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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Hempstead County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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David W. Holt is industriously engaged in tilling his farm of 500 acres, which is situated five miles northeast of Washington on the old military road, about 220 acres of which are under cultivation. Mr. Holt was born in Alamance County, N. C., in 1846, his parents, Judge Milton T. and Martha A. (Mebane) Holt, being also born there, the former in January, 1817, and the latter in December, 1822, their marriage taking place in that State also, where they made their home until 1851, when they came to Hempstead County, Ark., and took up their residence on the farm on which the subject of this sketch is now living, and where the mother still lives. Mr. Holt died in 1868, having been an industrious farmer and a man of considerable prominence throughout the county. Between 1855 and 1860 he served as county and probate judge, and from 1865 until his death filled the position of county sheriff. He was a prominent Mason, and a son of William Holt, who died in Alamance County, N. C., a farmer by occupation, and of German descent. The maternal grandfather, David Mebane, was a farmer, and died in the Old North State. David W. Holt is one of five surviving members of a family of seven children, and his youth and early manhood were spent on a farm in Hempstead County, he receiving a fair knowledge of books in the common schools near his home. In 1862, when but sixteen years of age, he joined the Arkansas State troops, but after a service of six months he joined Company H, Tenth Arkansas Cavalry, and operated in the Trans-Mississippi Department until the close of the war, the latter part of his service being in the capacity of orderly sergeant. He was in the engagement at Mark’s Mill, Poison Springs, Elkins’ Ferry, besides numerous others, and was disbanded with his company at Washington. In 1870 he was married to Mattie S., a daughter of Prof. William A. and Edith Banks, Virginians, the mother dying in that State. Prof. Banks married again in Virginia, and in 1869 came to Hempstead County, Ark. He has made teaching his life-long calling, has taught some years in St. John’s College, Little Rock, and is now principal of the public schools of Bryan, Tex. Mrs. Holt was born in Virginia, and her union with Mr. Holt has resulted in the birth of three sons and three daughters. Mr. Holt has been a Democrat since he attained his majority, although he was reared a Whig, and Seymour received his first presidential vote. He belongs to the I. O. O. F., Ozan Lodge No. 10 of Washington, the K. of H., and he and wife are Presbyterians, he being an elder in that church.

 

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This family biography is one of 131 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Hempstead County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Hempstead County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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