Hiram A. Holdridge

Hiram A. Holdridge, president of The Hall & Woods
Company, operating the Model Mills, one of the directors of The Ohio
National Bank, is one of the most prominent and universally respected
citizens of Lima.  He was born in Knox County ,Ohio.
         When Mr. Holdridge was but a child, his parents removed to New
York City where his father was engaged some years in business; but they
subsequently returned to Ohio and settled on what are known as the
Sandusky Plains, where the father carried on a mercantile business.
          Our subject was reared in this home until the age of 18 years,
and then entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, where
he was a promising student when the Civil War broke out.  Backed by
generations of loyal forebears, the young man's patriotism led him to
leave the university halls for the camp field at the first tocsin of
war.  His first service covered six months with the 15th Ohio Regiment,
and then he was given an appointment in the provost marshal's office of
the Fifth Congressional District located at Lima.  After one year of
office work he reenlisted, becoming first lieutenant of Company I, 192nd
Reg., Ohio Vol. Inf.  He was on detached duty, serving as aide-de-camp to
the general commanding the brigade, and afterward served in the capacity
of inspector general and then as adjutant general of the brigade.  When
he was mustered out of the service at Winchester, Virginia, it was with
the rank of acting assistant adjutant general of his brigade.  He is a
member of the Ohio Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the
United States, at Cincinnati.
             After the war Mr. Holdridge returned to his home at
Sandusky and engaged with his father there in the mercantile business
for four years, and then removed to Pittsburgh and for two years was in
the live stock commission business, after which he engaged in a
commission and a hotel business in Philadelphia.  The latter enterprise
was carried on during the Centennial Exposition.  In 1880 he came to
Lima, Ohio, where he renewed old associations and wet into a wholesale
business which he carried on for three years.  Failing health then
compelled a rest for a period extending over several years.  Later he
again became engaged in business, this time in the development of Ohio
oil fields.  Other interests also claimed him and in October, 1899, he
organized The Hall & Woods Company, with a capital stock of $60,000, for
the operating of the Model Mills, which are the largest flouring mills
in the city of Lima.  Mr. Holdridge is president of this company, I. O.
Hover is vice-president and S. B. Douglass is secretary and treasurer.
Mr. Holdridge is also a director in the Ohio National Bank and is
president of the Northwestern Millers' Association.  Although engaged in
various important lines of business, he still finds time to take an
interest in civic improvements of various kinds and to attend to social
and religious duties.  He is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
         Mr. Holdridge was married in September 1869, to Lenore
Roberts, a daughter of the late J. B. Roberts.  They have a family of
four children, viz: Mary Alice, wife of Theodore McManus, of Toledo; W.
R., who is engaged in mining at Johannesburg, South Africa; Margaret,
wife of W.F. McGuire, of Sarnia, Canada; and Louise, of Lima.