My Genealogy Hound

WALTER W. HOLT, a lawyer of over forty years active practice before all the courts of the State of New York and senior member of the legal firm of Holt & Holt, of Dunkirk city, was born at Springfield, Otsego county, New York, September 24, 1821, and is a son of General Walter and Sarah (Van Benschoten) Holt. The Holts of New York trace their English lineage through the Connecticut family of that name, of which their family is a branch, and was founded by Deacon George Holt (grandfather), who removed from Connecticut to Otsego county, where he followed farming until his death, when eighty-six years of age. He was a democrat and an active member of the Baptist church. His son, Gen. Walter Holt (father), was born in 1791 and came with his parents about 1796 to Otsego county, where he died in 1867. Gen. Holt was an extensive farmer and a large stock-raiser. He was a deacon of the Baptist church, served as a major-general in the New York Militia and was a man of energy and unusual will-power. He was a democrat until 1856, when he became a republican and afterwards served for seven years as a justice of the peace. His wife, Sarah Holt, was a member of the Van Benschoten family of Otsego county, and a Baptist in religious belief; she died in 1857, aged fifty-six years.

Walter W. Holt spent his boyhood days on the farm and received his early education in the common schools. He then entered Gilbertsville academy, but completed his academic course at Clinton academy of Oneida county, where the principal gave him charge of several classes while he attended there. Leaving Clinton academy he became principal, in 1845, of Akron High school, Ohio, and while there that year he aided in establishing a union school, and organized the first teachers’ institute ever held in the State of Ohio.

In 1847, while on his way to visit his father, he was taken sick at Fredonia, and after recovering from his sickness he was so favorably impressed with this county that he decided to settle in it. He then read law with Stephen Snow, of Fredonia, was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of New York in 1849, and four years later opened an office at Fredonia, where he practiced until 1861. In that year he came to Dunkirk, where he soon acquired a lucrative practice, and where he now stands in the front rank of the resident lawyers of the city. He is an active democrat and was city counselor for several years, but resigned in 1882 in favor of his son, Walter D. Holt.

He married, in 1845, Mary S., daughter of Stephen Stewart, of Warren, N. Y., and who died in 1853, leaving one child, a daughter, Isabella S. On October 3, 1855, he united in marriage with Sarah S. Brown, daughter of Enos Brown, of Utica, New York. To this second union was born one child, a son, Walter D., who read law, was admitted to the bar, served as city counselor since 1883, and since 1879 has been a partner with his father in the practice of law.

In early life Mr. Holt was engaged in several extensive business enterprises, and furnished the stone used in the construction of several sections of the Erie & Lake Shore railroads, besides building a plank walk from Dunkirk to Fredonia. He has been the counsel of the Chautauqua Assembly for over twelve years, and is also counsel of the Free Association of Cassadaga Lake.