The papers of the Holt-Messer family center around Joseph Burt Holt (1828-1899), his wife Julia Rollins Holt (1829-1895), and their daughter Emily Burt Holt (1854-1934). The collection consists largely of letters to the Holts from JBH's sisters and their husbands: Mary Burt Holt Messer and B. Edmund Messer, Elizabeth Holt Babbitt and William Dean Babbitt, and Gratia Holt Berry and Willis Berry. The letters contain numerous references to the Babbitt children (George Augustus, Gratia E., Edmund Holt, and Ella [or Ellen] Coe) and to the Messer children (Edmund Clarence Messer and Janette Messer). In addition to correspondence the papers include several folders of poems by Edmund Clarence Messer, his wife Emma North and their daughter Mary Burt Messer; autobiographies by Joseph Burt Holt and Emily Burt Holt; several letters from and a memorial article about Gratia Holt, JBH's mother; a letter from, a speech by, and biographical notes about Fifield Holt, JBH's father; letters from Augustus Fifield Holt, JBH's brother; and genealogical information about the Baker, Burt, Holt, and other families. There are also many of JBH's own papers, including diaries and business papers.
The collections document not only the close relationship between the families but also the diversity of Joseph and Julia Holt's experiences: they homesteaded in Minnesota (1853) and were instrumental in founding the town of Champlin; they aided freedmen in Jackson, Mississippi (1868-1869); they taught school in Atlanta, Georgia (1875); and they worked on Indian reservations in Lac Court d'Oreilles, Wisconsin (1873-1875) and Los Pinos, Colorado (1878-1879). They also lived in Nashville, Tennessee; Hammonton, New Jersey; New Sharon, Maine; Washington, D.C.; and Tierra Amarillo, New Mexico. These moves are reflected in the geographical arrangement of the Holt family papers. The Messer family papers, on the other hand, are arranged by individual.
From the guide to the Papers., 1809-1962, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)
