Merced-Santa Barbara County CA Archives Biographies.....Holden, Oscar 1879 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 13, 2006, 3:59 am

Author: John Outcalt (1925)

OSCAR HOLDEN

   Lying northwest of Hilmar three and a half miles is the highly-developed
ranch of fifty-five acres owned by Oscar Holden, a respected and popular native
son of California, who is a director in the Hilmar Mutual Fire Insurance
Company. Mr. Holden raises alfalfa, runs a dairy and also specializes in
breeding pure-blooded, prize Minorcas. His original purchase of land was sixty
acres, but he deeded five acres for an irrigation ditch. He is public spirited,
well-liked and interested in the welfare of the Turlock Irrigation District and
every other good thine: for the county and the community.

   Mr. Holden was born in Goleta, Santa Barbara County, May 15, 1879, the
youngest of three children of Oscar and Mettie (Badger) Holden, late of Santa
Barbara County, where they farmed. Oscar Holden, Sr., was born in New York State
and married in Nebraska, where he was engaged in cattle-raising on the Nemaha
River, when Nebraska was a territory. In 1875 he moved with his family to Goleta
and farmed for a while and then moved to Montecito, a suburb of Santa Barbara.
His wife was born in Michigan and grew up in Iowa and Nebraska. Her parents were
also pioneers. Oscar Holden grew up on his father's farm in Goleta until he was
seventeen. When his parents moved to Montecito he attended the public school
there and learned the carpenter's trade. He did a little contracting and a
little teaming. His attention being called to the Hilmar district in Merced
County, he visited the place in 1908 and was so well satisfied that he bought
sixty acres. Coming home he loaded up his goods and unloaded them at the Hilmar
station on February 16, of the same year.

   Mr. Holden was married in Santa Barbara to Clara Stevens, a daughter of Lyman
and Lydia V. Stevens. Her father was a veteran of the Civil War, who came from
Missouri to California after the war and passed away at the age of seventy-one.
Her mother resides in Napa County, and is now seventy-five years old. The
Holdens' two children are Earl Lyman, an electrician, and Laura, the wife of
Donald Ross, an engineer in the cold storage plant in San Jose. Mr. Holden was
elected a director in the Hilmar Mutual Fire Insurance Company in 1906 and has
served acceptably and continuously ever since. This company provides insurance
for about one half the cost of old-line companies. During the late war he was
captain of the district in the various bond drives, and his district went over
the top every time. It is largely through his efforts that the Prairie Flower
school district was organized, in which he has served as director for many
years. Mrs. Holden has also served on the election board and done jury duty, and
is deputy county clerk in the Riverside voting precinct, which has recently been
formed out of a portion of the Fairview Valley precinct. Mrs. Holden is a very
estimable lady and shares the excellent progressive spirit of her husband.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF
MERCED COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
WITH A
Biographical Review
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
JOHN OUTCALT

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1925


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