FRED HOLT

The following bio was taken from page 241 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Shirley Koym

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Cemeteries of Texas

I, Fred Holt, grew up on the farm with my parents, one brother, four sisters and with many relatives nearby. In fact, all four of my grandparents were in Rusk County before the Civil War. This fact explains why we sometimes were not sure just who were actually related to us. As a result, we claim some families that weren’t even kin.

The farm gave me a form of education that one can receive nowhere else. As a family we learned to share work and leisure times at home. These experiences made us a deep caring family group and taught us to be responsible for our share of the duties in the home.

Soon after the oil boom in 1930, I got a job with a drilling crew and stayed with that company until I retired.

I married Ethel Gibson, daughter of Ernest Gibson in 1935. Both sets of her grandparents lived in the Crims Chapel area, where she grew up. During the first years of our marriage, we learned to pack and move in a hurry. Sometimes we got orders one day to be on a job at a different town the next day.

When I went into production, it wasn’t long until I was sent to Jena, Louisiana. Here, Ethel and I settled down and became a real part of the community. We became affiliated with the Methodist Church and with other community affairs; and we still live in the home we moved to at the time of our coming here. Of course it has had several face-lifts in those forty-five years.

I have three children that received their public education in the local school. Freddy, the oldest son, received his B.S. and M.E. degrees from the University of Houston before serving two years in the Micronesian Islands. On his return, he went back to the classroom. He married Rebecca Spurgers, and they both teach. They have two little boys, Brad and Mark.

My second son, James Richard, married Susan Gleason while he was still in college at North Eastern. They have three children – Timothy, Kathy, and Amanda. James has a business in Caracus, Venezuela.

Our daughter, Carol Ann, finished at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouse and is married to Patrick Dawson, who has a law office in Jena, Louisiana.

Submitted by Fred Holt