University of Virginia Library

FREDERICK WILLIAM MACKEY HOLLIDAY.

William Holliday, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this
sketch, of staunch Scotch-Irish lineage, was born in the north of
Ireland, and accompanied his parents to America, a youth of fourteen
years. They settled in Pennsylvania, and he subsequently located
permanently in Winchester, Virginia, having married, in Baltimore,
Maryland, Mrs. Blair, nee Duncan, who had previously resided in
Philadelphia. William Holliday became a successful and prominent
merchant. His son, Richard J. McKim Holliday, M. D., a skilled and
prominent physician of Winchester, uniformly beloved for his noble and
generous traits, married Mary C. Taylor. Her father, Samuel Taylor,[45]
M. D., born near Dover, Delaware, after a preliminary reading under
Dr. James Craik, the personal friend and family physician of General
Washington, completed his medical studies in Philadelphia, and located
in Berryville, then in Frederick, but now Clarke county, Virginia, where
he married a daughter of Dr. Robert Mackey, who efficiently served
as a surgeon in the Revolution, and at its close settled in Winchester,
where his professional ability and social worth were warmly and
justly esteemed. Several prominent families in that city and in other
portions of the State are descended from him. Dr. Samuel Taylor
also rendered the nation service as a surgeon in the war of 1812.

Frederick William Mackey Holliday, the son of Dr. Richard J.
McKim and Mary C. (Taylor) Holliday, was born in Winchester,
February 22, 1828. After preparatory tuition in the academy of his
native place, he entered the junior class at Yale College, from which
he was graduated with distinguished honors in 1847. On his return
to Winchester, he read law for a year with Barton and Williams,
eminent practitioners there, and then entering the University of Virginia,
in one session he graduated in Law, Political Economy, and
Moral and Mental Philosophy, and was selected as the "Final Orator"
of the Jefferson Society of that Institution. Returning to his home,
he entered diligently upon the practice of his profession, devoting his
leisure moments to literary pursuits. His fidelity and ability speedily
secured him reputation in his profession, whilst his scholarship
entailed frequent service by request as a lecturer. These early
efforts exhibit a remarkable maturity and depth of thought and

accuracy of expression for one so youthful, and the prognostications
which they make with regard to the working of our institutions
have been most curiously verified in both our State and
National Government. He found time withal to serve his party efficiently
as a canvasser in several Presidential campaigns, though he
persistently declined all political office. Within a year after coming
to the bar he was elected Commonwealth's Attorney for all the courts
of the city of Winchester and county of Frederick, and continued to
hold this position by successive re-election until the breaking out of
our late civil war, when at the first sound of conflict he abandoned all
else and went with the first troops to Harpers Ferry, and was appointed
aide to General Carson, who was then in command there.
Returning to Winchester for a short time to arrange his official business,
he was tendered the command of a choice company of infantry,
of which organization, or its desire, he had no knowledge until they
marched in a body to his door. He promptly accepted the proffered
command, and assiduously devoted himself to its thorough discipline
and drill. It for a time was employed in detached service, during
which period Captain Holliday was offered a position upon the staff
of General "Stonewall" Jackson, but declined to surrender his company,
which was soon assigned to the 33d Virginia Infantry, Colonel
A. C. Cummings, "Stonewall" Brigade, and he by successive promotion
attained the command of the regiment. As a field officer, Colonel
Holliday exhibited fine military perception and judgment, and was
conspicuous for his gallantry, participating in all the encounters in
which his command was engaged, including the sanguinary battles of
Kernstown, McDowells, Winchester, Port Republic, and those around
Richmond, without being absent from duty for a single day until August
9, 1862, when at the battle of Cedar Run, or Slaughters Mountain,
he lost his right arm. This injury entailed prolonged suffering and unfitted
him for service in the field. He was then elected to the Confederate
Congress, of which body he continued a member until the close of
the war. Returning to his home, he resumed the practice of his profession,
taking position in the front rank of a bar long and justly
celebrated for its learning and ability. Upon the death of General
Robert E. Lee, Colonel Holliday, at the request of the authorities and
citizens of Winchester, delivered an address on his life and character,
which was a chaste and eloquent utterance replete with noble conceptions.
In 1875, by invitation he delivered an address before the
Alumni of the University of Virginia on "Higher Education," which
from the bold presentment and searching analysis of the subject, the
breadth of its range and the beauty and purity of its diction, enlisted
the attention and excited the admiration of his audience, and, in published
form, widely of scholars and statesmen.

Colonel Holliday was the Commissioner for Virginia at the United

States Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia, and was appointed
elector at large for the State in the Presidential canvass of 1876. From
the conclusion of the war until then he had taken but little active part
in politics, though ever a close and critical observer of the drift of public
affairs, and he had been repeatedly urged to enter public life. The
judicious and effective manner in which he conducted that canvass
directed attention to his varied gifts and abilities as a statesman and
speaker. Though, in harmony with his tastes his preference was for
private life, in deference to his duty as a citizen he accepted the nomination
for Governor of the State the following year, was elected for the
term of four years without opposition, and entered upon the duties of
the office January 1, 1878. His public acts during his term were chiefly
expressed through his inaugural and annual messages, and vetoes,
which, in the discussion of the relations of the State debt, and their cogent
arguments for maintenance of the public credit, are regarded as
State papers of the highest order. By invitation of the authorities, also
during his term of office, he attended the commencements of nearly all
the colleges and institutions of learning in the State, and delivered
addresses to the students, as he did at different times to conventions
of the teachers of the Public Schools, and to National organizations
the guests of the city of Richmond or the commonwealth, which were
published in the papers of the day. His "Address of Welcome," at
Yorktown in 1881, is an able and glowing conception. Governor
Holliday has not resumed the practice of his profession since his retirement
from office, devoting his time mainly to study and the cultivation
of his farm near Winchester. He has spent much of his time in
travel in both hemispheres, having visited Mexico, the West Indies,
the Sandwich Islands, the western slope of the Pacific and the interior
States and Territories in the Western, and Great Britain and Ireland,
and a large portion of the north of the continent of Europe in the
Eastern—most of it on foot. In these tours he keenly enjoyed the
study afforded by critical observation of the grandeur and beauty of
nature and of art, the material development and the social life of the
countries through which he wandered. He was everywhere the recipient
of marked attention, private and official. Governor Holliday
has been twice married, first in 1868 to Hannah Taylor, daughter of
Thomas McCormick of Clarke county, Virginia. She lived but a
short time. In 1871 he married secondly, Caroline Calvert, daughter
of Dr. Richard H. Stuart, of King George county, who also died within
a year. No issue survives by either marriage.

The following are among the published addresses of Gov. Holliday:

"Oration before the Library Company and Citizens of Winchester,
Virginia, July 4, 1850."

"Principle and Practice, an Address before the Winchester Library
Company, April 14, 1851."

"Oration before the United Fire Department and Citizens of Winchester,
July 4, 1851."

"In Memoriam—General Robert E. Lee—Ceremonies at Winchester,
January 19, 1871."

"The Higher Education, the Hope of American Republicanism, an
Address before the Society of the Alumni of the University of
Virginia, June 29, 1876."

"Welcome Address, Yorktown, Virginia, October 19, 1881, by appointment
of the Commission of the Congress of the United States for
the Centennial Celebration."

In person Governor Holliday is of commanding stature, being fully
six feet in height and finely proportioned. Markedly intellectual in
feature, genial and prepossessing in manner, his presence inspires
confidence and respect. Himself the synonym of honor, jealous of the
slightest infraction of that of Virginia, a pure executive and a faithful
citizen, his administration reflects enduring lustre upon himself and
those whom he represented. Time will yet vindicate the justness of
his actions and of his recent affirmation: "As Governor in a prominent
light before the people of my own State and before the world, I rejoice
in all my efforts then to keep alive in the hearts of Virginia the honor
and glory of a famous commonwealth, and, from subsequent events,
am only the more confirmed in the correctness of my course. I would
not for my life blot one word I then spoke or wrote."