Charles H. Holden

Charles H. Holden, of Reed City, Mich., the subject of this sketch, was born April 18, 1832, at Groton, Grafton Co., N.H. His father, Josiah Rhodes Holden, was born in Groton, Feb. 22, 1797, and was married to Johanna Reed Danforth, Jan. 24, 1824. She was born in Londonderry, H.H., March 10, 1800. Of their six children but three survive: Hon. E.G.D. Holden, of Grand Rapids, Mich.; Mrs. Fannie L. Fowler, wife of a prominent lawyer and capitalist at Manistee, Mich.; and C.H. of this sketch. When the latter was an infant of two months his parents matured a long considered plan of removing West, and set out for Illinois. Reaching Buffalo, they took passage for Cleveland, having learned of the disturbed condition of the country in that then undeveloped and remote section, where fabled resources awoke the smoldering fires of dormant ambitions, and lured the footsteps of the young and ardent towards its goal of promise. The difficulties with the Sacs and Foxes culminated in the conflict known as the "Black Hawk War." The rumors which found their way easterly, at first vague and filled with an undefined terror, gradually assumed the tangibility of fact, and the tide of immigration sayed its waves in the nearer and more peaceful commonwealth of the Buckeye State. The summer sped on and various complications detained those who had paused to await the end of the Indian trouble, amd when the region of the Northwest was again free from the turmoil of strife it was to late to press on to the original destination.

The approach of autumn portended winter which with its associations bore little of encouragement to navigators to untried regions, and many families clung to the ties which, though so recently formed, borrowd from circumstances an added strength, and settled to await the advent of another spring. Josiah R. Holden was among the heads of families who had gained a foothold, but born of a sorrow which to hi seemed irreparable. In one short week the grim messenger, death, invaded that happy family and took to its icy embrace two boys, one- half of his family group, - the first and third, - leaving the second and the subject of this sketch, then an infant. In 1834 they started from Cleveland for Chicago, which then comprised Fort Dearborn and two trading posts. They made the trip on the first steamer that made the passage of the Straits at Mackinaw. Ten days after reaching Chicago they went to Will Co., Ill. and located on 160 acres of prairie and timber land situated on the Du Page River in the vicinity of Joliet.

The senior Holden entered into the work of the pioneer settler with all the vigor, hopefulness and energy of purpose he inherited from his ancestral stock and which associations of the place of his birth had fostered and preserved in their native strength. He erected a hotel and had succeeded in establishing a line of business connections which promised future realizations in proportion to the spirit and deserts of their originator, when the financial crisis of 1837 supervened, and by its reduction of values, aided by the complications attendant upon the miscellaneous currency, appropriately styled "wild cat money," overwhelmed the relations of business, and Mr. Holden was forced to dispose of his estate at a sacrifice, which was synonymouse with financial ruin. Leaving his family settled at Plainfield, in Will County, he went to Arkansas to retrieve his losses, and after an absence of three years returned and removed his family to Moorsville, near New Albany, Indiana. In 1845 they came to Michigan and settled on a farm of 160 acres situated twelve miles from the city of Grand Rapids. The territory of Kent County, which is now one of the finest samples of the probabilities of Michigan, as well as a manifest of the character of her pioneers and their efforts, was then undeveloped, and Mr. Holden of this sketch, then a boy fo 13, was the father's assistant in the work of clearing the home farm. The parents yet survive and reside in Grand Rapids, aged respectively 87 and 84 years. Their two sons are in the fullness of their manhood and have crowned the ambitious hopes of the father and the unfaltering trust of the mother with the honors of their distinguished and successful careers. Hon. E.G.D. Holden, of Grand Rapids is one of the "eminent men of Michigan," and wrought every step of his upward career by hard, systematic work, until he has a record which reflects luster on his entire generation. His election to the position of Secretary of State of Michigan is among the signal triumphs in the register of the Peninsular State. Charles H. Holden has descended from illustrious ancestry, and belongs to a race that has been made conspicuous by distinctive traits. The student of history may always turn from his futile and bewildering guest in search of a reliable basis whereon to found a just opinion of the large majority of the characters of history to the records of the Puritans. Though they have been the objects of derision, contumely and vituperation, no assault has availed to hurl the class from its opinion. It has stood statuesque in the history of the world since the days of Elizabeth, and its appellation is the synonym for sound morality and unswerving purpose. The records of business since the period of the earliest dissenters, in all avenues, exhibit traces of their inflexible methods. They have been the foudners of some of the most substantial and popular financial projects; they have shone peerlessly in literature; they have walked unflinchingly to the block and bared their throats to the headman's ax with firm fingers, and invited the fatal blade with the same calmness in which they were wont to stretch themselves for repose on luxuriant couches in palatial homes. It is a grand type of hymanity, and its fineness of grain is stil inbred in our own composite nationality. It is like the essence of the cassava, preservative and antiseptic, and from its reproduction in succeeding generations it receives a fresh impetus, and take sin renewed vitality.

The name of Holden first appears in the records of the New World in 1609, when Richard Holden, a refugee Puritan, from the town of Leyden, came to America, followed in 1611 and in 1612 respectively by Justinian and Randall Holden, of the same persecuted fraternity.

The earliest traceable ancestors of the family of C.H. Holden was John Holden, born in 1692, from whom the line is intact. In the maternal line he is of Scottish origin; his mother being descended from the Greggs of Ayrshire, and traced to 1690.

The earliest independent purpose of Mr. Holden, of this sketch, was to obtain an education, and he availed himself of every advantage of the public schools in the sections of Illinois where his parents resided, and after their removal to Kent County, Michigan, alternated his seasons of labor with study at the terms of winter school. He served the family interests faithfully and well, and at 18 his father gave him all the aid he could toward the accomplishments of his plans, - the control of his time, - that he might pursue his educational project untrammeled. He had sufficient means to enter the academy at Plainfield, Ill., where he spent a year preparatory to becoming a student at Oberlin, Ohio. At the latter place he took a classical course of study, in which he was occupied three years, earning money to defray his expenses by teaching winters; the fourth, or final, year of his collegiate course was passed at Knox College, Ill. On leaving college he was free from debt; his industry had earned all he needed, and his frugality had expended his earnings to the best possible advantage, and best of all he had the eminent satisfactioon of knowing that what he had accomplished was his own work, and at the cost of no sacrifice at home. He entered the office of Patterson & Champlin at Grand Rapids, Mich., as a student of law, and read under their supervision two years, gaining much advantage from their office relations; after which one year was spent in Columbia Law College, Washington, D.C., where he was graduated. After a year's practice in Grand Rapids he finally located at Grand Traverse, and in the fall of 1858 was elected Prosecuting Attorney and Circuit Cout Commissioner for that county.

The territory then embraced within its limits now comprises the counties of Leelanaw, Antrim, Kalkaska and Benzie. The district politically was Democratic, yet he was elected over his competitor, Frank Stevens, by 23 majority, being the only one on the Republican ticket that was elected in the county that year. He was re-elected in 1860 and officiated until the President's second call for troops, when he felt the need of arduous service in behalf of the national integrity, and he abandoned a prosperous business and raised a company of volunteers, afterwards known as the "Lake Shore Tigers," Co. A, 26th Mich. Vol., and was mustered as its First Lieutenant on the 11th day of September, 1862. During the spring of 1863 his regiment participated in the Blackwater campaign near Suffolk, Va., against Longstreet. During the draft riots at New York City in July, 1863, his regiment was ordered to New York, and Mr. Holden was placed on the staff of Gen. Canby, as Commissary of Subsistence. The arduous work of providing for 30,000 troops hastily concentrated at the City of New York during this emergency required rare executive skill and prompt action in meeting and providing for the wants of the soldiers. How well he discharged the duty of this trust may be inferred from the fact that he, a volunteer officer, was retained in preference to old line regular officers, who never looked with favor upon the volunteer service. During this period Mr. Holden handled millions of dollars for the Government in purchasing supplies for the army and in disbursements to the various hospitals in and about the city, and, be it said to his credit, every dollar was accounted for to the last farthing, as the records of the Department will show. On the 15th of October his regiment was ordered to join the Army of the Potomac and became a part of the First Brigade, First Division, Second Corps, under Gen. Hancock, in which capacity the regiment remained until the close of the war. The cessation of the hostilities afforded opportunities to retrieve errors and for the recognition and acknowledgement of meritorious services. Mr. Holden received two brevets first as Major, and lastly Lieutenant Colonel. On being relieved of his obligations as a soldier, he was appointed to a position by the Secretary of the Treasury in the Loan Branch, Treasury Department, where he was attached to the bureau for printing and disbursing the 7-30 bonds. Later he was attached to the Second Auditor's office, where he remained until 1870.

In June, 1869, he was chosen to represent the 5th Ward, afterwards 20th District, Washington, D.C., in the City Council; he was re-elected in 1870, and chosen President of the Board of Common Council, being the 69th and last Council of said city. During his administration and management of the trust reposed in him by his constituency, he advocated and perfected many plans, such as parking the avenues and a system of drainage, which has since been adopted, placing the city upon a plane its founders intended it should occupy and become the handsomest city on the continent. The plan here inaugurated was taken up and carried forward by the new life which had been infused by the new order of things, and Washington of to-day is the pride of the nation and the most beautiful city in the world. During the years 1869-70-71-72, Mr. Holden contributed to the city in beautiful brick blocks, aggregating over a hundred residences, with an outlay of capital involved f more than half a million dollars. He was also largely engaged in the purchase and sale of real estate. It is said of him that he rarely, if ever, made a mistake in buying real estate; his purchases always panned out with a profit, and in a few years he had risen to the foremost rank among the live business men of Washington City.

But success in any vocation is not absolutely assured. The panic of 1873 had its depressing effect on values, and with it the consequent roll of disaster, the business men of the entire country were the chief sufferers; fortune vanished as if by magic, and lack of confidence and general distrust pervaded the business world. Mr. Holden was not alone in adversity, and when the storm had spent its fury he found himself bereft of his entire fortune! In 1878 he visited the West, determined to retrieve past losses, by commencing again at the bottom in new and untried fields, unaided save by the light of experience. Reed City, Osceola Co., Mich., was the point selected, and in the month of June, the following year, he opened an office for the transaction of business as an attorney and dealer in real estate, and continued the management of his relations alone until Oct. 31, 1881, the date of the admission of Charles A. Withey, the firm style becoming Holden & Withey. This firm is now the most prominent in Northern Michigan and is largely interested in real estate operations in connection with a large and lucrative law practice. Mr. Holden has done much to improve, enlarge and beautify Reed City; he has been instrumental in adding additions and a beautiful park to the city; last season he purchased the Heath-House Block, and more than doubed its dimensions and leased it for a term of years to Norman Johnson, M.D., Manager of the Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota Hospital Company. This institution is now one of the largest and best conducted hospital sin the State. It is also a sanitarium. The edifice is brick, four stories in height above the basement and covers a little over an acre of land, and is the most attractive structure in the city. The firm owns a large amount of village and farm property; they also issue a monthly, the title of which is Real Estate Bulltin.

In the year 1869, while a resident of the National Capital, Mr. Holden became a member of the Masonic fraternity, and is now a member of Lafayette Chapter; also Columbia Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templar, and Knights of Pythias, all local organizations of Washington City. In 1883 he was elected Commander of Stedman Post, No. 198, G.A.R., of Reed City, and is now serving his second term; he is also Commander of the Soldiers and Sailors' Association of Northwestern Michigan, an organization including within its limits the northwest quarter of the State. Mr. Holden was married Feb. 9, 1859, to Fannie E. Brooks, daughter of Horatio and Elizabeth Brooks, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Holden died in infancy. The portrait of Mr. Holden which is presented on a preceding page is a fitting accompaniment to the biographical annals of Osceola County. His youth's first endeavor was as a pioneer laborer in the development of Northern Michigan, which has supplied some of the best elements in the progressive history of this country; and to it he has brought the energies of his manhood's prime, which are among its most valuable factors in it spresent condition of promise, - fast approaching fulfillment and the fullmess which characterizes adjacent, as well as remote, sections of the Peninsular State.

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