Contra Costa County CA Archives Biographies.....Holliday, Beverly R. 1823 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com November 27, 2005, 3:41 am Author: W. A. Slocum & Co., Publishers (1882) BEVERLY R. HOLLIDAY.—Was born in Warren county, Kentucky, December 22, 1823. When but two years of age he was taken by his parents to White Hall, Greene county, Illinois, and there resided until 1832, when they removed to Morgan county, in the same State, where our subject received his education in the common schools, learned the trade of wool carder (at which he worked until 1840), and dwelt until coming to the Pacific Coast. Was engaged in teaching from 1840 to 1849, in Scott county, Illinois. In March, 1849, Mr. Holliday joined a company bound for the Land of Gold, and traveling, with ox-teams, by the Old Emigrant Route, arrived at Johnson's ranch, Placer county, October 1st, of the same year. Thence he proceeded to the mines on the American river, where, however, he remained only a short time. We next find him engaged in getting out lumber, in the San Antonio redwoods—lumber being, at that time, worth four hundred and fifty dollars per thousand lineal feet. In January, 1850, he came to Martinez, where he was employed, at seventy-five dollars per month, to take charge of the school at that place—it being the first seminary opened in Contra Costa county, with an average attendance of six pupils, which increased in six months to twenty-six pupils. Here Mr. Holliday continued "to teach the young idea how to shoot" until the Fall of 1850. In December, 1850, he opened a dry-goods and grocery store—firm name, Hunsaker & Co.— and continued in that business three years, during which time he also acted as Deputy Treasurer of the County, under Judge D. Hunsaker. In 1850 he was also elected Justice of the Peace, an office he filled until 1854, and was chosen one of the Associate Justices of the Court of Sessions, which was abolished in 1855. Our subject now turned his attention to farming, and first located on the property now owned by Mr. Blum, near the farm of N. B. Smith, where he resided until 1867, and then moved into Franklin canon, one mile from Martinez, and located on public land, where he resided until 1875, when he purchased his present place of sixty-four acres, three miles from Martinez, where he is now engaged chiefly in fruit culture. He married, in Lafayette, August 19, 1855, Jane A. Holliday, a native of Pennsylvania, and has six surviving children—Mary J. (now Mrs. Thomas Scott), Charles H., William B., Minerva L., Eliza E., George Edwin. Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, INCLUDING ITS GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTION; TOGETHER WITH A RECORD OF THE MEXICAN GRANTS; THE BEAR FLAG WAR; THE MOUNT DIABLO COAL FIELDS; THE EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT, COMPILED FROM THE MOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES; THE NAMES OF ORIGINAL SPANISH AND MEXICAN PIONEERS; FULL LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE COUNTY; SEPARATE HISTORY OF EACH TOWNSHIP, SHOWING THE ADVANCE IN POPULATION AND AGRICULTURE; ALSO, Incidents of Pioneer Life; and Biographical Sketches OF EARLY AND PROMINENT SETTLERS AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN; AMD OF ITS TOWNS, VILLAGES, CHURCHES, SECRET SOCIETIES, ETC. ILLUSTRATED. SAN FRANCISCO: W. A. SLOCUM & CO., PUBLISHERS 1882. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/contracosta/bios/holliday40nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 3.7 Kb