William Henry Holt Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1195-1196 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	WILLIAM HENRY HOLT was born in Willington, Tolland county, 
Connecticut, on the 13th of July, 1846, and is a son of William Holt, 
who was likewise a native of the Nutmeg state and a scion of a family 
long identified with the annals of New England, whither the original 
progenitors in America came from England in the colonial days. When he 
was ten years of age his parents came to the west and were numbered 
among the pioneers of Delaware county, Iowa, where they passed the 
remainder of their lives, the father having been in the hotel business. 
In 1863 he moved to Lama county, Iowa, where he was in the drug 
business. Later he moved to Cherokee county, Iowa, where he died in 
1883. The subject's mother died in 1861. The subject completed the 
curriculum of the public schools and then continued his studies for some 
time in the Bowen Collegiate Institute, now known as Lenox College, in 
Hopkinton, that state. He initiated his independent career in 1865 and 
continued to be engaged in the drug business in Iowa until 1869. In that 
year he located at Cherokee, Iowa, and was employed in the merchandise 
business. Two days after his twenty-fifth birthday anniversary he came 
to Sioux Falls, where he has ever since maintained his home and where he 
has been successfully engaged in the real-estate business, handling both 
farm and town property and being the owner of valuable realty in a 
personal way. He is a liberal and progressive citizen and has ever done 
his part in furthering enterprises tending to enhance the general 
welfare and advancement. In politics he gave his allegiance to the 
Republican party until 1896, when he exercised his franchise in support 
of Hon. William J. Bryan for the presidency. He is a prominent and 
appreciative member of the time-honored Masonic fraternity, in which he 
has not only completed the circle of the York-rite bodies but has also 
attained to the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, being 
affiliated with the consistory at Yankton, while he is also identified 
with the auxiliary organizations, the Order of the Eastern Star and the 
Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. For a number of 
years he was the recorder and secretary of all the subordinate Masonic 
orders in Sioux Falls, and in 1884 was grand recorder of the grand 
commandery. 

	In politics Mr. Holt is a Republican and was deputy register of 
deeds for about two years. In 1873 he was appointed sheriff of Minnehaha 
county to fill an unexpired term, filling the position for two years, 
while at the same time he was deputy United States marshal. In 1881 he 
was elected city auditor of Sioux Falls and held the office for thirteen 
years. 

	In 1886 Mr. Holt commenced the collection of Masonic publications 
in the United States and over the entire world, having now one of the 
best collections in the Union. He also commenced, in 1894, a collection 
of the literature and publications of the Dakotas, intending to make of 
it a historical library for the state. 

	On the 15th of July, 1873, Mr. Holt was united in marriage to Miss 
Martha Helen Raymond, who was born in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 
on the 26th of November, 1847, being a daughter of Frank and Martha 
Raymond. who were early settlers in the "Cream City." Mr and Mrs. Holt 
have two children, Martha Etta, wife of Lieutenant E. E. Hawkins, of 
Seattle; and Edmund R.