This collection contains 40 items primarily related to the work of Southern Pacific Railroad agent and California Development Company receiver W.H. Holabird (1845-1921), as well as some personal and ephemeral items. Business correspondence and documents chiefly date from 1909 to 1918 and include reports for the Southern Pacific Railroad on the properties of Miller and Lux (1909) and the economic resources in Siberia, Manchuria, and the Philippines.

Railroad agent and California Development Company receiver W.H. (William Hyman) Holabird (1845-1921) was born in Shelburne, Vermont, on September, 29, 1845. In 1858, Holabird emigrated with his family to Macon, Missouri, and later, Atchison, Kansas. In Kansas, Holabird worked for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad as an office clerk and passenger agent distributing newspapers. After the outbreak of the Civil War, Holabird returned to Vermont and enlisted in the 18th Vermont Infantry Regiment and subsequently participated in the Battle of Gettysburg; Holabird also served in the U.S. Navy as a fireman aboard the first USS Monadock (an ironclad monitor ) as well as Acting Assistant Paymaster. After the war, Holabird found employment with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, where he served as a confidential agent to AT&SF president, Allen Manvil, and supervised the railway’s survey of the Tejon Pass (Tehachapi Mountains, Calif.).

40 items.

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