A Snapshot of the Holt Family on 11 Jun 1880

Eliphaz Holt and Julia Ann Miller Holt Holt with youngest son, Alfred Lewis Holt.

This is a snapshot of the Holt family on 11 Jun 1880, Richland Township, Cowley County, KS, according to Source Citation: Census Year: 1880; Census Place: Richland, Cowley, Kansas; Archive Collection Number: T1130; Roll 18; Page: 10; Line: 6; Schedule Type: Agriculture. This information was gathered and is presented by Bleu, a great great granddaughter of Eliphaz and Julia Ann Miller Holt. The picture of the Holt family is courtesy of a great grandson of Eliphaz Holt and Julia Ann Miller Holt Holt. The pictures of the Holt headstones were taken by Bleu during an October 2007 trip to Wilmot Cemetery, Cowley County, KS.

According to Betty Bals Holt, the wife of Aubrey Sheldon Holt, who was a grandson of Julia Ann Miller Holt and her first husband, Calvin Rogers Holt, a first cousin to Julia’s second husband, Eliphaz, Julia Ann Miller Holt Holt and Eliphaz Holt moved to Richland township, Cowley County, KS, in 1873.

On 11 Jun 1880, Eliphaz Holt was 56 years old and Julia Ann Miller Holt Holt was 48. Their youngest child, Alfred Lewis Holt, had just been born that previous November -- he was six months going on seven months old. The other children at home were Alfred’s older siblings, Noah (1869), Cora (1873), and Dick (1875). Calva (1866), John William (1864), and Emberson (1860), the children Julia Ann had had with her first husband Calvin Rogers Holt, were also living with them.

Charles Blackman (1861) and John Grant (1864), two of the ten children that Eliphaz had with his first wife, Sally Kendall Holt, who died in 1867, also lived with them. (Source Citation: Year: 1880; Census Place: Richland, Cowley, Kansas; Roll T9_377; Family History Film: 1254377; Page: 565.2000; Enumeration District: 178; Image: 0685.) It was a full house!

(Sally Kendall Holt, Eliphaz Holt’s first wife, was the daughter of Logan Kendall and Sarah Kendall. Logan Kendall and Sarah Kendall were married 10 Aug 1825, Gallatin County, KY. Together they had three daughters: Sally Ann, Nancy, and Emizette. After Logan Kendall died, Sarah Kendall married Drury Holt II, the father of Eliphaz, by his first wife Sarah Cassell (1802-1839), on 26 Jan 1840, Bedford KY.)

When the census taker came around on 11 Jun 1880, he found the Holt family tilling 175 acres of grassland. They tended 2 acres of orchards and permanent pastures. Twenty acres was kept as woodlands and there were 245 acres which were marked as “unimproved” or “old fields.”
Seventy-five acres were planted in Indian corn. The family harvested 3,000 bushels the previous year. They harvested 480 bushes of wheat from 45 acres. Fifteen acres had been mown and there were 20 acres of hay. One-half acre was planted in sorghum from which 40 gallons of molasses were made.

Their farm, including land, fences, and buildings, was valued at $4,000. There were $500 worth of farm implements and $500 in livestock.

The Holt family owned 12 cows all together, milking 6 cows. Three calves had been born prior to 11 Jun 1880. Julia Ann churned 300 pounds of butter the previous year and gathered 250 eggs from their poultry flock of 36.

Eighteen ewes were waiting to be shorn and seven lambs were born. The Holts raised 23 swine that year.

Eliphaz plowed and tilled the soil and the family visited other people in the area courtesy of five horses. They did not own any mules.

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Transcriptions of old newspapers items that refer to Eliphaz Holt:

[REPORT: "L. J. N." - NORTH RICHLAND.]

Winfield Courier, April 1, 1880. (Two months before the census taker came)

One law suit, E. Holt vs. N. K. Park, closed last week, and another is on hand, N. K. Park vs. E. Holt, on account of the running at large of stock. Both parties have plenty of Kansas rails (rock) on their farms to fence in all their stock, and the costs of these two suits would build a good many rods of fence, too, and avoid law-suits between neighbors. L. J. N.

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REPORT FROM "M. C. SELTER." - POLO ITEMS.

Winfield Courier, June 3, 1880. (Eight days before the census taker came.)

I understand that W. McCormick is in the field for nomination for Judge. MAC is a worthy gentleman and would grace the bench.
G. D. Varner has built him a new house.
Mr. McPherson has been appointed postmaster at Wilmot, vice Mrs. S. M. Phoenix, resigned.
If McPherson will accept the nomination of J. P., our township will elect him.
Mr. E. Holt is decorating his farm with a stone fence, enclosing his fine orchard.
J. W. Weimer has a very fine flock of sheep; so has Frank Blue.
　
Source: http://www.ausbcomp.com/~bbott/cowley/oldnews/papersup/cour9.htm
　
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WILMOT WAIFS. "T. R. C." (Thomas Riley Carson)

Winfield Courier, Thursday, August 20, 1885.

We learn that Mr. [Eliphaz] Holt has rented his grain and stock farm to Mr. J. R. Thompson for a term of one year, and will take up his abode in the suburbs of Wilmot, having already purchased 5 acres of land from the Wilmot Town company. He expects to erect a residence thereon this fall.

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