Mr. Holt, seeing the need of a proper machine for making the
splits, made such a one, which worked well, and went to
Washington, D.C., and obtained a patent. He went in a two-
horse wagon, laden with reeds to sell on the way as well as to
take his model for a patent, to the city of Washington. In
1831, he began to manufacture reeds on a large scale. The
sale of reeds had been by peddlers in wagons, traveling over
the country and taking store goods in return for the reeds.
That began the stores for the firm. Mr. Holt employed his
brother-in-law, John Rightmire, who was a blacksmith, to
make his machines, so that he secured complete control of the
weavers reeds manufacture. It is claimed that at one period
of time his was the only reed factory in the United States or
Canada. His books show that he had made 300,000 reeds, that
brought about $200,000. Mr. Holt paid good wages and
treated his employees fairly, and his business was a great ad-
vantage to the community, as it furnished remunerative em-
ployment for many young women who otherwise could have
earned but little. Mr. Holt was of commanding figure and
had a giant's strength. He engaged in other kinds of busi-
ness besides the making of reeds. In a partnership with Mr.
Clem. Church they built the first steam gristmill in Rutland
township, and he owned and bought into the township the
first thrashing machine. Before the Civil War he was an
abolitionist, and his place was a station on the "underground
railroad." A member of the Universalist Church, he was ex-
emplary in speech and honorable in business habits, never
using intoxicating liquors or tobacco, and in his last years he
was a prohibitionist. He sold the reed manufacturing business
to his son, John B. Holt.
Meigs county is richer for having had such an enter-
prising citizen.
Peter Lalance came from France with his widowed mother
and sister about 1788 to Marietta, Ohio, and lived in the
