San Joaquin County
Biographies
HOLT BROTHERS
HOLT BROTHERS, of the
Stockton Wheel Company, established their factory here in 1883, for the
manufacture of wheels and other materials required in the making of carriages
and wagons, including hardware and trimmings, as well as the hardwood lumber.
The factory comprises a brick building, 46 x 102 feet, three stories, a frame
building, 44x84 feet, and a boiler and drying-room, 26 x 40 feet. They employ
about twenty-five men. In 1869 a branch of their Concord, New Hampshire, house
was established by Charles Henry Holt, who was soon joined by William Harrison
Holt, the goods being shipped from the Concord factory. In 1871 two other
brothers, A. Frank and Benjamin, were admitted into the firm. A. Frank
afterward became the resident partner in Concord, and died there about October
1, 1889. Benjamin, the resident partner in this city, was born in London,
Merrimac County, New Hampshire, January 1, 1849, a son of William Knox and
Harriet A. (Ames) Holt. The father, also a native of New Hampshire, a lumber
dealer for many years, died in that State, aged seventy-two; the mother, a
native of Canterbury, New Hampshire, died at the age of fifty-eight.
Grandfather Benjamin Holt, also born in New Hampshire, of English ancestry, by
occupation a farmer, died at the age of ninety, and his wife, by birth Anna
Knox, lived to be eighty-six. Grandfather Ames and his wife, by birth an Ayres,
lived to be eighty-seven and seventy-eight, respectively.
The subject of this sketch, educated first
in the public schools and then in a boarding-school for three years, went into
his father’s factory at Concord at the age of twenty, and was given an interest
in the business in 1871. In 1883 he came to California and took charge of the
factory in this city.
Charles Henry Holt, who is in charge of
the business in San Francisco, established by him in 1869, was born in New
Hampshire, in October, 1843. After receiving his education he became a
book-keeper in Boston, at about the age of twenty. He went to New York city a
year later and there filled a similar position for another year, when he came
to California. He spent some few months in San Francisco, when he went to
Hydesville, Humboldt County, where he taught school about three years.
Returning to San Francisco, he established the branch house already mentioned,
and was there married, in 1872, to Miss Nettie Finch, a native of New Jersey.
They have three children: Grace, Carter and Edith.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Page 644. Lewis Pub. Co.
Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
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