Charles C. Holden. When
Charles C. Holden organized the First State Bank of Willow in 1910,
he was elected to the post of cashier of the bank, and he has held
that position down to the present date. Mr. Holden was born in Wise
County, Texas, on October 27, 1887, and is a son of J. H. Holden, who
was born in Missouri in I860.
The Holden family
was established in Kentucky in pioneer days and men of that name
helped to mold the fortunes of the state, and many of them are to be
found within her borders today. The branch with which we are
concerned at this writing pioneered into Missouri a good many years
before the Civil war period and there J. H. Holden was born. From
Missouri he moved to Wise County, Texas, as a young man, and there
married. He came to Grier County, Texas, in April, 1888, a pioneer to
another new country, and homesteaded 160 acres of land about four and
a half miles southeast of what is now the Town of Willow. Today Mr.
Holden owns eight quarter section tracts of land in addition to the
original quarter section which he got on
his homestead rights. He has devoted his time to farming and stock
raising there, a business in which he has spent his life, and in
which he has been very successful. Diversified farming, and the
breeding of blooded cattle and horses, occupy him on his Oklahoma
farm.
Mr. Holden is a
member of the Presbyterian Church, and an elder in it. He is a member
of Willow Lodge No. 488, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is
president of the First State Bank of Willow, of which the subject is
cashier.
Mr. Holden married
Starr Craven, born in Texas in 1869, and seven children were born to
them. They are briefly mentioned as follows: Charles C. of this
review was the first born. Lula married Charles McKinney, and they live in
Denison, Texas, where Mr. McKinney is a fireman on the K. T. line.
Annie married Roy Gaither, manager of the Cameron Lumber Company of
Willow, where they have their home. Esther remains with her parents.
DeWitt is in high school in Granite, Oklahoma. James and Frank are in
the public schools.
Charles C. Holden
attended the public schools in Grier County and after his graduation
from high school entered the Central State Normal, where he spent two
years, leaving in 1906, to assume the principalship of the Grier
County schools. He served in that office from 1906 to 1910, and in
the latter year he organized the First State Bank of Willow, in
company with his father who became president of the new concern. W.
J. Underwood is vice president, and Mr. Holden is cashier. The bank
has a capital of $10,000 and a surplus of $1,000. In 1912 Mr. Holden
brought about the erection of a modern bank building for the First
State Bank, located advantageously on Main Street.
Mr. Holden is a
democrat. He has served worthily on the local school board, has been
town treasurer, and is now a member of the council. He is a member of
the U. S. A. Presbyterian Church and an elder therein. His fraternal
affiliations are with the Odd Fellows, Willow Lodge 488, the Modern
Woodmen of America, of Granite, Oklahoma, and Willow Camp, Woodmen of
the World. He is a member of the Oklahoma State and American Bankers
associations.
In 1910 Mr. Holden
was married in Willow to Miss Zuna Ross, a daughter of A. T. Ross, a
farmer of Granite, Oklahoma. The Holdens have two children,– John,
born June 20, 1911, and Ruby, born June 12, 1914.