San
Joaquin County
Biographies
PLINY E. HOLT
When the history of motorized
artillery is written, Pliny E. Holt and the Stockton plant of the Holt
Manufacturing Company will be accredited with much of the success in
modernizing the United States field and coast artillery. Pliny E. Holt was born in Loudon, Merrimack
County, New Hampshire on August 27, 1872, a son of W. Harrison Holt, the eldest
of the four brothers who were the founders of The Holt Manufacturing Company,
the other brothers being Charles H., A. Frank, and Benjamin, sons of William R.
Holt, who owned and operated a sawmill and lumber business in Merrimack County,
New Hampshire. W. Harrison and Charles
H. Holt came to California in the late ‘60s.
These two brothers saw the opportunity to bring hardwood lumber from the
east and sell it at a profit, and in 1871 the Holt Brothers Company was
established in San Francisco, conducting a wholesale business in hardwood
lumber and wagon wheels. W. Harrison
Holt returned to New England to handle the eastern end of the business. In 1873 a factory was built in Concord, New
Hampshire, for the manufacture of spokes, hubs, felloes, wheels, bodies and
running gear, and in 1883 the Stockton factory was established for the
assembling of the wheels. In the
meantime, W. Harrison Holt had removed to Tiffin, Ohio, to look after the
lumber interests of the company, which were under his personal supervision
until the early ‘80s, when he retired from active interest in the company and
moved to Minnesota, where he resided until shortly before his death which
occurred in Stockton in 1903.
Pliny E. Holt was ten years of age
when his parents removed to Minnesota, and as a lad attended the public schools
and when he had finished high school entered the University of Minnesota,
working his way through by conducting an electrical repair shop in the
afternoons and attending his classes in the forenoons. On February 15, 1896, he became associated
with The Holt Manufacturing Company and from that date until 1906 he was
connected with the company in various capacities, generally in the engineering
department. During these ten years, he
was closely associated with his uncle, Benjamin Holt, the president of the
company and its inventive genius, and took a very active and important part in
all the experimental and development work of the company, the “Caterpillar”
Tractor being the principal product.
In 1905 Pliny E. Holt became the
president of the Aurora Engine Company, which was later incorporated in The
Holt Manufacturing Company, this company supplying the gas engines used in the
Holt gas tractors. During the years of
1905-09 he was treasurer of the Houser-Haines Company of Stockton. In 1909 he went to Peoria, Illinois, and
established the Holt Caterpillar Company and purchased the Colean
plant for the manufacture of the “Caterpillar” Tractor. During the year of 1913, a consolidation was
brought about whereby the Holt Manufacturing Company absorbed the Holt
Caterpillar Company of Peoria, Illinois, the Houser-Haines Manufacturing
Company of Stockton, the Daniel Best Manufacturing Company of San Leandro and
the Aurora Engine Company of Stockton.
Mr. Holt then returned to Stockton and was made vice-president and
general manager of the company.
Early in the Great War, Mr. Holt
retired from the management of the company and decided to take a well-earned
rest, but when the United States entered the war he went to Washington, D. C.
to offer his services to the government in the emergency and remained there in
charge of important work until after the armistice was signed.
England and France had already
adopted the use of the “Caterpillar” Tractor for hauling their heavy artillery
and supplies and this innovation in military equipment had proven so successful
that the use of these tractors by our own Army was determined upon as one of
the very first steps in this country’s preparation to participate in the
conflict.
During the time Mr. Holt was in
Washington, he not only supervised the design and building of the “Caterpillar”,
ten-ton, five-ton, and two and one-half-ton artillery tractors, but also made
the preliminary study of the one-man tank, which was later built by the Ford
Company. He also supervised the work of
preliminary design of the 150-ton tank and started work on the 1,500-ton tank,
at the request of the Naval Consulting Board, which work was finally completed
in conjunction with the engineers of the Westinghouse Company.
In his early connection with the
Government work, Mr. Holt continued his connection with The Holt Manufacturing
Company and his association with the work was in the nature of an offering of
his personal services and those of the company for any disposition that might
be of great value to the Government.
Later, as Mr. Holt’s mechanical and inventive genius came to be more
fully recognized, it became desirable for him to sever his connection with the
company for the remainder of the war and devote his entire time and energy to
Government work. He was offered a
commission, which, after considerable consideration, he declined, feeling that
he could be of great service in a civilian capacity. Gen. C. C. Williams, Chief of Ordnance, then
appointed him to serve in a civilian capacity as chairman of the board
organized to handle the production of the “Caterpillar” Artillery program. This appointment became effective July 3,
1918, and Mr. Holt immediately took up the work of developing the “Caterpillar”
idea from that of a tractor used to haul artillery, to that of a self-contained
unit, the gun being mounted directly on the tractor. The first of this kind was the “Caterpillar”
Mark I-Gun Mount, which carried an eight-inch Howitzer, weighing 58,000 pounds
and had a road speed of one to four miles per hour. The “Mark II” and “Mark III” were developed
later. The “Mark IV” was a slight
departure from the other models. The
armistice was signed about the time the first four models were completed. The astounding success of these machines
indicated that they would constitute the coming type of artillery.
Mr. Holt then returned to California
to continue this work at the Stockton plant of The Holt Manufacturing Company,
and the “Mark VII” was designed and built there during 1919. This mount carried a seventy-five millimeter
gun and achieved a speed of eighteen miles per hour. Later this mount was equipped with a
water-proofed motor, which enabled it to travel at a considerable depth under
water, making it possible to cross rivers.
The “Mark VI” was also completed early in 1921 and in test runs reached
a speed of thirty-one miles per hour, a test run being made from Stockton to
San Francisco and return which was successful.
Firing tests of the Howitzer were successfully made at Fort Scott. It means much to Stockton to be the home of
such an achievement and this city may well feel proud of Pliny E. Holt and the
service he has given his country. As a
result of his zeal and loyalty, America today is in a position, of occasion
should demand, to launch a war program of artillery construction which no other
nation in the world can match on short notice.
Mr. Holt is now in charge of all
engineering work at the Holt plant, taking up the work of the late Benjamin
Holt. He was the first president of the
Good Roads Association of California and is a pioneer in the development of
highways which have made California famous all over the world. During the years when he was first connected
with The Holt Manufacturing Company in an executive capacity, he was
vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce of Stockton.
Mr. Holt’s marriage united him with
Miss Florence Guernsey, a native of Stockton and a daughter of a San Joaquin
County pioneer, and they are the parents of four children, Pliny Guernsey,
Frank Harrison, Richard Eastman, and Harriet.
Fraternally he belongs to the Morning Star Blue Lodge of Masons and all
branches of Masonry, including Aahmes Temple of Oakland; is a member of the
Stockton Elks, the Rotary Club, being one of the first members to join the
local order; and member of the Stockton Golf & Country Club, the Yosemite
Club and the Union League Club and Transportation Club of San Francisco.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
634-637. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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