Gasconade County Republican
Owensville, MissouriFriday, July 16, 1926

Mrs. Lucinda Holt Dies at age of Ninety-two

Mrs. Lucinda Holt, nee Vandegriffe, was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, December 27, 1833. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Vandegriffe. The mother (Elizabeth Nicely) died about 1838 and the family then came to Missouri in 1840 and settled on a farm near Day.In 1847 she was married to William Holt who preceded her in death on January 6, 1875. To this union were born ten children, of whom six have preceded the mother in death. Those living are as follows: Mrs. Melissa Caroline Appley of Omaha, Nebraska; Mrs. Sarah Zinn of Elkhart, Kansas; Mrs. Dora Whitlock of Paloma, Illinois; and Mrs. Emma Pope of Owensville.Having been left a widow while her children were all small, her life was a continual struggle until her children reached maturity, and made homes for themselves, since when she has lived with her children and grandchildren. For eleven years she lived with her daughter, Mrs. Whitlock, in Illinois, but the past year she has made her home in Owensville with her daughter, Mrs. Pope, who tenderly cared for her in her last days, and at whose home she passed away early on the morning of Monday, July 12, 1926, at the advanced age of 92 years, 6 months and 16 days.When quite a young woman she made a profession of her faith in Christ, and united with New Salem Baptist Church near Owensville. She lived a faithful Christian life until her death.Besides her four daughters she leaves to mourn her death, 31 grandchildren, 62 great-grandchildren and 6 great-great grandchildren, also many more distant relatives and friends, among whom is her aged cousin, Mrs. Mary Jane Seymour, of Owensville, Route 1.Funeral services were conducted Tuesday afternoon at the Baptist Church by Rev.H. F. Gledinghagen in the absence of the pastor, and interment was in the Leach Cemetery, east of Owensville.Thus passes away one of our pioneers, a lady who has seen our community grow from a wilderness inhabited by Indians and wild beasts to a prosperous 20th Century communty, with all its throbbing, active life of today. May she rest in peace as one of our honored pioneers.

NoteThe New Salem Baptist Church burned in 1997, and in February, 1998 when my son and I visited Gasconade County, construction had begun on the new church at that location, just east of Owensville. There was one more surviving child of Lucinda's, not mentioned in this obituary - William Jackson Holt. According to information from the book, "The Descendants of Michael Holt", William had removed to California, and was not heard from again after the earthquake of 1906. The family may have presumed he had died. At least 2 of William's descendants have resided in California, and go by William's middle name, Jackson, as their last name.

William Jackson Holt

William Jackson Holt was the son of Lucinda Vandergriff and William C. Holt. Lucinda was the daughter of George Vandergriff and Elizabeth Nicely, and the granddaughter of Gilbert and Dicey (Brock) Vandergriff. Lucinda was born at Knoxville, Tennessee, 1833. After the death of her mother, her father married Catherine McGown, at Gasconade County, Missouri, where the family lived near Lucinda's Great-grandfather, Jacob Vandergriff (1758-1848).

William C. Holt was a direct descendant of Michael Holt, who came to America from Germany, and was among the colonists of the second Germanna Colony to be settled in Virginia under Governor Spotswood, 1717. (See Descendants of Michael Holt. Germanna: Outpost of Adventure, John W. Wayland, published by the Memorial Foundation of the Germanna Colonies in Virginia, Inc.)


William Jackson Holt left Gasconade County, where he was raised, to live in California, and was never heard from again after the earthquake of 1906. It has just recently been discovered he had dropped his HOLT surname, and descendants living in So. California have used the surname JACKSON.