HOLLAND, SAMUEL ELY

HOLLAND, SAMUEL ELY (1826–1917). Samuel Ely Holland, rancher, philanthropist, and state legislator, son of John Rickman and Elizabeth (Walker) Holland, was born in Troup County, Georgia, on December 6, 1826. He left Georgia in 1846 and arrived in Austin in February 1847. As a volunteer in the Mexican War he participated in the battle of Buena Vista and other engagements. In July 1848, while visiting a ranger camp on Hamilton Creek, near the future site of Fort Croghan, Holland purchased 1,280 acres of land in the John P. Rozier survey and became the first permanent settler in Burnet County. He and Peter Kerr were supposedly responsible for bringing the first white-faced cattle to the area. Holland circulated the petition to establish the county in 1852 and was elected first county treasurer. He enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861 and was assigned to duty with the home guard as a colonel. Holland sponsored such local business projects as the Burnet Iron Works, the Marble Falls Textile Mill, the Marble Falls Ferry Company, and the Texas Mining and Improvement Company. In 1869 he became owner of the Mormon Mill properties. He represented his district in the Twenty-fifth Legislature in 1897.

On October 13, 1852, he married Mary Scott; they had one son. Mary died on March 3, 1855, and Holland married Clara Ann Thomas on December 6, 1855; they had ten children. Clara died on January 8, 1887. Holland married Mrs. Susan A. McCarty on September 22, 1887, and they had three sons. Holland was a Mason, a member of the Church of Christ, and a Greenbacker. He died on November 16, 1917, and was buried in the Holland Cemetery, three miles south of Burnet.