Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Holliday, Fleming April 26, 1823 - ????
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Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892.
Author: Samuel T. Wiley

FLEMING HOLLIDAY,
now paymaster of the Great Bend Coal Company at Bellwood, is second in line
of descent from the founder of the city of Hollidaysburg, a Veteran of the
civil war, and a man of wide experience  life He is the youngest son of John
and Mary (Lowry) Holliday, and was born April 26, 1823, in Logan's valley,
Antis township, Blair county, Pennsylvania.  His paternal grandfather, Adam
Holliday, was born in the north of Ireland, but while yet a young man, about
1750, left his native land, and in company with a brother named William,
emigrated to America and settled in Lancaster  county, Pennsylvania.  After 
remaining in that county for a short time the two brothers removed farther
west and located on the banks of the Conocoheague creek, and in 1768 came
into what is now Blair county and settled where the city of Hollidaysburg now
stands.  Adam Holliday took out a warrant for one thousand acres of land,
including the present site of the city (for which he afterward paid the sum
of two hundred and twenty-two dollars and twenty cents), and immediately
began the erection of a log house on the open space now known as "The
Diamond."  It is related that when he drove the first stake he casually
remarked that "whoever is alive a hundred years after this will see a
tolerable-sized town here, and this will be near about the middle of it." 
During the revolutionary war he rendered valuable service in protecting the
frontier from Indian depredations, in some instances purchasing supplies and
organizing forces for defending the settlement at his own expense.  In
December, 1777, he visited Philadelphia to secure public funds for the
defence of this frontier, and was successful in his mission, returning with
means sufficient to supply Holliday's fort with provisions and ammunition for
some time.  He remained active during the war, and after its close he became
quite wealthy, although at one time almost ruined by the loss of his land
through some informality in the title.  He died in 1801, leaving two
children: John, the father of the subject of this sketch; and Jane, who
became the wife of William Reynolds, of Bedford county.  She was born October
10, 1783, and died May 10, 1865, in her eighty-second year.  Her husband was
proprietor of the Bedford Springs hotel for many years, and became well
known.  They had a family of children, among whom were William, Holliday,
James, Henry, Mary and Ruth.  Henry removed to one of the southern states
years ago, and all the other are deceased.  John Holliday (father) was born
December 18 1780, at what is now the city of Hollidaysburg, this county,
where he was reared and received such education as was afforded by the
occasional subscription schools of that early day.  In 1802 he married Mary
Lowry, a daughter of Alexander Lowry, one of the earliest landed proprietors
in that vicinity, and of Scotch descent.  Inheriting most of his father's
estate, he became the wealthiest man in this section of western Pennsylvania,
and in 1807 removed to the present site of Johnstown, Cambria county, where be
purchased a large farm, including the land on which the city was afterward
built, from Doctor Anderson, of Bedford county.  A town was at once laid out
and christened Johnstown, in his honor, but there came no " boom "in building
lots, and after a short time he appears to have lost all faith in the future
of his new enterprise.  At any rate, he sold the land to Peter Livergood for
eight dollars an acre, and returned to Hollidaysburg, where he erected a
large two-story hewed log house, which he occupied as a hotel and general
store.  In the fall of 1827 he sold that property to Peter Hewit, who used
the building as a hotel, post-office and general store until 1839, when it
was torn down and the brick structure now known as the American house erected
on its site.  John Holliday continued to reside at Hollidaysburg until his
death, which event occurred December 20, 1843, in the sixty-third year of his
age.  He was a whig in politics, and took an active interest in the success of
his party.  By his marriage with Mary Lowry he had a family of ten children,
five sons and five daughters.
      Fleming Holliday was reared principally in what is now the city of
Hollidaysburg, and received it fair English education in the subscription
schools still in vogue in his boyhood days.  After leaving school he
commenced life as a clerk in a country store at Bellwood, where he remained
about nine years.  He then accepted a position as salesman in a large
mercantile establishment in Philadelphia, and in 1858 went to Colorado.  He
assisted in laying out the original town of Denver, and remained in Colorado,
engaged in various enterprises, until 1860, when he returned to Pennsylvania,
and shortly afterward became active in the formation of Co. A, 110th
Pennsylvania infantry, and was made second lieutenant of that company.  They
drilled for four months at Camp Grossman, Huntingdon county, where Mr.
Holliday was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant, and then went to Camp
Curtin, from which place they were assigned to General Lander's division, and
moved forward into West Virginia in January, 1862. With his company,
Lieutenant Holliday participated in the battles of Winchester, Cedar
Mountain, Thoroughfare Gap, the second engagement at Bull Run, and numerous
other skirmishes and minor contests.  He was honorably discharged at
Washington in October, 1863, and returned to Philadelphia, where he was
employed as clerk and salesman for a period of six years, after which he went
to Deadwood, now S. Dakota, and later into Montana, engaged in prospecting. 
He had some lively experience with Indians while in the northern part of
Montana.  On leaving that State he, in company with three others, built a
skiff and descended the Big Horn river to its confluence with the
Yellowstone, thence down that river to the Missouri, and down the Missouri to
Bismarck, North  Dakota.  In all this trip, mostly through a wild and
unsettled territory, they never saw an Indian.  Leaving Bismarck, Mr.
Holliday came to Michigan, and for a time acted as superintendent of a saw
mill in the lumber region of that state.  Sickness, however, compelled him to
relinquish that position, and he returned to his is old home in this county,
where he has ever since resided. He is now paymaster for the Great Bend Coal
Company at Bellwood. and ranks with the widely known and mostly esteemed
citizens of Blair county.
      In November, 1850, Mr. Holliday was united in marriage with Mary Ann
Bell, a daughter of John Bell, of Mary Ann Forge.  By this union he had one
child, an only son, named Robert Lowry, who is now superintendent of the
Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore division of the Pennsylvania railroad. 
Mrs. Holliday died in 1851, and Mr Holliday afterward married Anna Mary
Dysart, a daughter of William P. Dysart, of Tipton.  To this second union was
born a family of three children, one son and two daughters.  The son, William
D.,is now assistant general freight agent of the Big Four railroad, with
headquarters at St. Louis, Missouri, and the daughters, Mary Fleming and
Elizabeth, are living at home with their parents. 

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Esther McDermott  emamcd@erols.com.

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