The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-10
A Sketch of His Life and Public Services
The Funeral To Be Held at Rich
mOnd, Indiana, Tuesday.
Statistics Concerning the Post Office
Department. of England.
How Government Clerks Borrow Money at
ExOrbitant Rates of Iuterest-Dis-
appearance of A. NJ. Gibson.
DAVID P. HOLLOWAY.
Death of the Venerable Ex-Commissioner of
Patents-Sketch of bis Life.


Patents-Sketch of His Life.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 9.-Hon. David P. Hol-
loway ex-Commissioner of Patents, died to-
day OF paralysis, aged seventy-three years.
The remains will be taken to Richmond,
Ind, for interment, and are expected to ar
rive in that city at 10 O'Clock on Tuesday
morning. The casket will be taken to the
residence of Mr.. E. f. Hirst, and the funeral
will take place at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
David P Holloway was born at Waynes-
vile, Warren county, O., Dec g. 1909. In
1913 his father, David Holloway removed
with his family to Cincinnati, where he en-
gagged in the mercantile business. In 1923
they removed to Wayne county, Ind, and
settled on farm four miles east of Rich
mond. Two or three years later they re-
moved to Richmond where his father re-
sumed the mercantile business. AT the age
of fifteen the subject of this sketch COM
menced his apprenticeship at the printing
business in Richmond with Edward S.
Buxton, publisher of the Public Ledger.
He afterward completed his apprenticeship
in the office of the Cincinnati Gazette,
during the time that paper was edited
by Charles Hammond the ablest editor
the Gazette ever had, and he was never
happier than when detailing "reminiscences
of that distinguished editor, whose conf
dence he enjoyed up to the date of mis- death,
Mr.. Holloway had for fellow-apprentice at
that time the late Lewis D. Campbell, of
Hamilton, O., and the Comley brothers. who
conducted the Dayton Journal for so many
years. His connection with the editorial
control of the Richmond Palladium COM
menced in 1888, and he continued as its ed
itor for over thirty years, during which time
he occupied many public and private posi-
tions of trust and honor In 1S43 he was
elected a member of the State legislature
and the year following State senator, which
Office he held for six years. He served as
presidential elector in the campaigns of 1S48
and 1852. In 1849 he was appointed by Pres
dent Taylor examiner of land offices. In
1854 be was elected represen tative in Con-
gress, and in 1861 he was appointed Commits
sioner of Patents, which office he resigned in
1865 because he was not in accord with the
administration of Andrew Johnson.
While in Congress he was chairman of the
committee on agriculture, and succeeded for
the first time in bringing that committee in
to prominence, and he secured from Con-
gress the first appropriation of any magni-
tude for the purchase of seeds and the bene-
fit of agriculture. 1t was out of this fund
that sorghum sugar cane seed was purchased
and that important branch of industry in
troduced into this country. From 1852 to 1861
Mr.. Holloway, intaddition to his duties as
editor of the Palladium edited and published
in connection with his now venerable part
ner, B.W. Davis Esq, who still survives him.
the Indiana Farmer, then the only agricultu-
raj paper in the State They sold the Farmer
when Mr.. Holloway was appointed Commits
PatpptS oil lo1 10
remove TO Washington. Although not a
practical farmer, he always took a deep in
tereSt in all matters pertaining TO agricul-
ture and farming. He was the first president
of the Wayne County Agriculture Society
and was largely instrumental in securing the
passage of the law creating the State Board
of Agriculture, of which board he was
member from its organization up to 1861,
when he was president of the board and
which position he relinquished because of
his enforced absence at Washington.
Since his resignation as Commissioner of
Patents he has practiced as a patent at
torney at Washington, and has always occu-
pied prominent position in social and po-
litical circles of that city. For the past forty
years he has occupied a conspicuous position
among the leading advocates of the cause of
temperance in the United States, and devoted
much time to the advancement of that re-
form, and, for several years previous to his
death, he was the chief officer of several of
the leading tenn perance societies at the fed
eral capital, and was for a considerable time
president OF the Indiana Republican Associa-
ton at Washington, which position he re-
linquished because of failing health about
one year ago.
He held birthright in the Friends. or
what is more generally known as the Quaker
Church, and while in all religious matters he
was emancipated from mere sectarian belief,
having charity for the opinions of Others, he
adhered to the faith of his parents, who were
conspicuous for their piety and devotion to
their church and its peculiar tenents.
Mr.. Holloway was married Nov. 13, 1884 to
Jane. Ann Paulson, who died Dec s, 1864,
aged fifty-two years. He never married
again. Their children were John NJ, (who
died in 1870 William R., Day ton, (who died
in 1859, Henry c., Allen T., Charles P,
Sarah, (who died in 1881, and Mary Anna,
(who died in 1881 He had four sisters and
three brothers. only one of whom, Jesse
Holloway, survives him.
No man did more to mould public opinion
in eastern Indiana during the period he was
in public life than ne did, both through the
columns Of the Palladium and on the stump
He IS almost the last prominent representa-
tive of the old Whig party of eastern In
diana. Parker, o. H. and c. B. Smith, Rari-
den, Newman, Meredith, Kiigore, Elliott,
Farquhar and Hackleman have fallen one by
one as the ripe oak falls in the stiffness of
the forest. zone generation passeth and
another cometh." Thus it has been in the
beginning, and thus it will be until time
shall be no longer.
The deep grief which will oppress the
hearts of hundreds of people all over the
country. who read this announcement will
constitute more eloquent eulogium upon
the life character and public services of
David P, Holloway than the power of lam
guage can express.
Mr.. Holloway was no less remarkable for
his social qualities than for his integrity and