Holliday family

William Helmus and Jethro Tabor Holliday, the sons of Eli and Annetta Bogart Holliday, were born near Miami, Ohio, in 1843 and 1844, respectively. The family moved to a farm in Coles County, Illinois, in 1858 and then to northern Colorado in 1868 to operate a sawmill. In 1870 W.H. and J.T acquired a sawmill in what is now southern Albany County, Wyoming. The sawmill was located near Sherman, Wyoming, on Dale Creek.

W.H. Holliday formed the W.H. Holliday Company in 1872 in Laramie, Wyoming, and J.T. Holliday established short-lived lumberyards in Greeley, Colorado, in 1875 and in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1877 before joining his brother as vice-president of W.H. Holliday Company in 1879, which entailed a lumber yard, general mercantile, and building contracting.

W.H. was married to Emily R. Coykendall at Fort Scott, Kansas, on May 5, 1869, after an engagement of seven years. Emily (1848-1887) was born in Hudson, Wisconsin, and had been a schoolmate of W.H. Holliday in Illinois. W.H. and Emily Holliday and had seven children: William C., Guy R., Albert E. (d. 1955), Katherine, Susan, Bessie, and Margaret. Following the death of Emily in 1887, W.H. was married to Sarah E. East and had two additional children, Mary Ethel and Helen.

W.H. Holliday served as a member of the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees from 1886-1891. He also was a member of the 3rd, 5th, 8th and 10th Wyoming Territorial Legislative Assemblies for Albany County as a Democrat in 1873, 1877, 1884 and 1888. In 1884 W.H. Holliday lost to Joseph Carey in his bid to be the Wyoming Territorial Delegate to the U.S. Congress. In 1892 he was elected to the Wyoming State Senate but resigned to run for governor, and lost the election. W.H. Holliday also served as legislator for Albany County in the 2nd, 10th, 11th, 13th and 14th state legislatures in 1893, 1909, 1911, 1915 and 1917.

J.T. Holliday was vice-president of W.H. Holliday Company and an officer of several other Laramie, Wyoming, firms involved in mining ventures, tie contracting, ranching and gypsum manufacturing. J.T. served as president of the Overland Cement Plaster Company, which he founded in 1900, president of Union Realty Company, director of City Realty Company, director of the Wyoming Creamery Company, and director of the Albany County Mutual & Loan Association.

J.T. Holliday was married in 1871 to Alice Jackson, who died in 1875 and J.T. married Alice's twin sister Martha Jackson (1849-1931) in 1879, and they had two sons, Frank and Lewis, and a daughter, Alice. J.T. was also active in the Freemasons, serving as grand master of Laramie Lodge No. 3 in 1892 and 1899 and as grand master of Wyoming from 1894 to 1895. Following J.T.'s death in 1910, Martha and Alice left Laramie to live in Riverside, California.

Frank Alan Holliday (1882-1932) graduated from the University of Wyoming and worked as a mining engineer at the Rambler Copper Mine near Holmes, Wyoming, before joining the family firm in retail lumber and contracting. He replaced his father as manager of the Overland Cement Plaster Company in 1907 until the firm was liquidated in 1928. From 1928 until his death in 1932, Frank Holliday worked as a manger of the Laramie River Company and the Pioneer Canal Company and as a general building contractor.

Frank was married to Laura Elizabeth Briesch (1888-) in 1911, and they had five children: Alan, Frances, Virginia, Jane and Laura Elizabeth (1913-1927). Frank served as a member of the University of Wyoming's Board of Trustees from 1923 to 1932 and also as president of the trustees from 1927 to 1930. He was also grand master of the Laramie, Wyoming, Freemasons Lodge No. 3 in 1907 and grand master of Wyoming from 1921 to 1922. Laura Holliday served on the Ivinson Memorial Hospital Board and for many other organizations in Laramie.

Lewis Jackson Holliday (1886-1965) attended the University of Wyoming and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1908 he joined the family firm and then served as vice-president of the Overland Cement Company until the firm was closed in 1928. Lewis worked briefly with his brother Frank as a building contractor from 1928 until 1932 and then managed several irrigation projects in Albany County, Wyoming, and sold real estate and insurance. He served on the Albany County School Board during the mid 1920s and like his father and brother, was grand master of the Laramie Freemasons, Lodge No. 3 in 1913 and grand master of Wyoming from 1931 to 1932. Lewis Holliday was married in 1913 to Rena Elias and they had three children.

In the spring of 1880 the original W.H. Holliday Company building was lost in a fire and in 1881 a new three-story building was constructed on South Second Street in Laramie, with the top two floors serving as an opera house until approximately 1885. The Company at this time sold hardware, furniture, lumber, harnesses, groceries, wagons and farm implements. In 1910 another W.H. Holliday Company building was constructed, this building was four stories high and located at the corner of Garfield and south Second Street. W.H. Holliday served as president of the company, J.T. as its vice-president, and J.W. Stryker as its treasurer.

W.H. Holliday was the merchant for the firm, and J.T. Holliday managed construction. The company constructed in Laramie part of St. Matthew's Cathedral, the Masonic Temple, the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches, the University of Wyoming's Merica Hall and the Wyoming Territorial Prison. The company was often awarded the building contracts of the Tallmadge-Butin Land Company. Following the death of J.T. Holliday in 1910, the construction portion of the company stopped and the W.H. Holliday Company bought out J.T.'s shares from his heirs. After W.H. Holliday's death in 1925, his sons, Guy R. and Albert E. Holliday, operated the company, with Guy managing the grocery and hardware portions and A.E. the furniture store.

On April 14, 1948, the W.H. Holliday building at 401 South Second Street caught on fire and the entire block of South Second Street between Garfield and Custer Streets were destroyed. Seven buildings and twenty-nine businesses were affected in the fire. Following the destruction of the W.H. Holliday building, Albert Holliday opened the Holliday furniture store at 5th and Garfield Streets. The family sold the store in 1975, but it is still operating under the Holliday name.

J.T. Holliday and his sons Lewis and Frank, branched out from the W.H. Holliday Company into other business ventures. In 1900 J.T. helped to organize and manage the Rambler Copper Company, located on Douglas Creek near Holmes, Wyoming. The company discovered platinum in 1901 and operated until about 1921. J.T. also established the Overland Cement Plaster Company to manufacture gypsum products around 1900. J.T. also founded the Cassa Mining Company, which mined bentonite (an absorptive or colloidal clay mineral, used as a filler in paper or as a carrier in some forms of pharmaceuticals) in Carbon County, Wyoming. Other business interests for J.T. Holliday included the Homestead Ranch Company, in Larimer County, Colorado, which was managed by J.S. King in a partnership with J.T. Holliday. J.T. also operated a tie cutting service with King known as King and Holliday.

Following the buy-out of J.T. Holliday's shares from the W.H. Holliday Company in 1910 and the closure of the Overland Cement Company in 1928, Frank and Lewis Holliday turned to building construction and management of irrigation projects around Laramie. Lewis Holliday served as manager of the Pioneer Canal Company, which was founded in 1878 to construct, maintain and manage ditches and reservoirs and water for irrigation. Lewis and Frank also worked for the Laramie Water Company, which was founded in 1910 to conduct general irrigation and water supply in Albany County. The Laramie Water Company owned controlling interest in the Pioneer Canal Company and had also established the Lake Hattie Water Company, the Lake Hattie Improvement Company, the Lake Hattie Irrigation Company and the Lake Hattie Reservoir & Irrigation Company as stock holding companies.

From the guide to the Holliday family papers, 1870-1960, (University of Wyoming. American Heritage Center.)