University of Wyoming
William Helmus and Jethro Tabor Holliday, the sons of Eli and Annetta Bogart Holliday, were born near Miami, Ohio, in 1843 and 1844, respectively. The family moved to a farm in Coles County, Illinois, in 1858 and then to northern Colorado in 1868 to operate a sawmill. In 1870 W.H. and J.T acquired a sawmill in what is now southern Albany County, Wyoming. The sawmill was located near Sherman, Wyoming, on Dale Creek.
W.H. Holliday formed the W.H. Holliday Company in 1872 in Laramie, Wyoming, and J.T. Holliday established short-lived lumberyards in Greeley, Colorado, in 1875 and in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1877 before joining his brother as vice-president of W.H. Holliday Company in 1879, which entailed a lumber yard, general mercantile, and building contracting.
W.H. was married to Emily R. Coykendall at Fort Scott, Kansas, on May 5, 1869, after an engagement of seven years. Emily (1848-1887) was born in Hudson, Wisconsin, and had been a schoolmate of W.H. Holliday in Illinois. W.H. and Emily Holliday and had seven children: William C., Guy R., Albert E. (d. 1955), Katherine, Susan, Bessie, and Margaret. Following the death of Emily in 1887, W.H. was married to Sarah E. East and had two additional children, Mary Ethel and Helen.
W.H. Holliday served as a member of the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees from 1886-1891. He also was a member of the 3rd, 5th, 8th and 10th Wyoming Territorial Legislative Assemblies for Albany County as a Democrat in 1873, 1877, 1884 and 1888. In 1884 W.H. Holliday lost to Joseph Carey in his bid to be the Wyoming Territorial Delegate to the U.S. Congress. In 1892 he was elected to the Wyoming State Senate but resigned to run for governor, and lost the election. W.H. Holliday also served as legislator for Albany County in the 2nd, 10th, 11th, 13th and 14th state legislatures in 1893, 1909, 1911, 1915 and 1917.
J.T. Holliday was vice-president of W.H. Holliday Company and an officer of several other Laramie, Wyoming, firms involved in mining ventures, tie contracting, ranching and gypsum manufacturing. J.T. served as president of the Overland Cement Plaster Company, which he founded in 1900, president of Union Realty Company, director of City Realty Company, director of the Wyoming Creamery Company, and director of the Albany County Mutual & Loan Association.
J.T. Holliday was married in 1871 to Alice Jackson, who died in 1875 and J.T. married Alice's twin sister Martha Jackson (1849-1931) in 1879, and they had two sons, Frank and Lewis, and a daughter, Alice. J.T. was also active in the Freemasons, serving as grand master of Laramie Lodge No. 3 in 1892 and 1899 and as grand master of Wyoming from 1894 to 1895. Following J.T.'s death in 1910, Martha and Alice left Laramie to live in Riverside, California.
Frank Alan Holliday (1882-1932) graduated from the University of Wyoming and worked as a mining engineer at the Rambler Copper Mine near Holmes, Wyoming, before joining the family firm in retail lumber and contracting. He replaced his father as manager of the Overland Cement Plaster Company in 1907 until the firm was liquidated in 1928. From 1928 until his death in 1932, Frank Holliday worked as a manger of the Laramie River Company and the Pioneer Canal Company and as a general building contractor.
Frank was married to Laura Elizabeth Briesch (1888-) in 1911, and they had five children: Alan, Frances, Virginia, Jane and Laura Elizabeth (1913-1927). Frank served as a member of the University of Wyoming's Board of Trustees from 1923 to 1932 and also as president of the trustees from 1927 to 1930. He was also grand master of the Laramie, Wyoming, Freemasons Lodge No. 3 in 1907 and grand master of Wyoming from 1921 to 1922. Laura Holliday served on the Ivinson Memorial Hospital Board and for many other organizations in Laramie.
Lewis Jackson Holliday (1886-1965) attended the University of Wyoming and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1908 he joined the family firm and then served as vice-president of the Overland Cement Company until the firm was closed in 1928. Lewis worked briefly with his brother Frank as a building contractor from 1928 until 1932 and then managed several irrigation projects in Albany County, Wyoming, and sold real estate and insurance. He served on the Albany County School Board during the mid 1920s and like his father and brother, was grand master of the Laramie Freemasons, Lodge No. 3 in 1913 and grand master of Wyoming from 1931 to 1932. Lewis Holliday was married in 1913 to Rena Elias and they had three children.
In the spring of 1880 the original W.H. Holliday Company building was lost in a fire and in 1881 a new three-story building was constructed on South Second Street in Laramie, with the top two floors serving as an opera house until approximately 1885. The Company at this time sold hardware, furniture, lumber, harnesses, groceries, wagons and farm implements. In 1910 another W.H. Holliday Company building was constructed, this building was four stories high and located at the corner of Garfield and south Second Street. W.H. Holliday served as president of the company, J.T. as its vice-president, and J.W. Stryker as its treasurer.
W.H. Holliday was the merchant for the firm, and J.T. Holliday managed construction. The company constructed in Laramie part of St. Matthew's Cathedral, the Masonic Temple, the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches, the University of Wyoming's Merica Hall and the Wyoming Territorial Prison. The company was often awarded the building contracts of the Tallmadge-Butin Land Company. Following the death of J.T. Holliday in 1910, the construction portion of the company stopped and the W.H. Holliday Company bought out J.T.'s shares from his heirs. After W.H. Holliday's death in 1925, his sons, Guy R. and Albert E. Holliday, operated the company, with Guy managing the grocery and hardware portions and A.E. the furniture store.
On April 14, 1948, the W.H. Holliday building at 401 South Second Street caught on fire and the entire block of South Second Street between Garfield and Custer Streets were destroyed. Seven buildings and twenty-nine businesses were affected in the fire. Following the destruction of the W.H. Holliday building, Albert Holliday opened the Holliday furniture store at 5th and Garfield Streets. The family sold the store in 1975, but it is still operating under the Holliday name.
J.T. Holliday and his sons Lewis and Frank, branched out from the W.H. Holliday Company into other business ventures. In 1900 J.T. helped to organize and manage the Rambler Copper Company, located on Douglas Creek near Holmes, Wyoming. The company discovered platinum in 1901 and operated until about 1921. J.T. also established the Overland Cement Plaster Company to manufacture gypsum products around 1900. J.T. also founded the Cassa Mining Company, which mined bentonite (an absorptive or colloidal clay mineral, used as a filler in paper or as a carrier in some forms of pharmaceuticals) in Carbon County, Wyoming. Other business interests for J.T. Holliday included the Homestead Ranch Company, in Larimer County, Colorado, which was managed by J.S. King in a partnership with J.T. Holliday. J.T. also operated a tie cutting service with King known as King and Holliday.
Following the buy-out of J.T. Holliday's shares from the W.H. Holliday Company in 1910 and the closure of the Overland Cement Company in 1928, Frank and Lewis Holliday turned to building construction and management of irrigation projects around Laramie. Lewis Holliday served as manager of the Pioneer Canal Company, which was founded in 1878 to construct, maintain and manage ditches and reservoirs and water for irrigation. Lewis and Frank also worked for the Laramie Water Company, which was founded in 1910 to conduct general irrigation and water supply in Albany County. The Laramie Water Company owned controlling interest in the Pioneer Canal Company and had also established the Lake Hattie Water Company, the Lake Hattie Improvement Company, the Lake Hattie Irrigation Company and the Lake Hattie Reservoir & Irrigation Company as stock holding companies.
The collection contains materials relating to the extended Holliday family and their business interests from 1872 to 1960. The Holliday family papers include newsclippings, scrapbooks, account books, correspondence, and miscellaneous other materials for Albert, Frank, J.T., Laura, Lewis and W.H. Holliday. Frank Holliday's correspondence with mostly with his family while attending the University of Wyoming, working as an engineer at the Rambler Copper and Platinum Mine, serving as a trustee for the University of Wyoming and as Grand Master of the Wyoming Freemasons. Frank Holliday's materials also include contracts, budgets, reports and minutes of meetings for the University of Wyoming. Laura Holliday's materials include research on the Breisch family and minutes and financial materials for her work on the Ivinson Memorial Hospital. Lewis Holliday's papers include correspondence and other materials relating to his work with the University of Wyoming Alumni Association, the Freemasons of Wyoming and miscellaneous other materials. J.T. Holliday's materials include an account book, letterpress copybooks and letters that he received. There is a limited amount of material relating to W.H. Holliday, but includes an account book and materials for the Albany County and Intermountain Fair Association.
The collection also includes photographs and 79 glass plate negatives of the Holliday family, images of Laramie and around Albany County, Wyoming. There are also images of the University of Wyoming's buildings, faculty members, football team, and men and women's cadets, presumably taken while Frank, Lewis and Alice Holliday attended the University. Also included are photographs and glass plate negatives of the interior and exterior of the Holliday's businesses, such as the Overland Cement Company, the Rambler Copper and Platinum Mine, the W.H. Holliday Company and the 1948 fire that destroyed the W.H. Holliday building.
The business records in the collection deal with automotive, mining, grocery, construction, ranching, lumber, irrigation, printing, gypsum manufacturing, and a building and loan association. The collection includes minutes, account books and other financial materials, contracts, correspondence, tax records, reports, and maps for several Laramie and Albany County, Wyoming, businesses, including the Albany Motor Company, the Blue Grass Mining Company, Cassa Mining Company, Gem City Grocery, Home Builders Company, the Laramie Printing Company, Homestead Ranch Company, the Laramie Republican Company, the Laramie Water Company and its affiliated holding companies, the Overland Cement Company, the Pioneer Canal Company, the Rambler Copper and Mining Company, the Laramie Amusement Company, the Albany Mutual Building and Loan Association, the W.H. Holliday Company and the Wyoming Creamery Company. There is also a small amount of material for Lewis Holliday's short career as an architect.
There are no access restrictions on the materials for research purposes, and the collection is open to the public.
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There are no other known archival collections created by the Holliday family at the date of processing.
The Holliday family papers were donated to the American Heritage Center by various members of the Holliday family from
The collection was processed by Mark L. Shelstad in May 1996. Revised by D. Claudia Thompson in November 2001 and February 2015, and updated by Krist Jessup in January 2018 and Jamie Greene in March 2021 and June 2025.
Some of the materials were damaged by the 1948 fire which destroyed the Holliday store, and these items have been photocopied for preservation. The collection was received in no particular order and was therefore arranged as seemed most useful for research.
Item Description, Box Number, Folder Number, Collection Name, Collection Number, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Arranged alphabetically by family member, this series contains scrapbooks, personal cash and account books, correspondence and diaries. Especially well documented are Frank Holliday's service on the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees and with the Freemasons, and Laura Holliday's work with the Ivinson Memorial Hospital Board and her genealogical research on the Breisch family.
Arranged alphabetically, this series contains images of the Holliday family, their business operations, scenery around Laramie and Albany County, and of the University of Wyoming buildings and activities.
Arranged alphabetically by company name, this series contains account and cashbooks, correspondence, contracts, correspondence, stock certificates and other materials for the numerous businesses that the Hollidays owned or held interest in.