San Joaquin County
Biographies
ISAAC DANA HOLDEN
ISAAC DANA HOLDEN, druggist of
Stockton, was born in Boston, October 20, 1843, a son of Erastus
S. and Jane E. (Dana) Holden. His mother, born in Watertown, Massachusetts,
December 19, 1817, a daughter of Isaac and Hannah Dana, was married about 1840,
died in Boston about 1852, leaving one surviving child, the subject of this
sketch. Grandfather Isaac Dana, who was the son of John, who
was the son of Richard, from England, who arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
in 1640. His father, Erastus Saurin Holden, for many years a prominent citizen of
Stockton, was born in Maine, about 1813. E. S. Holden received the usual
education of that period and was afterward graduated from the Massachusetts
College of Pharmacy, and brought up to the business of a druggist in Boston. He
was married about 1840, and continued in his business of druggist in Boston
until seized by the gold fever, when he left Boston late in 1849 for
California, arriving in San Francisco early in 1850. He went to the mining
district of Sonora and spent some little time prospecting, but soon returned to
San Francisco and organized the wholesale drug house of Reddington
& Co., consisting of John H. Reddington, Charles
Story and himself. The firm was dissolved in 1852, Mr. Holden receiving as his
share in the distribution among other things the branch stores in Sonora and
Stockton. He had settled in this city in 1852 in charge of this branch, and
afterward established a wholesale business to facilitate trade with the
southern mines. Besides his drug business Mr. Holden was interested in a larger
local enterprise of the period. He was vice-president
of the Western Pacific Railroad from its inception, and originator of the
Stockton & Copperopolis Railroad, as well as of the Stockton & Ione Railroad. He was one of the original promoters of the
San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Society, and its president for several years,
and chief contributor to the special library in the old Agricultural Hall, and
was a correspondent of the more prominent agricultural papers. He owned several
farms within a radius of five miles from Stockton, aggregating perhaps 1,500
acres. He imported valuable stock into this county, and came to be regarded as
an authority not only on stock but on general agricultural and horticulture as
well. He was first vice-president of the State Agricultural Society in 1856;
president of the board of directors of the State Insane Asylum for three years;
a commissioner of the Yosemite valley for several
years, and one of the original locators of the Copperopolis mines. He built in
this city what was regarded as a model residence for the period, a brick house
of nine rooms, among the first large houses of that material in the city, with
highly cultivated grounds covering a whole square. He imported plants from
Mexico and Japan for the ornamentation of his grounds; bored one of the first
artesian wells for irrigation and household purposes. Mr. Holden filled the
office of Mayor of this city for six years or more. He was also interested in
quartz-mining for a time, but his favorite specialty was railroad building, in
which he was a bold and fortunate operator. It is said he was offered $300,000
to step out of the Western Pacific Railroad, which he declined. He was married
in this city about 1854, to Miss Maria M. Lyon, born about 1840, a daughter of
Captain Lemuel Lyon, United States consul to Japan
under President Grant’s administration. Her mother died comparatively young and
the children were sent for by her father, who was a sea captain. They came to
California about 1852, and settled with him in this city for some years. He
afterward moved to Oregon, from which State he was appointed as consul to
Japan, where he died at the age of about seventy years. Mr. Holden’s health
being broken down, chiefly from over-work, he moved to San Francisco with his
second family, in 1880, and died in that city, August 11, 1885, leaving three
sons: Wilson F., Erastus and Warren P., who with
their mother are still residents of that city.
The subject of this sketch, I. D. Holden, upon the death of his mother in 1852, found a home with his aunt, Miss Emma Dana, until he came out to rejoin his father in 1856. About 1860, he entered his father’s drug store on the corner of Maine and El Dorado streets in this city, where he remained as clerk, manager and proprietor ever since. He studied the business theoretically and practically, and has been sole proprietor since 1879, conducting it with great success.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 397-399. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
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