.1 I 1. 1 . 3 i ·it - ' i - .94 1- 17 1 4 LY.*.9/ , tf.?. .3 9 t.Ie..:16 - ,--*#Lriu- I k- -- I *& 1 ::9.· ·27·. - . 0%¥.1 -'.: :4. *1 ... 11 1,1 "LY-'.7'Ju.2,""""/-I.I."I"""Ill"/.I I. 4 K#*.le. .:Al.=m##a#tffzzi MA- ' ' 9/........I .Mul.FvA'fM1FZ'lli -jit#f:.'-- -: 11-P &10' V .-1-mf.a* :21,43:2. . 1:r.,4. In I - l. . A , - 9*1 0 1 -- 1 , 44/b EL i - .1. 0 4.7, ¥U . ... f . 1 ' . Ill.. , "b ... . Wi ' Pinos ranches to the Southern Pacific Railroad, known as the Pacific Improvement Company, at five dollars an acre. Three years later, prices were advancing and a land boom began. Lucy Neely McLane in her eePiney Paradise," quotes from the Del Monte Wave of 1885 : "The demand for lots from all quarters is wonderful. During the last sixty days the sale of company lots amounted to over $20,000 while real estate transactions among individual property owners amount to nearly half as much." R. L. Holman observed this and responded to another oppor- tunity. He made plans for a supplies firm which would sell cement, plaster, lath and similar necessities for obvious building. But he was informed by the Pacific Improvement Company that because he had not obtained a business right permit he would not be allowed to operate and was threatened that if he persisted, all his property would be confiscated. Disappointed though undaunted, because he had also observed that there were other needs to be filled, he entered into a partner- ship with G. W. Towle, Jr., in the dry goods business. Before the opening of Towle's, the ladies coming to the summer retreat from their homes in Fresno, Bakersfield or San Francisco for the cooling breezes or the inspiring Chautauqua lectures, bought their thimbles, needles, calico or percale from peddlers who brought their wares in wagons to the campgrounds. Describing the dry goods store, Mrs. McLane quotes: "A Towle display window of 1890-ox blue oxfords with bulldog toes and suit draped on a dummy which looked like a corpse with painted cheeks. Those responding to the lure were often persuaded by an alpaca-coated clerk to buy a bowler hat or an outspreading collar which showed mauve daisies on saffron ground." Came the great Klondike strike with another gold fever. Towle took off for Alaska, leaving his partner with the stock, which, according to one report, was assessed for $1,580 and $1,400 on consignment. Mr. Holman took charge of the business and changed the name to the Popular Dry Goods store. It was then located in the Lloyd building on the south side of Lighthouse Avenue and it was here that young Wilford was intro- duced to the world of business. "We carried men's and boys' suits, too," Mr. Holman recalls. "Some of them sold at $7.50, and you could get a good suit, an Oregon cashmere, for instance, for $12.50. "We had home delivery, too, traveling all over Monterey and Pacific Grove in a spring wagon with one horse. Oh, and I remem- (opposite page - top) .9 This photograph was taken on July 4, 1904, m Grove. These young fellows are members of on 9th and Lighthouse Avenues, Pacific the fire department-the hose cart and hook and ladder boys. W. R. Holman stands second from the end, extreme right. His son laughs, "Father used to say that in a few years one couldn't buy property here unless he covered it with gold. People came to die but got well." Rensselaer Luther Holman was a sixth generation descendant of Solaman Holman of Newbury, Mass., whose ancestry is traced to Baron John Holman, standardbearer in the battle of Bosworth Field which terminated the War of Roses between the houses of York and Lancaster in England. The family tree also includes President William Howard Taft. Born in Vermont and hearing tales of the wonders of the west as a boy, R. L. Holman came, as a young man, around the Horn to San Francisco where he first worked in a bakery. The aftermath of the gold fever was pulsing at an increasing rate. Opportunity for enterprising young men was spelled in capital letters. Not only the prospectors, but planter-those who would work and harvest-saw gold in the earth of California. And all of these would need supplies-another golden chance for the purveyors of goods. So R. L. Holman went back to New England where he not only Page Four married a Vermont girl but also brought back to California some of the first farm machinery put into use in the Sacramento Valley. He traveled by buckboard, up and down the Sacramento, Salinas, and San Joaquin Valleys, and by boat up Oregon's Columbia River, selling cultivators and combine harvesters to the growers of hay and grain. He also opened the Holman-Stanton wholesale and retail hardware company, selling gold pans, bolts, nails, axes, plow and plowshares to the miners and farmers or ranchers who came in their four-horse wagons to buy goods. Hard work at his business as well as managing the ranch which he acquired at Stockton impaired his health, resulting in the rest at Pacific Grove. He sold his hardware business to the Sacramento firm now known as Thompson Diggs and settled in Monterey County. Pacific Grove's tent city was changing from just a summer retreat to a permanent settlement. The Pacific Grove Retreat Association in 1875 had purchased land at Point Pinos from David lacks and in 1877 had begun to sell lots to its members for homes. In 1881, Mr, Jacks sold 7,000 acres of the Pescadero and Point GAME & GOSSIP (left) W. R. Holman stands in front of big white hat-looking very smart with stiff white collar and derby hot. President McKinley stands in a horse drawn cart addressing 4-3 Pacific Grove townspeople. Note the R. 1. ,- Holman store in the background. This is 12th Street, Pacific Grove looking 4 north in the direction- of Central Avenue. The 1 church ;n the background is the Episcopal church on Forest Avenue. 9 (top right) The original tent city in Pacific t 11 Grove located between 17th and 1 8th streets °¥6 in the back of the Methodist church. 149* (center) The beautifully landscaped grounds ° fiti fi ::. of El Carmelo Hotel-the present site of Holman's Department Store. r Literally hundreds came to the official open- ing and housewarming of Holman's in 1924. The store was goyly decorated with pine boughs, Chinese lanterns-and there was a dance. GAME & GOSSIP ' Page Five - L , OCR Text: .1 I 1. 1 . 3 i ·it - ' i - .94 1- 17 1 4 LY.*.9/ , tf.?. .3 9 t.Ie..:16 - ,--*#Lriu- I k- -- I *& 1 ::9.· ·27·. - . 0%¥.1 -'.: :4. *1 ... 11 1,1 "LY-'.7'Ju.2,""""/-I.I."I"""Ill"/.I I. 4 K#*.le. .:Al.=m##a#tffzzi MA- ' ' 9/........I .Mul.FvA'fM1FZ'lli -jit#f:.'-- -: 11-P &10' V .-1-mf.a* :21,43:2. . 1:r.,4. In I - l. . A , - 9*1 0 1 -- 1 , 44/b EL i - .1. 0 4.7, ¥U . ... f . 1 ' . Ill.. , "b ... . Wi ' Pinos ranches to the Southern Pacific Railroad, known as the Pacific Improvement Company, at five dollars an acre. Three years later, prices were advancing and a land boom began. Lucy Neely McLane in her eePiney Paradise," quotes from the Del Monte Wave of 1885 : "The demand for lots from all quarters is wonderful. During the last sixty days the sale of company lots amounted to over $20,000 while real estate transactions among individual property owners amount to nearly half as much." R. L. Holman observed this and responded to another oppor- tunity. He made plans for a supplies firm which would sell cement, plaster, lath and similar necessities for obvious building. But he was informed by the Pacific Improvement Company that because he had not obtained a business right permit he would not be allowed to operate and was threatened that if he persisted, all his property would be confiscated. Disappointed though undaunted, because he had also observed that there were other needs to be filled, he entered into a partner- ship with G. W. Towle, Jr., in the dry goods business. Before the opening of Towle's, the ladies coming to the summer retreat from their homes in Fresno, Bakersfield or San Francisco for the cooling breezes or the inspiring Chautauqua lectures, bought their thimbles, needles, calico or percale from peddlers who brought their wares in wagons to the campgrounds. Describing the dry goods store, Mrs. McLane quotes: "A Towle display window of 1890-ox blue oxfords with bulldog toes and suit draped on a dummy which looked like a corpse with painted cheeks. Those responding to the lure were often persuaded by an alpaca-coated clerk to buy a bowler hat or an outspreading collar which showed mauve daisies on saffron ground." Came the great Klondike strike with another gold fever. Towle took off for Alaska, leaving his partner with the stock, which, according to one report, was assessed for $1,580 and $1,400 on consignment. Mr. Holman took charge of the business and changed the name to the Popular Dry Goods store. It was then located in the Lloyd building on the south side of Lighthouse Avenue and it was here that young Wilford was intro- duced to the world of business. "We carried men's and boys' suits, too," Mr. Holman recalls. "Some of them sold at $7.50, and you could get a good suit, an Oregon cashmere, for instance, for $12.50. "We had home delivery, too, traveling all over Monterey and Pacific Grove in a spring wagon with one horse. Oh, and I remem- (opposite page - top) .9 This photograph was taken on July 4, 1904, m Grove. These young fellows are members of on 9th and Lighthouse Avenues, Pacific the fire department-the hose cart and hook and ladder boys. W. R. Holman stands second from the end, extreme right. His son laughs, "Father used to say that in a few years one couldn't buy property here unless he covered it with gold. People came to die but got well." Rensselaer Luther Holman was a sixth generation descendant of Solaman Holman of Newbury, Mass., whose ancestry is traced to Baron John Holman, standardbearer in the battle of Bosworth Field which terminated the War of Roses between the houses of York and Lancaster in England. The family tree also includes President William Howard Taft. Born in Vermont and hearing tales of the wonders of the west as a boy, R. L. Holman came, as a young man, around the Horn to San Francisco where he first worked in a bakery. The aftermath of the gold fever was pulsing at an increasing rate. Opportunity for enterprising young men was spelled in capital letters. Not only the prospectors, but planter-those who would work and harvest-saw gold in the earth of California. And all of these would need supplies-another golden chance for the purveyors of goods. So R. L. Holman went back to New England where he not only Page Four married a Vermont girl but also brought back to California some of the first farm machinery put into use in the Sacramento Valley. He traveled by buckboard, up and down the Sacramento, Salinas, and San Joaquin Valleys, and by boat up Oregon's Columbia River, selling cultivators and combine harvesters to the growers of hay and grain. He also opened the Holman-Stanton wholesale and retail hardware company, selling gold pans, bolts, nails, axes, plow and plowshares to the miners and farmers or ranchers who came in their four-horse wagons to buy goods. Hard work at his business as well as managing the ranch which he acquired at Stockton impaired his health, resulting in the rest at Pacific Grove. He sold his hardware business to the Sacramento firm now known as Thompson Diggs and settled in Monterey County. Pacific Grove's tent city was changing from just a summer retreat to a permanent settlement. The Pacific Grove Retreat Association in 1875 had purchased land at Point Pinos from David lacks and in 1877 had begun to sell lots to its members for homes. In 1881, Mr, Jacks sold 7,000 acres of the Pescadero and Point GAME & GOSSIP (left) W. R. Holman stands in front of big white hat-looking very smart with stiff white collar and derby hot. President McKinley stands in a horse drawn cart addressing 4-3 Pacific Grove townspeople. Note the R. 1. ,- Holman store in the background. This is 12th Street, Pacific Grove looking 4 north in the direction- of Central Avenue. The 1 church ;n the background is the Episcopal church on Forest Avenue. 9 (top right) The original tent city in Pacific t 11 Grove located between 17th and 1 8th streets °¥6 in the back of the Methodist church. 149* (center) The beautifully landscaped grounds ° fiti fi ::. of El Carmelo Hotel-the present site of Holman's Department Store. r Literally hundreds came to the official open- ing and housewarming of Holman's in 1924. The store was goyly decorated with pine boughs, Chinese lanterns-and there was a dance. GAME & GOSSIP ' Page Five - L , Heritage Society of Pacific Grove,Historical Collections,Names of People about town,G through H File names,Holman W. R,HOLMAN W. R._002.pdf,HOLMAN W. R._002.pdf 1 Page 1, Tags: HOLMAN W. R._002.PDF, HOLMAN W. R._002.pdf 1 Page 1