Born in Troup county, Ga. Came to Texas in February 1847. Volunteer in the Mexican army, participated in the battle of Buena Vista. Elected first country treasurer. Enlisted in confederate army in 1861 and was assigned duty with the home guard as colonel. He married Mary Scott : son George, second wife Clara Ann Thomas had 10 children, third wife, Susan A. McCarty bore him 3 sons.
Samuel represented his district in the 26th Legislature philanthropic and public spurted, sponsored local business projects such as Burnet Iron Works, Marbel Falls Textile Mill, Marbel Falls Ferry , TX Mining & improvement company.
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HOLLAND, SAMUEL E
Samuel Eli Holland, of Burnet county, Texas, is the son of John R. and Elizabeth Holland. His father had six brothers, to-wit: Harrison, James, Thomas, William, Benjamin and Robert. One sister, Mary, married a Mr. Goodwin, and another, Sallie, married Mr. Nellums. Susan's husband is not known.
John R., the father of Samuel Eli Holland, the subject of this biography, was born in Green County, Georgia, in 1784, and came to Texas with his family in 1841, and settled in Harrison county, on the Big Cyprus.
Samuel Eli was born in Merryweather County, on the 6th day of December, 1826, and was raised in Georgia and came to Texas with his father's family when he was twenty years of age. He came to Austin, and volunteered, in May, 1847, in the army of the United States, in Hugh Smith's company, Jack Hays' regiment, and with that command proceeded to the army of General Taylor, then in Mexico. He was engaged with Hays' regiment in guerrilla warfare, until discharged, in May, 1848. He returned to Austin, but remained there only a short time.
In September, 1848, he settled in Burnet county, then unorganized, where he purchased land on Hamilton Creek, three miles below the present town of Burnet, twenty-five miles from his nearest neighbor, and there commenced farming. He invested eight or nine hundred dollars, the amount saved of his pay for services in the army.
Captain Holland has been married three times. He first married Mary Scott, in 1852. She was raised in Missouri. She had one son, George, who now lives in Mason county; she died in March, 1855. On the 6th of December, 1855, he again married, a Miss Clara Thomas. From this marriage, he raised nine children. Four sons, all married, to-wit: Dana B., John H., Sam. W. and Porter D. Holland. Five daughters: Mary R., married George Lester, of Llano county; Martha Ann, married Henry Hester; and has three at home, the eldest, Louisa, 16 years of age; Catherine, 13, at school in Burnet, and Elizabeth, n years of age. This couple lived together thirty-one years, when the wife died, January 8, 1887.
He was again married on the 22nd of September, 1887, to Mrs. Susan A. McCarty, by whom he has one child, Charles Hamilton, eight months of age.
Captain Holland has been a successful business man making the greater part of his money by farming, and losing considerable amounts in public enterprises. He attempted to build a foundry at Burnet, by which he lost $6,000. He is a member of the Texas Mining and Improvement Company, General Johnson and Mr. Holloway being the other members. Captain Holland has invested largely in this company, which is building up the city of Marble Falls, and which built the North-Western railroad from Burnet to Marble Falls. He also built and owns the Grange House, at Burnet, as well as a fine livery stable. He is largely engaged in farming and stock raising, and owns very fine lands, that have become very valuable, on Hamilton Creek, in Burnet county.
He is a Royal Arch Mason, and a leading man in the Grange; is five feet nine inches in height; weighs 148 pounds; is compactly and squarely built; round head, protuberant forehead; hair originally black, now iron gray, and active and quick in all his motions.
Captain Holland has been a leading man in his county. With undoubted courage and firmness, he has always espoused the side of law and order, and given a ready and active support to the constituted authorities, and has been relied upon and looked to in time of trouble.
Burnet was, for a long time after he settled there, a border county, and subject to Indian raids. Captain Holland has responded to every call of his neighbors to repel the Indian advance, and protect the settlers and their property from the merciless rapacity of the red skins.
As late as 1859, S. E. Holland, General A. R. Johnson, J. D. McFarland, Dave Hunter and William McGill had a fight with the Indians within sight of the town of Burnet, in which three Indians were killed and the rest driven off. Another fight occurred near Burnet, in 1860, between eight white men and fourteen Indians. The whites were S. E. Holland, Robert Flippin, John Moore, Albert Watts, Major Eubanks, and three others, in which two Indians were killed, and the whites captured three horses and outfits. In 1864, Captain Holland volunteered to go to Lampasas to repel an Indian invasion, with seven other men. Near the Twin Sister Mountains, they encountered the Indians, and after a running fight, captured fifty-five head of horses, and the outfit of the Indians.
At one time there was a company of counterfeiters on the Colorado River, and they had their die fixed on a pecan log. Some of them were arrested and brought to trial, but no evidence could be obtained, and they were acquitted. But they were notified by Captain Holland and others to leave the county, and they went, without counting upon the order of their going.
Burnet County polled ninety-two majority against the ordinance of secession, and there were a number of good men, Union men, in the county. These men were subject to great persecution by an organized vigilance committee, and some of them found graves in "Dead Man's Hole," or "Central America," as it was called, and although Captain Holland was in the Confederate service on the border, he raised his voice in no unmistakable terms against all such persecutions.
After the war, a number of parties commenced rounding up the yearlings, branding them, and driving off the beef cattle. A number of these parties were indicted, but Judge Turner refused to hold court unless he was protected. Captain Holland, by request of a number of respectable citizens, organized a small police force, and Judge Turner, knowing of what kind of stuff the man was made, said to him: "Holland, I look to you to protect this court, else I can't hold it." Holland had about twenty determined, well-armed men, and did protect the court.
The opposition known as the "Beard party" came into town with broomsticks, and commenced to tantalize Holland's men. Holland said to them, "hold on," and in such tones that they knew he meant it, and the Beard party subsided. Beard himself said he would kill the man who swore against him. Captain Holland put a nephew of his just behind Beard, with a five-pound Bowie knife, and ordered him to cut Beard's shoulder down if he drew a weapon. But he did not draw, and the trial went on peaceably.
From time to time, in the early settlement of the county, and just after the war, a rough element attempted to destroy the administration of the law, but on each occasion the staunch old farmer and first settler marched to the front, and. aided by other good men, he has always succeeded in sustaining the constituted authorities.
Captain Holland is fully understood and appreciated in his county for his sterling qualities and integrity, and although past middle age, he is yet vigorous, active and intelligent, and takes the same interest in affairs he did when much younger.
As stated, he is one of the Texas Mining and Improvement Company building up the town of Marble Falls, at Marble Falls, and developing the great water power of the company, and has the promise of a long line of usefulness yet before him. (Source: Types of Successful Men of Texas, by Lewis E. Daniell, Publ. 1890.