My Genealogy Hound

R. C. Holland, who has served for the past six years as supervisor and is one of the active and progressive farmers and stock-raisers of Union county, owns and cultivates ninety acres of land adjoining Afton. He is too well known to the readers of this volume to need introduction here, for he has been a resident of the county for more than a third of a century, dating his residence since 1872. He was born in Grafton, West Virginia, August 25, 1859. His father, J. W. Holland, also a native of that state, was there reared and after attaining his majority he there married Miss Matilda J. Warder, also a native of that state. Making their way to the Mississippi valley in 1864 they settled in Monmouth, Warren county, Illinois, where the father worked at the carpenter’s trade, which he had learned and followed in his native state. Ten years were spent in Illinois and then the father, with his family of five children, came to Iowa and secured a tract of raw prairie, which he converted into a good farm, carrying on the work of development and improvement for nineteen years. He then sold out and went to Afton, where he now resides. His parents are both living.

When a lad of thirteen years R. C. Holland accompanied his parents on their removal to Iowa and assisted in developing the new farm, aiding in the arduous task of converting the prairie into richly cultivated fields. From morning until night he worked in the fields during the seasons of planting and harvesting until the prairie grasses and wild flowers of the early days were replaced by the waving fields of grain, ripening into the golden harvests of autumn. He remained with his father during his minority and was afterward employed at farm labor until twenty-seven years of age, when he married and began farming on his own account.

In Pleasant township, on the 28th of October, 1886, Mr. Holland was married to Miss Rebecca Jane Lorimer, who was born in Ohio but was reared in Iowa. Her father, William C. Lorimer, was born and reared in Ohio and there married Miss Sarah Reed, a native of the Buckeye state and a half-sister of Dr. M. B. Reed. They became pioneers of Union county, settling in Pleasant township, where they reared their family of two sons and a daughter.

Following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Holland began their domestic life upon a rented farm in Sand Creek township, living for five years on one place, after which they purchased the property. Mr. Holland further improved and developed the property and later traded it for a farm of one hundred acres in Union township, near Afton. This he cultivated for four years and then sold and bought where he now resides, on section 20, Union township. He has added to and improved the house, has built a barn, laid cement walks and made other substantial improvements, which add to the value, convenience and attractive appearance of the place. When a boy he hauled the rock used in building the cellar on the place, never dreaming that he would one day own the property. He raises good crops and is also successfully engaged in raising and feeding stock, both branches of his business adding materially to his financial resources.

Mr. and Mrs. Holland have one daughter, Grace Helen, who is now a student in the Afton high school. They lost their first born, a son, Frank, who died at the age of one year.

Politically Mr. Holland has been a life-long republican and a stalwart champion of the party. He was elected highway commissioner in 1886, was secretary of the school board in Sand Creek township; and after removing to Union township was elected to the same office. He was assessor for two terms and was elected county supervisor, after which he resigned as assessor. After one term, however, he was re-elected and has been continued in the office by popular suffrage for six years. For one year he was president of the county board of supervisors and has always been most faithful as well as capable in the discharge of his official duties. No word of complaint has ever been offered by any fair-minded citizen and even the members of the opposition party endorse his excellent service.

Mr. Holland is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Afton, has filled all the chairs and is a past grand. He is also a member of the encampment, of which he is a past patriarch. For some years he served as treasurer of the lodge. A residence of thirty-five years in the county has made him largely familiar with its history, while his life, guided by worthy principles, has gained for him a creditable position in public regard.