James Holt was born on 10 February 1804 in Halifax County, North Carolina, to Jesse and Elizabeth Davis Holt. He married Mary Pain in 1830. She died in 1845 and that same year he married Parthenia Overton. He became a member of the LDS Church in 1839 and moved to Nauvoo in 1840-1841. In 1845 he was chosen to join the James Emmett Company "to go to the Rocky Mountains, to preach to the Indians along the way, and prepare them to receive the Saints in the Valleys of the Mountains." This company endured severe hardships and dissension arose among its members. The company broke up and many, including Holt, stayed in Iowa to farm. He left for Utah in 1852 settling first in Weber County and eventually in southern Utah, Mountain Meadows area, where he established a ranch and prospered. He died in 1894.
The James Holt biographical sketch (1881) is entitled "Life of James Holt: Early Pioneer." This is not a journal account, but rather Holt's recollection of life events written in 1881 when he was 77 years of age.
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Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
Transferred from the Robert Pendleton papers in the 1980s.
Processed by Nancy V. Young in 1984.