Randolph of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and after more than a million dollars had been expended in vain efforts.

This break came at a time when the vast work of reclamation and improvement in the Imperial Valley, headed by Mr. Holt, was gaining its greatest momentum and untold damage was done to the section. Only the ultimate checking of the river prevented the complete destruction of this valley, which is now one of the most remarkable sections in the United States, if not in the world, where the desert has been transformed into ranches and thriving cities. Mr. Holt, perhaps, was the greatest loser in that disastrous period, but he did not reckon on his losses as much as he did those of the settlers who had been attracted to the country, and he devoted himself tirelessly to rebuilding where the flood had wrought ruin.

The break of the Colorado, together with the part played in its repair and the upbuilding of the Imperial Valley, was made the climactic feature of the remarkable story written by Harold Bell Wright, himself a resident of the Valley, under the title of “The Winning of Barbara Worth.” In this work, Mr. Wright has painted a wonderful picture of the Imperial Valley and the most commanding figure of the story, a banker named “Jefferson Worth,” is generally supposed to have been drawn from the life of Mr. Holt. The author, in his foreword, dedicated the work to Mr. Holt in the following terms:

“To my friend, Mr. W. F. Holt, in appreciation of his life and of his work in the Imperial Valley, this story is inscribed.”

Those familiar with the career of Mr. Holt in the Imperial Valley recognize him in the character of “Jefferson Worth” at once, for in various places in the story the author has sketched his character with the utmost faithfulness. Early in the story he shows the kindly side of his character, when the banker adopts the infant Barbara, a waif of the desert, and as the story goes on, he shows in turn the man’s genius for finance, his power as an organizer and his influence for the upbuilding of the country.

Interwoven in the story of Barbara Worth is that of the winning of the desert and of a battle between two great financial powers, one headed by “Jefferson Worth,” the other by a Eastern magnate, and the description of the first stages of the reclamation work is a fair statement of the idea in Mr. Holt’s mind when he first went into Imperial Valley. The author says:

“Lying within the lines of the ancient beach and thus below the level of the great river, were hundreds of thousands of acres equal in richness of soil to the famous delta lands of the Nile. The bringing of water from the river and its distribution through a system of canals and ditches, while a work of great magnitude requiring the expenditure of large sums of money, was, as an engineering problem, comparatively simple.

“As Jefferson Worth gazed at the wonderful scene, a vision of the changes that were to come to that land passed before him. He saw first, following the nearly finished work of the engineers, an army of men beginning at the river and pushing out into the desert with their canals, bringing with them the life-giving water. Soon, with the coming of the water, would begin the coming of the settlers. Hummocks would be leveled, washes and arroyos filled, ditches would be made to the company’s canals, and in place of the thin growth of gray-green desert vegetation with the ragged patches of dun earth would come great fields of luxuriant alfalfa, billowing acres of grain, with miles upon miles of orchards, vineyards and groves. The fierce desert life would give way to the herds and flocks and home life of the farmer. The railroad would stretch its steel strength into this new world; towns and cities would come to be where now was only solitude and desolation; and out from this world-old treasure house vast wealth would pour to enrich the peoples of the earth.”

These things have actually come to pass, and Mr. Holt was the chief factor in bringing them about.

Closely following the above quoted passage, the author wrote a brief resume of the forces that had gone toward the conquering of the West prior to the advent of “Jefferson Worth,” and also included a brief biography of the man which corresponds closely with that of Mr. Holt. Then follows a clearly drawn pen picture of the character of the subject, one part of which reads:

“Business, to this man, as to many of his kind, was not the mean, sordid grasping and hoarding of money. It was his profession, but it was even more than a profession; it was the expression of his genius. Still more it was, through him, the expression of the age in which he lived, the expression of the master passion that in all ages had wrought in the making of the race.”

This, too, is a fair summary of the business motives of Mr. Holt, whose talents and resources have been used in the development of the vast country he aided in upbuilding after having worked his own way from the station of farmboy to that of financier.

In the working out of Mr. Wright’s story of the financing of the many commercial and industrial projects incident to the reclamation and upbuilding of the Imperial Valley the works of Mr. Holt are closely paralleled and the author paints in picturesque colors the dramatic part played by the banker during the trying period of inundation which seriously threatened to ruin all that had been accomplished.

Needless to say, Mr. Holt is an extensive owner of real estate and agricultural lands in the Imperial Valley, but he has conducted this end of his enterprises with as much regard for the general good and growth of the country as for his own profit. For instance, he built more than fifty brick business buildings in the various towns o the Valley and rented them at moderate rates in order to encourage the establishment of good business houses and thus add to the general improvement of conditions.

This tells but briefly of the work done by Mr. Holt in behalf of the Imperial Valley, but serves to show the extent of his activities and the fact that he was the chief spirit in the building of this great section, installing all the improvements necessary to the development of a new country.

The Imperial Valley, however, has not been the only place where he has built for progress, for in the Palo Verde and Coachella valleys he has also operated to a large extent. As in the case of the former, he has helped to give to these two last named sections the benefits of modern invention and is today one of the most active factors in the work of improving them.

The development of Imperial Valley, however, and the successful operations of new business enterprises he considers the principal part of his life work. Having begun life as a farmer, he is an expert on agricultural matters and has done a great deal to make the lands of his particular section produce crops in abundance.

Mr. Holt’s one object since locating in California has been to place its fertile valleys in a position where they will not only compare favorably with the agricultural sections of other parts of the world, but excel them. Development work has been almost a passion with him and he has had little time for interests other than those which fitted in with his general plans for improving the country and populating it. For this reason he has never taken much part in politics, and, although he could probably have any office within the gift of the people of his section, he has never sought nor held public position.

Mr. Holt today ranks among the leading financiers of Southern California and has been the organizer of numerous corporations which have proved successful. He is President of seven of these, an officer in various others and hold stock in scores of others. The corporations in which he holds the office of President include the Holton Power Company, the Holton Interurban Railway Company, Imperial Valley Gas Company, Coachella Valley Ice and Electric Company, Seeley Township Company and the Los Angeles Fire Insurance Company.

In all of these enterprises Mr. Holt is the executive force and he takes an active part in the affairs of each. Owing to his wide experience in various lines of business, he is exceptionally well qualified to handle the affairs of these companies and it is due, in great measure, to his ability as an organizer and business manager that they have proved successful.

Although he has accomplished in a few years as much in the way of progress as many other men have in a lifetime of effort, Mr. Holt, who still is in the prime of life and possessed of wonderful vigor, has plans for further development work which will keep him in active business life for many years to come. Unlike many men of accomplishment, his chief characteristic is an extreme modesty, which has prevented his work from being generally known, although he enjoys a business standing equal to that of any man on the Pacific Coast.

He is not a clubman as the term is generally used, but is a prominent figure in fraternal circles, being a member of the Masons, Knights Templar and the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Elks.

Transcribed 6-18-08 Marilyn R. Pankey.

Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Pages 69-70, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.

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