USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 3
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young men, on honesty, clean living and right thinking. Whatever was for the building up and development of his state, section and county, that he was interested in and to that he lent his aid and gave counsel and support. He prospered, and with his own he brought prosperity to others and developed the resources of his section. Mr. Holt had that charity which vaunteth not itself. One who has lived here as the writer has for many years, among the people with whom he worked, hears many times, from grateful recipients, of the charity dispensed by this good man that would never have been known save for this telling by those who received. Mr. Holt himself never spoke of these acts, and so far as a sign from him was concerned, when they were done, they were for- gotten and no obligations were incurred. One of his chief outstanding characteristics was his uni- versal friendliness. It seemed that people, and particularly young men, instinctively saw in him a friend. He never failed them."
Mr. Holt became identified early in life with the Presbyterian Church at Graham. He served that church as an elder and later was an elder and an active leader in the Presbyterian Church at Burl- ington. Politically he was a democrat, did much to hold up the party cause, and only his personal preferences stood in the way of his selection for some of the higher offices of community and state.
On January 15, 1856, Mr. Holt married Laura Cameron Moore, of Caswell County. They led an ideal married life and their home was all that a home should be. They reared the following chil- dren: Walter L. Holt, Edwin C. Holt, Samuel M. Holt, James H. Holt, Robert L. Holt, William I. Holt, Ernest A. Holt and Daisy L. Holt, who mar- ried Walter G. Green. Comment has been made upon the fact of Mr. Holt's wisdom and discretion in choosing to a large degree his own executors by setting up his sons in business while he lived to give them aid and counsel. Thus the son Walter L. became president of the Holt-Morgan, Holt- Williamson, and Lakewood Mills; E. C. Holt, of the Elmira and Delgado Mills; Samuel M. Holt was connected with the Lakeside Mills; James H., Jr., with the Windsor Mills; Robert L., with the Glencoe Mills; W. I. Holt, with the Lakeside Mills; and Ernest A .. with the Elmira Mills.
EDWIN CAMERON HOLT. No small share of the remarkable genius for industrial organization and building associated with the Holt family in gen- eral has been possessed and exemplified by Edwin Cameron Holt, who is a grandson of the pioneer cotton mill man, Edwin M. Holt, whose record of achievement is taken care of on other pages, and is the second son of James Henry and Laura (Cameron) Holt, a sketch elsewhere being given of his honored father.
Edwin Cameron Holt was born at Graham, North Carolina, May 11, 1861. He was educated in private schools, at the age of fourteen entered the Findley High School at Lenoir in Caldwell County, and in 1877 enrolled as a student in Da- vidson College. After completing his junior year he left college on account of ill health and soon afterward found practical employment under his father in the Carolina Cotton Mills near Graham. His father was a very forceful and practical business man and possessed unusual wisdom in dealing with his sons. One of his characteristics was exemplifying the principle that all work is honorable, and in accordance with this principle he set tasks for his sons at hard labor in the
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
garden and at the mill, and Edwin Holt spent many hours and days in occupations which some sons of wealthy men would have deemed menial and beneath them.
Having served his apprenticeship in the cotton mill industry, Edwin C. Holt in 1887, with his brother Walter L., built the Elmira Cotton Mills in Burlington. This was a successful institution from the beginning, and the brothers, acting upon advice from their father, reinvested the profits in extensive enlargements and additions. In 1893 these two brothers built the Lakeside Mills, near the Elmira Mills. In 1895 they built the Holt- Morgan Mills at Fayetteville. The two brothers were very close partners in their various enter- prises and in the course of years built up indus- tries which represented working capital and surplus of over $1,000,000.
Until 1895 Edwin C. Holt had his home and his chief activities in his native county of Alamance. In the latter year, recognizing the great natural advantages at Wilmington in the matter of cheap raw material and advantageous freight rates, Edwin C. Holt built the Delgado Mills in that city. These were splendidly equipped and added a great deal to the industrial prosperity of the city. The important business interests of Mr. Holt's later years have been represented as presi- dent of the Delgado Mills at Wilmington, president of the Lakeside Mills, vice president and manager of the Elmira Mills. vice president of the Holt- Morgan Mills at Fayetteville, director of the People's Savings Bank at Wilmington, director of the Commercial National Bank at Charlotte. At the death of his father he was made chairman of the examining board of the Commercial National Bank of Charlotte.
One of the forces which have actuated and im- pelled him during much of his business and per- sonal career has been an ambition to be worthy of his father in integrity and manliness, and this ambition has been reflected and has brought results not only in many sturdy enterprises, but in a kindly humanitarian helpfulness and a looking out for the interests and welfare of the hundreds of individuals and families who get their living from the industries controlled and directed by him.
For three years Mr. Holt served as captain of the Burlington Light Infantry. He is a Royal Arch and Knight Templar Mason, and a member and deacon of the Presbyterian Church. Con- cerning his personal character for truthfulness and fidelity, a biographer once told the following story as an illustration : "The late Governor Thomas M. Holt on one occasion, while engaged in the consideration of a serious and embarrassing business problem, tried to find the truth of a cer- tain situation. Some one remarked that Ed Holt said that a certain fact was true; the governor spoke with an expression of evident relief : "That settles the question; if Ed Holt says it is so, it is true. ''
He has had a congenial home life. April 19, 1893, he married Dolores Delgado Stevens, daugh- ter of Bishop Peter Faysoux Stevens, of Charles- ton, South Carolina, and a granddaughter of Bishop William Capers, of South Carolina. They have one daughter, Dolores Stevens Holt.
JAMES HENRY HOLT, of Burlington, is one of the grandsons of Edwin M. Holt, and has been true to the traditions and the ideals of the family and has kept his own career closely identified with the great cotton mill industry.
He was born in Davidson County, North Caro- lina, October 27, 1864, a son of James Henry and Laura Cameron (Moore) Holt. His father was long distinguished as a cotton mill man and also a banker. The son was liberally educated, attend- ing high school at Lenoir, Lynch's School at High Point, North Carolina, Horner's Military School, and the University of North Carolina. He served his apprenticeship as a cotton manufacturer at Glencoe Mills and is now vice-president of that industry, one of the largest comprised within the Holt interests. In 1890 he built the Windsor Cot- ton Mills at Burlington. For years he has been secretary and treasurer of the Elmira mills and is now vice president, is secretary and treasurer of the Lakeside mills, is president of the Alamance Loan and Trust Bank and has other business interests too numerous to mention.
Mr. Holt has always been deeply interested in military matters. His service was with the Third Regiment, North Carolina National Guard. He was lieutenant, later captain, of Company F, and during the Spanish-American war he undertook to raise a company for one of the state volunteer regiments, but found the quota filled, and while he thus did not have the satisfaction of leading a company in that brief war, he gladly turned over his recruits to another regiment. During the administration of Governor Carr he served on the governor's staff as aid de camp with the rank of colonel. Mr. Holt is a vestryman of the Episcopal Church at Burlington. February 27, 1901, he married Olive Joyner, daughter of Charles G. and Sarah (Farish) Joyner, of Baltimore, Maryland. Her family is a prominent one of Balti- more and her father was a wholesale merchant. there. Mr. and Mrs. Holt have one child, Mar- garet Elizabeth.
ROBERT LACY HOLT, of Burlington, hardly needs any identification as one of the prominent figures in the cotton mill industry of North Carolina, but it is appropriate to indicate his relationship to the family in general by saying that he is fourth son of the late James Henry Holt of Burlington, who in turn was one of the sons of Edwin M. Holt, founder of the historic Alamance Cotton Mills and one of the greatest figures in the industrial life of the South.
Robert Lacy Holt was born at Thomasville in Davidson County, North Carolina, January 7, 1867. He received his early advantages at Graham, at- tended Horner's School at Oxford, and from there entered the State University. At the end of two years his eagerness to enter the business world made him dissatisfied with the quiet routine of university life, and, returning home, was permitted by his father to enter the office of the Glencoe Cotton Mills, of which his father was then man- ager. His father was keenly interested in his developing talents and gave him every opportunity to assume larger responsibilities and he very soon put him in as general manager of the Carolina Cotton Mills, and with that institution he laid the basis of his wonderful success as a cotton man- ufacturer.
For many years he was closely associated with his brother J. H. Holt, Jr. In 1890 they built the Windsor Cotton Mills at Burlington, and for many years these were operated by R. L. and J. H. Holt, Jr. Robert L. Holt in the meantime gave much of his attention to the duties as active man- ager of the Glencoe Cotton Mills, and at the death of his father was put in active charge and had the
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
entire management of the Glencoe, Alamance, Caro- lina and Elmira Cotton Mills. All of these mills prospered and improved, but in 1902, having ac- quired the majority of stock in the Glencoe Mills, he resigned his management of other mills to give all his time to the Glencoe property. Those mills have since more than doubled in size and capacity, and are recognized as one of the most complete and efficient cotton mills of the state.
The secret of his success as a cotton mill execu- tive is found in the words of a biographer, who says: "Mr. Holt is a good exemplification of the maxim, 'absolute accurate knowledge is power.' He knows the cotton business, not with an un- certain, wavering kind of knowledge, but abso- lutely. He has made it a special study, and the writer has been frequently struck, when hearing the figures of cotton production, acreage, and the like under discussion, to see the absolute accuracy of Mr. Holt's knowledge. With this accurate in- formation always at his command, and with the training that has come from his years in the cotton business, it is no wonder he succeeds. It would be the wonder were it otherwise."'
While so much of his time in recent years has been given to the management of the Glencoe Cot- ton Mills, Mr. Holt has also been a director of the Alamance Loan and Trust Company, the largest bank in the county, in the Elmira and Lakeside Cotton Mills, and is president of the Home Insur- ance Company of Greensboro. Public office has never been of his seeking, though he has rendered splendid service to the cause of the democratic party. Only once did he appear as a factor in practical politics, in 1904, when he went as a dele- gate from his district to the national convention. In a public way he has served as a director of the Western Hospital for the Insane at Morganton and chairman of the Highway Commission of Ala- mance County, but through the prosperous and wise management of large business interests has been contributing his biggest and best service to state and community.
Even his recreations represent a degree of pro- ductiveness which many men would regard as a successful independent business. Mr. Holt has for many years been one of the largest land owners in Alamance County, and the lands constituting his farm have been conducted on a scale that is at once business like and a source of example and encouragement to the general agricultural and stock husbandry interests of the state. His farms around Glencoe Mills have been stocked with blooded hogs, sheep and cattle, and he developed a herd of registered Devons probably unexcelled in the state. Mr. Holt's country home, at which many of his friends have had delightful enter- tainment, is widely known as "Fort Snug." He has always been a lover of fine horses, and has owned some animals that have made more than local records on the race course. Of the dealings with his fellow men some one has said that, like his honorable father, he "is a man to whom others instinctively turn in a time of trouble, certain that they will find in him a friend. He does charity, but one must learn of it from the outspoken gratitude of the recipients, because in this, again like his father, he is secret, gaining his reward from his personal knowledge of the good done."
LYNN BANKS HOLT is one of the oldest surviv- ing members of a family that might with eminent fitness be regarded as the cornerstone of North
Carolina's greatness and prosperity as a cotton manufacturing state. He is sixth among the sons of Edwin M. Holt, founder of the old Alamance Cotton Mill at Burlington. The history of other members of the family is told elsewhere.
Lynn Banks Holt was born near Graham in Alamance County June 28, 1842. His life almost to the age of nineteen was spent without special incident and alternating between a home of solid comfort and the advantages of some of the best schools of' North Carolina. He attended Prof. Alexander Wilson's School at Hawfield and in 1859 entered the Military Academy near Hillsboro conducted by Col. C. C. Tew. While these institu- tions gave him a thorough discipline of mind he was getting the equivalent of what is in modern times known as vocational training by work under his father's eye in the cotton mill. From the routine and studies of Hillsboro Miltary Academy he responded to the tocsin of war at the bombardment of Fort Sumter and enlisted as a private in the Orange Guards. His experi- ence in drill resulted in his appointment as drill master in a company of the Sixth Regiment com- manded by Colonel Fisher. He was with that regiment in Virginia until after the battle of Manassas. October 20, 1861, he was appointed second lieutenant in Company I, Eighth Regi- inent, North Carolina State Troops, commanded by Colonel Shaw. From that time forward he was a member of Clingman's famous brigade, and later was made first lieutenant of his company. He was in the battle of Roanoke Island, was stationed at Charleston during the spring and summer of 1863, and is one of the last survivors of that famous defense of Battery Wagner. Later he was with his regiment in the capture of Plymouth, in the battle of Drury's Bluff, which saved Richmond from the army of Butler, and was with Hoke at Cold Harbor. After Cold Harbor, when General Grant changed his plan of attack and launched his blow against Petersburg, Lieutenant Holt was one of the defenders who turned aside that blow, and in the battle of that day he was wounded in the face and has ever since carried the scar. On September 29, 1864, he again commanded his com- pany in the assault on Fort Harrison. The histor- ian of Clingman's Brigade states that about a third of those in the charge were either killed or wounded. "Among the wounded and captured were Capt. William H. S. Burgwyn and First Lieut. L. Banks Holt, commanding Company I, Eighth Regiment. Lieutenant Holt was shot through the thigh and the bone fractured, entail- ing a long and painful recovery. He was con- fined at Fort Delaware prison until released in June, 1865." It thus fell to his lot to lead his company in one of the most terrific assaults of the entire war, but that was only the crowning achievement of a record filled with constant hero- ism and fidelity to the cause which he loved and for which he sacrificed so much.
June 16, 1865, on being released from Fort Delaware, he set out for home and undismayed by the general devastation that met his eyes and that presented a picture of almost complete economie overthrow throughout the South, he ac- cepted the inevitable and went to work in the old Alamance cotton mills under his father. More than half a century has passed since then and every one of those fifty years has its story of achievement, industrial advancement and new and large contributions to the fame of the Holt family and to the prosperity of the South in general.
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Mr. L. Banks Holt has been one of the most prominent among the various Holts in the upbuild- ing of cotton mills and other industries of North Carolina. Individually he has been owner, director or stockholder in a number of cotton mills, and is sole owner and proprietor of the Oncida Mills at Graham, one of the largest individual cotton mills in the South, is owner of the Bellemont Cotton Mills at Graham, the Carolina Cotton Mills and the Alamance Cotton Mills. All these mills are now incorporated under the name of L. Banks Holt Manufacturing Company. The ownership of the Alamance Mills involves a great sentimen- tal value, since it is in effect the parent of all the cotton mills of the Holt family and almost of the cotton mill industry of the state.
Among other important business interests that have taken his time and ability in recent years, Mr. Holt is president of the E. M. Holt Plaid Mills of Burlington ; a stockholder in the Mineola Cotton Mills at Gibsonville, and the Morehead Cotton Mills, is a stockholder in the Commercial Bank of Charlotte and a stockholder in the Bank of Alamance in his home town. He is also a stock- holder in the North Carolina Railway Company.
For years Mr. Holt has been an elder and a faithful member of the Presbyterian Church at Graham. He is a sincere Christian and has ex- emplified his faith by practical devotion to the . welfare of humanity and by a full sense of stew- ardship as the owner and proprietor of a large individual estate. Politically he is a democrat, but public life has had no attractions for him and he has done his part to the state and nation through the activities of the various industries which he has managed so fruitfully and well.
Mr. Holt was one of the prime movers in the graded schools at Graham, his home town, and started the library fund with a donation of $1,000 in conjunction with the school.
October 26, 1865, soon after his return home from the war, Mr. Holt married Miss Mary C. Mebane. Her father was Hon. Giles Mebane of Caswell. To their marriage were born eight chil- dren, five of whom lived to middle age.
LAWRENCE SHACKLEFORD HOLT. With North Carolina the home of more cotton mills and in- dustries than any other state in the Union, there is every valid reason why a large number of the prominent business men mentioned in these pages are owners, managers, and department officials of this industry. In the case of Lawrence Shackle- ford Holt, of Burlington, it is not sufficient to refer to him indiscriminatingly as a highly suc- cessful cotton mill owner. His relation to this primary industry of North Carolina is a more im- portant one than as a director and operator of mills and all the resources and personnel that go with them.
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Mr. Holt has apparently been guided by unusual- ly high ideals and a powerful and fundamental sense of stewardship, so that his attitude has not been strictly regulated in the rigid caste of the owner and employer. He has for years recognized the vital interest that the workers have in in- dustry and that the mill owner has higher inter- ests than merely to see that the processes of his industry are mechanically perfect and efficient, and that with the payment of standard wages the par- ticipation of the employer in the life and welfare of his employes ceases.
For all his other varied interests and material achievements the distinction which means most
among the people at large and which will be long- est associated with Mr. Holt is that he was the first manufacturer in the South voluntarily to shorten the hours of labor. The first step he took in this direction was in 1886, and the second in 1902. The particular facts in the matter are told in a sketch which was written of Mr. Holt several years ago, as follows: "He was the first person in the South to pay the wages of his employes in cash. This system was inaugurated by him short- ly after he started the Bellemont Mills and was soon after adopted by other mills, which had up to that time paid off in barter and store accounts. He was the first manufacturer in the South to -horten the hours of labor from twelve to eleven hours a day, and this schedule, inaugurated at the Aurora Mills on September 6, 1886, was soon after adopted by other mills. In 1902 the Aurora Mills made a further reduction of from eleven to ten hours a day, and it was the first of the mills of the South to inaugurate this schedule. Thus it may be said that Mr. Holt was twice first in re- ducing the hours of labor of the thousands of cotton mill operatives in the South."
In his career he has justified an old fashioned phrase of being the great son of a great father. The originator of so much that has been distinc- tive in the cotton mill industry of the South, and the founder of the famous old Alamance Mill at Burlington was his honored father, Edwin M. Holt, whose career and achievements are repre- sented elsewhere in these pages.
Lawrence Chackleford Holt was the youngest son of Edwin M. and Emily (Farish) Holt, and was born at the old homestead of his father at Locust Grove in Alamance County, May 17, 1851. His early training and education was re- ceived in a celebrated school conducted by Alex- ander Wilson at Melville in Alamance County, and afterwards in the Horner Military School at Ox- ford under Professor J. H. Horner and one year in Davidson College. It was the earnest wish of his father that he would complete a college career, but his eagerness to get into business life caused him to leave school in 1869 and go to Charlotte and take the management of a wholesale grocery busi- ness owned by his father. While at Charlotte, recognizing the needs of the city for increased banking facilities, he brought about in 1874, with the assistance of his father and brothers, the or- ganization of the Commercial National Bank of Charlotte. The majority of the capital stock of this well known institution has always been held by the Holt family. It is a bank that has long stood first on the honor roll of national banks in North Carolina, with a capital stock of $500,- 000 and a surplus of more than $250,000. Lawrence S. Holt was a director in this bank for many years, though his other interests finally made it necessary to resign any part or role as an active director.
In 1873 he received from his father a fifth in- terest in the Alamance and the Carolina Cotton mills, and from that time forward he was actively identified with the cotton mill industry. He assist- ed in managing and operating the Alamance and Carolina Cotton Mills until 1879. Then, with his brother, L. Banks Holt, he built the Bellemont Cotton Mills at Bellemont, located accessible to a water power on the Alamance River about two miles south of the old Alamance Mills. This was his first individual undertaking of importance in the cotton mill industry. He displayed at that
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
time much of the broad ability which has ever since characterized him, and was his own, archi- tect, engineer and contractor at the erection of the mills, which was successful from the very start. He finally sold his interests to his brother L. Banks Holt.
In 1883 he organized and built the E. M. Holt Plaid Mills at Burlington, and caused these mills to be named in honor of his father. He was president of the company and had as active man- ager of the mills for many years his brother-in- law, William A. Erwin, who acquired much of that training and experience which has since made him eminent in the cotton mill industry of the South while with the Holt Plaid Mills.
In 1884 Mr. Holt with his brother L. Banks Holt and his brother-in-law, John Q. Gant bought the Altamahaw Cotton Mills on Haw River, about six miles north of Elon College. This small plant was greatly enlarged and for many years has been a highly efficient and profitable mill, now con- ducted by the Holt, Gant & Holt Cotton Manufac- turing Company. In 1885 Mr. Holt bought the Lafayette Cotton Mills at Burlington, then a bank- rupt institution, and he changed them to the Aurora Cotton Mills and put them in the front rank of cotton mills of the state, their special fame over the dry goods field being due to the cel- ebrated Aurora plaids.
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