BIOGRAPHY: Holdridge, D. D.
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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Honorable D. D. HOLDRIDGE. – Among the younger men who have during the last 
few years taken a somewhat prominent part in the political and business interests of 
Independence and Buchanan County, may be mentioned Honorable D. D. Holdridge, 
who is a New Yorker by birth and education, being a native of Nelson, Madison County, 
where he was born September 3, 1838.  Young Eldridge's early life was passed like a 
majority of the sons of well-to-do eastern people, by first attending the common school, 
then the Academy, and finally entering Onida Conference Seminary, at Cazenovia, New 
York, where he pursued the regular course, graduating in 1857, when in his twenty-first 
year.  The following Spring he entered the law office of Honorable D. W. Cameron, as a 
student, where he remained two years, when he attended a full course of law lectures and 
examinations at the Albany Law School, at the completion of which he received the 
degree of D.D.B., as a member of the graduating class of 1860, and was immediately 
admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of the State of New York.  Instead of at once 
entering upon his professional life, he returned to Cazenovia, and was persuaded to take 
charge of the Union Schools in that city, which he conducted in a very satisfactory 
manner during 1861.

Finding that most of the desirable eastern towns were overstocked with the legal 
profession, he determined to seek a home and a fortune in the West.  Reluctantly leaving 
the scenes of his youthful joys and aspirations, he landed in Independence, Iowa, in 
March, 1862, and being well pleased with the place, he decided to hang out his shingle 
and begin he earnest practice of his chosen profession.  He soon secured a good business, 
and by his honest, straightforward manner of proceeding, made many warm and firm 
friends.  In about eighteen months after arriving in the state he was nominated for and 
elected to the Lower House of the Iowa General Assembly, in which body he served, 
during the session of 1864, as a member of the judiciary and other important committees, 
making many friends among the able and leading men of the state.  After returning home 
in the Spring of 1864, he received the appointment of Quartermaster of the 46th Regiment 
Iowa Infantry Volunteers, with the rank of first lieutenant, which he accepted, and served 
with the regiment till the close of the war, when he was mustered out, and returning home 
has since applied himself closely to the practice of his profession.

In the Fall of 1874 he was brought forward by his friends in Buchanan County as the 
Liberal candidate for Congressional honors in the Third District, and received the hearty 
and enthusiastic support of his own county and a large number of votes from the 
adjoining ones, but failing to secure enough to obtain the nomination, he at once went to 
work for his more fortunate competitor, and rendered material aid by his influence and 
judicious campaign work in securing his election, as the only opposition member from 
Iowa.  Although his adopted city, Independence, is strongly Republican, Mr. Holdridge 
was elected Mayor in march, 1875, in opposition to a regular Republican nominee, 
leading his own ticket about one hundred votes; showing that, although acting with the 
minority, he has many warm friends in the Republican party.

He was married at Cazenovia, New York, March 16, 1859, to miss Louisa A. Loomis, 
which union has been blessed with four children.