Few names in Marion county are as widely known and as highly honored as
the one which appears at the head of this review. For many years as a
farmer, banker and prominent business man, D. W. Holstlaw has ranked and
also occupies a conspicuous place in business and state. On both sides of
his family Mr. Holstlaw springs from sturdy antecedents and he has every
reason to be proud of his forbears. His father, Daniel S. Holstlaw, was a
stock dealer and farmer, being a native of Kentucky and widely known and
highly esteemed citizen. He became a resident of this county about 1830,
settling in Stevenson township, where in due time he accumulated a large and
valuable estate and achieved much more than local reputation as breeder and
dealer in live stock, besides attaining an honorable standing as a public
spirited citizen and enterprising man of affairs. Daniel S. Hoistlaw did
much to promote the material progress of the section of country in which he
lived, and was equally interested in the social and moral advancement of the
community, doing all within his power to benefit his neighbors and fellow
citizens, and leaving to them the memory of a useful life and an honorable
name when called from the scenes of his labors and triumphs on the fifth day
of December, 1905. The maiden name of Mrs. Daniel Holstlaw was Ruth Wade
Middleton. She was born in Tennessee and is still living on the old family
homestead in Stevenson township, where, surrounded by relatives and friends,
she is passing the evening of a well spent life with nothing in the future
to fear or in the past to regret. The family of this estimable couple
consisted of eleven children, all of whom are living. A more extended
mention of this family will be found upon another page of this volume.
Daniel W. Holstlaw was born February 5, 1849, at the family home in
Stevenson township, and there spent the years of his childhood and youth,
learning at an early age the lessons of industry, economy and self-reliance,
which had much to do in forming a well rounded character and fitting him for
the subsequent duties of life. When old enough to be of service he helped
with the labors of the field and in due time became a valuable assistant to
his father in the latter's live stock interests and other business, proving
faithful to his various duties and worthy of the trust reposed in his
integrity and 'honor. Meanwhile as opportunities permitted he attended the
common schools of the neighborhood, but by reason of his services being
required at home his education was somewhat limited. In after years,
however, he made up very largely for this deficiency by a wide range of
reading and careful observation, but more especially by his relations with
his fellow men in various business capacities, thus becoming the possessor
of a fund of valuable practical knowledge, which could not have been
obtained from schools or colleges.
Mr. Holstlaw spent his minority
under the parental roof, in the cultivation of the farm and otherwise
looking after his parents, but in the year 1870 he severed his home ties to
accept a clerkship in a mercantile house in the town of luka. After serving
in the capacity of clerk until becoming an efficient salesman and acquiring
a knowledge of the business he formed a partnership with James W. Humphries,
and during the two years ensuing the firm conducted a thriving trade and
forged rapidly to the front, among the leading merchants of the town. At the
expiration of the period noted Mr. Holstlaw purchased his partner's interest
and adding very materially to the stock, soon built up a large and lucrative
patronage, and it was not long until he became one of the most successful
business men of the county, a reputation he sustained during the thirty odd
years which he devoted to mercantile life. Meantime he saw a favorable
opening at Iuka for the banking business, and in compliance with the
suggestions of many of his fellow townsmen and others as well as consulting
his own inclinations, he finally established a bank in his store, which soon
formed a valuable adjunct to the business interests of the town and
surrounding country. After conducting the two lines of business jointly
until 1907, he disposed of his mercantile interests, and since that time has
devoted his entire attention to banking, establishing in luka the Holstlaw
Bank, which is now one of the most successful and popular institutions of
the kind, not only in Marion county, but in the southern part of the state.
The growth of the bank in public favor has more than met the high
expectations of Mr. Holstlaw and others interested in its success, the
patronage, which takes a wide range, being liberal, but all that could
reasonably be desired, and the solidity of the institution beyond the shadow
of a doubt.
As the executive head and practical manager of the bank,
Mr. Holstlaw exemplifies the sound judgment, wise discretion and rare
foresight which have ever characterized his business dealing, while his
familiarity with financial matters enables him to conduct the institution in
the broad though wisely conservative spirit which bespeaks its continuous
growth and solidity. The bank building is an elegant modern structure,
erected especially adapted for the purpose and amply equipped with all the
appliances necessary to the successful prosecution of the business, the
safe, furniture and other fixtures being of the latest and most approved
patterns and calculated to satisfy the taste of the most critical and
exacting. Mr. Holstlaw is also a stockholder and director of the Salem
National Bank and also the bank at St. Peter.
In addition to his
long and eminently successful career in business, Mr. Holstlaw has for many
years been one of the leading politicians of Marion county, his activity in
political circles, however, being by no means confined to local affairs, but
state wide in its influence. He is firm and unchanging in his allegiance to
Democratic principles and mid all vicissitudes in which the party has been
subject during the last two decades, he has never wavered in his loyalty,
nor when necessary hesitated to make sacrifices for its success. Judicious
in counsel and an untiring worker, he has been a standard bearer in a number
of campaigns and it was not until recently that he consented to serve his
party in a public capacity, although frequently importuned and solicited by
his many friends to accept the offices for which by native training he is
eminently fitted. In the year 1908 he was elected to the upper house of the
General Assembly, and although but fairly entering upon his official duties
he has already made his influence felt among his brother Senators, and bids
fair to render his constituency and the state valuable service and earn an
honorable record among the distinguished legislators of the commonwealth.
On January 3, 1875, Mr. Holstlaw and Clara R. Stevenson were united
in the holy bonds of wedlock, a union blessed with two children, the older a
son, Herschel D., and the younger a daughter, who answers to the name of
Florence E.
Herschel D. Holstlaw, whose birth occurred on December
20, 1875, was educated in the home schools and Bryant & Stratton's
Commercial College, and since beginning life for himself has been associated
with his father, being at this time cashier of the Holstlaw Bank and a man
of fine business ability. He was married October 3, 1900, to Louise Tully,
of Xenia, Illinois, whose parents, Joseph E. and Fannie (Paine) Tully, still
live in that town, the father being a banker and merchant, and one of the
oldest of three children. Mrs. Holstlaw is the oldest of three children born
to these parents, her two brothers, Joseph M. and William Paine Tully, being
residents of Xenia, and associated with their father in merchandising and
banking. Florence E., the subject's second child, married Albert E. Kelly,
of North Vernon, Indiana, but now a resident of Iuka, Illinois, where he is
engaged in the mercantile trade at the old Holstlaw stand.
Mr.
Holstlaw's activity in business together with his superior methods and
honorable dealing has resulted greatly to his financial advantage and he is
now one of the wealthy and reliable men of Marion county, being in
independent circumstances, with more than a sufficiency of this world's
goods to render his future free from care and anxiety. Additional to his
mercantile, banking and other interests at Iuka, he owns several valuable
farms in various parts of the county and is also quite extensively
interested in live stock, being one of the largest breeders and raisers of
fine cattle in this part of the state, these and his other holdings
indicating the energy and capacity of a mind peculiarly endowed for large
and important enterprises.
Clara R. Stevenson, who became the wife
of Hon. D. W. Holstlaw, as stated in a preceding paragraph, is a native of
Stevenson township and a daughter of Hon. Samuel E. Stevenson, in whose
honor the township was named. Mr. Stevenson was born in Ohio August 9, 1819,
and his wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Kagy, was also a native of
Ohio. The Stevensons were among the pioneer settlers of Fairfield county,
Ohio, and it was there that Samuel E. spent his youth, beginning to earn his
own living at the early age of six years. Later he received eight dollars
per month for his services as a farm laborer, and by industry and strict
economy succeeded in saving in four years the sum of one hundred dollars,
his expenses for clothing during that time amounting to only forty dollars.
Going on horseback to Illinois, he invested his savings in cattle, which he
drove to Ohio and sold at a liberal profit, the venture proving so
successful that he decided to continue the business. During the several
years following he made a number of trips to and from Illinois , buying
cattle and disposing of them at handsome figures, and in this way laid the
foundation of what subsequently became an ample fortune. After his marriage
to Miss Kagy, which took place in Marion county, Illinois, in 1848, he
located in what is now Stevenson township, where he entered a large tract of
land and engaged in farming and stock raising, devoting especial attention
to the breeding of cattle, in which lie met with the most gratifying
success. Later he became interested in public affairs and in due time rose
to a position of considerable influence among his fellow citizens, who in
recognition of valuable political services elected him in 1866 to the lower
house of the Legislature.
Mr. Stevenson was one of the leading
Democrats of his day in Marion county and achieved a wide reputation
throughout the state as an able and adroit politician. He filled worthily a
number of positions of honor and trust, won the esteem of the people
irrespective of party alignment and became one of the most popular men of
his time in Southern Illinois. In connection with farming and stock raising
he held large interests in the Sandoval coal mines and was also a heavy
stockholder in the Salem National Bank and appeared to succeed in all of the
enterprises to which he devoted his attention. He not only gave his children
the best educational advantages the country afforded, but also provided
liberally for their material welfare by giving each a good start when they
left home to begin life for themselves. He was long a sincere member of the
Baptist church, as was also his wife, and spared no pains in instructing his
children in the truths of religion and the necessity of moral conduct as the
only basis of a true and successful life. Mrs. Stevenson died in 1876 and
her husband in the year 1899, the loss of both being greatly deplored and
profoundly mourned by their many friends in Marion and other counties of
Southern Illinois.
The children of Samuel E. and Elizabeth
Stevenson, nine in number, were as follows: Clara B., wife of Hon. D. W.
Holstlaw; Marion T., a farmer and stock dealer of Marion county: Joanna,
widow of the late Aaron Warner, of Stevenson township, where she now
resides: Edgar, for some years one of the leading teachers of Marion county
and a young man of noble aims and high ideals, who departed this life
November, 1878, in the prime of his physical and mental powers. He began
school work at the age of eighteen, soon attained an honorable standing as
an educator, and at the time of his death was considered one of the finest
and most accomplished instructors in this part of the state. Homer R., the
fifth in order of birth, married Clara Humphries and devotes his attention
to farming, in which his success has been very gratifying. Van C, who
married Ella Brunton, lives on the old family homestead and is also a
successful tiller of the soil; Frank M., the seventh of the family, was
graduated from Illinois College in 1886, and the year following was killed
by lightning. He, too, was a young man of intelligence and culture and his
untimely death terminated what promised to be a useful and honorable career.
Anna, who married Frank Boynton, of Salem, is deceased, and Maggie, the
youngest of the family, is the wife of W. E. Irvin, and lives in Salem.
Extracted 27 May 2019 by Norma Hass from 1909 Biographical and Reminiscent History of Richland, Clay and Marion Counties, Illinois, pages 590-594.