HON. DWIGHT HOLLISTER

Sacramento County

Biographies

HON. DWIGHT HOLLISTER

HON. DWIGHT HOLLISTER.--The descendent of a long line of purely American ancestry, the founder of which migrated from England in 1642, the Honorable Dwight Hollister during his lifetime fully carried on the traditions of his family, and became a forty-niner of California, and later prominent in government offices in the state. His birth took place near Marietta, Ohio, September 27, 1824, his father, a native of Connecticut, having moved to Washington County, Ohio, near Marietta, in 1820, and there married, February 22, 1823. The mother was a native of the Emerald Isle, but was reared from childhood in Ohio.

Grandfather Roger Hollister was born in Connecticut May 23, 1771, and was there married to Miss Hannah Stratton, October 11, 1792; he was the fifth in descent from the Lieutenant John Hollister who was born in England in 1612 and migrated to Connecticut in 1642, and his wife's family, the Stratton's, were also American for several generations.

Dwight Hollister was educated in the district schools in Ohio and later took an academic course at Marietta. At the age of twenty years he began to work for himself and first became clerk in a dry-goods store, for about three years, and then did some flat-boat trading down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. On account of ill health he came to California by way of New York and around the Horn in 1848, primarily with the view of receiving some direct benefit from the long voyage. Learning at one of the South American ports that the discovery of gold in California was an assured fact, he hurried on to the gold Mecca and after arrival mined in Placer County for one year. His success was nothing phenomenal at mining, and he went to trading among the miners, and for another year he conducted a trading post and tavern in Placer County. A third year was spent in the position of hotel clerk in Sacramento. In 1852 he became a partner in the firm of White & Hollister, in the nursery business in Sacramento, which continued for twelve years. Meanwhile, in 1857, he returned to Marietta, and there married, on December 8, 1857, Nannie H. Alcock, a native of that city whose father was of English descent and whose mother was a native of Virginia.

Returning to California, Mr. Hollister purchased a ranch two miles from Courtland on the Sacramento River, where he spent the rest of his days. This ranch contained 600 acres, all bottom land and some of it too marshy for cultivation; he conducted a dairy of a hundred head of cows and raised all the feed necessary to keep the herd. But the great work of his life was in growing California fruits, and he was widely known and esteemed as the "pioneer fruit-grower" of the Delta country of Sacramento County and also of northern California, for as early as 1852 he first engaged in the nursery business and it was this foresight and faith in the undeveloped possibilities of California as the fruit-raising center of the world which brought him affluence, and the prominence due one whose keen judgment and strength of character led him to pioneer in so great and far reaching an industry.

Mr. Hollister was called upon to fill many offices of trust and responsibility, and though often at great personal inconvenience, he never shirked what he considered his duty to public life; he was elected to the legislature in the session of 1865, and again in 1884, and was known among his associates as a man true to the best interests of his section, fearless in expression of what constituted his idea of right, and tireless in efforts expended toward the legislation which best served the interests of his constituents. He was a Republican since the organization of the party. He was a Knight Templar of the Masonic Lodge for many years and to his death, which occurred September 7, 1904, at his home. He lies buried in Pioneer Cemetery at Sacramento.

Two sons blessed the union of Dwight Hollister and his wife; Edwin, who was president of the Bank of Courtland when it was founded, and whose death occurred shortly afterward; and Frank E., who still resides on the old home place and is a very influential and successful orchardist of Sacramento County; and one daughter came to the family hearth Blanche. It is to men of the caliber of the Hon. Dwight Hollister that so much of the present-day prosperity and beauty of our glorious state is due, and we gladly accord them all honor and praise for the stepping stones they so ably laid for future generations.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 829-830. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.