BIO: John Harbison HOLT, Centre County, Pennsylvania

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Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the 
Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing Biographical 
Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. 
Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, pages 85-86

HON. JOHN HARBISON HOLT. The subject of this biography, one of the honored sons 
of Centre County, is a most distinguished resident of Snow Shoe. He is a man of 
progressive ideas, fine attainments, high minded, who has made the most of his 
opportunities in life, and is recognized as one of the leading and 
representative citizens of the community.  
  Mr. Holt was born September 28, 1828, in the village which is still his home, 
a son of Squire John and Mary (Harbison) Holt, the former of whom was a lifelong 
farmer. He was the first child to whom the ordinance of baptism was administered 
in that place. His education was acquired mainly in the local schools, his early 
teachers being Samuel Baker, Miss Woodward, Jesse Comley, Daniel Irvin and R. 
Ephraim Williams.  He learned rapidly, at the age of fourteen began hearing 
classes in different studies, and three years later was given a teacher's 
certificate.  For some time he taught vocal music. Before attaining his majority 
he went to Blair County, Penn., where he learned engineering, but not liking the 
occupation, he gave it up two years later, and has since given his attention to 
the lumber business and farming. At the time of 

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 86

the Johnstown flood he was a member of the firm of J. H. Holt & Co., lumber 
dealers on the Susquehanna, and their losses at that time, in mill and lumber at 
Belford station, between Karthaus and Sinnamahoning in Clearfield County, 
amounted to $20,000.
  On April 5, 1852, Mr. Holt was united in marriage with Miss Letitia T. Askey, 
who was born in Clinton County, Penn. in 1831, and died in January 1894. They 
became the parents of the following children: Oscar, a coal miner, residing in 
Snow Shoe township, Centre County; Ida, deceased wife of John R. Gilliland, who 
is now filling some official position at Washington, D. C.; John Edgar, an 
extensive lumber merchant of Northumberland, Penn., who married Alice Gardner; 
Frank H., who is a noted marksman, and is now superintendent of a sawmill at 
Panthers Run, Centre County; Laura, deceased wife of William Loveland, also 
deceased, who was proprietor of an axe factory in Lamar, Clinton Co., Penn.; 
Samuel and Wilber H., both contractors, of Panthers Run; and Harry, who is 
attending the Sunbury Commercial College.  For his second wife Mr. Holt, on 
January 9, 1896, married Miss Mary H. Denlinger, a native of White Hall, 
Cumberland Co., Penn., and a daughter of Prof. David and Mary A. (Diffendal) 
Denlinger, natives of Lancaster and Cumberland Counties, respectively. Her 
paternal grandfather, Jacob Denlinger, was a farmer of Lancaster County, where 
he spent his entire life. Abraham and Elizabeth (Washmood) Diffendal, the 
maternal grandparents, were also natives of the Keystone State, the former born 
in Adams County, and the latter in Cumberland County.
  Prof. David Denlinger spent his entire life as a teacher, following that 
profession up to within a week of his death, which occurred March 26, 1892, when 
he was seventy years of age. He was the principal of White Hall Academy, which 
he founded, and conducted for seventeen years.  It was later converted into the 
Soldiers' Orphan School, which he disposed of in 1865, and next had charge of 
the Union Seminary at New Berlin, Penn., for five years. During the following 
six years he was principal of the Cedar Hill Seminary at Mt. Joy, Penn., which 
position he resigned in 1879, and then went to Manchester, Md., where he became 
principal and proprietor of the Irving Institute, which he successfully 
conducted up to the time of his death. He was a distinguished professor, with 
remarkable ability as an instructor, and the schools which he conducted took 
high rank among the educational institutions of the kind.
  Mrs. Denlinger is still living, at the age of seventy years, and now makes her 
home with her surviving children. A brief record of the family is as follows: 
Anna E. died at the age of five years; Mary H. is the wife of our subject; John 
W. has for the past twenty years been a leading attorney of Lancaster, Penn.; 
Austin F. is a practicing physician of Lansford, Penn.; Lillie D. is the wife of 
Walter Snyder, a merchant of Pottsville, Penn.; David W. is private secretary 
for the general superintendent of the freight department of the Central 
railroad, with headquarters at Mauch Chunk, Penn.; Clara B. is the wife of 
Howell Souder, of Tamaqua, Penn., who is stenographer and private secretary of 
W. D. Zehner, general superintendent of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co.; Laura 
K. is residing in Tamaqua; and Alice I. is the wife of Howard Ring, a farmer of 
Baltimore County, Maryland.
  Mr. Holt has ever taken a prominent part in public affairs, is a recognized 
leader of the Democratic party in his community, and has represented Centre 
County four years in the State Legislature. He has also filled many minor 
offices, including those of clerk of election, which he held nine years, school 
director, thirty-three years, and justice of the peace, one year. For a great 
many years, in connection with his lumber trade, he engaged in surveying. He is 
now serving as president of the Salt Lick Gas Co., of which A. C. Hechendorf is 
secretary and treasurer.  He is now endeavoring to secure a large fortune left 
in England by the Holt family, which amounts to millions of dollars. Since 
attaining his majority he has affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, now 
belonging to the Blue Lodge and Chapter of Bellefonte; for the past twenty-five 
years he has been an elder in the Presbyterian Church, of which he is a 
consistent and active member. Mr. Holt is a genial, courteous gentleman, a 
pleasant, entertaining companion, and has many stanch and admiring friends among 
all classes of men. As an energetic, upright and conscientious businessman, and 
a gentleman of attractive social qualities, he stands high in the estimation of 
the entire community.