HARRISON A. HOLLAND, of the firm J. Holland & Co., merchants and farmers of McDonald, Carter County, Missouri, is widely and favorably known, both as a business man of great capacity and unquestioned standing and integrity, and a prosperous farmer and honorable citizen. He came originally from Lawrence County, Tennessee, his birth occurring in 1854, and is a son of Thomas and Catherine (McCaskill) Holland, natives of Alabama and Tennessee respectively, and both born in the year 1827.
Mr. and Mrs. Holland first met in Lawrence County, Tennessee, whither their parents had moved, and there they were married. In that county Mr. Holland spent the remainder of his days, engaged in farming, and there died in 1870. He took no part in the Civil War. His father, Harrison Holland, was probably a native of North Carolina, but went to Alabama and there tilled the soil until his death. Our subject’s maternal grandfather, Allen McCaskill, was born in North Carolina, but removed from there to Tennessee, and thence to Shannon County, Missouri, in 1855,and there died in 1868, when about eighty-four years of age. The mother of our subject came to Carter County, Missouri, in 1871, and there died in June, 1888. Her children, seven in number, were named as follows: William, of Texas County, Missouri; Rebecca, single, died in Carter County; Harrison A., subject; James; John; Matthew, died young, and Mollie C.
Harrison A. Holland received very little schooling while growing up, on account of the war and the death of his father. He came with the rest of the family to Carter County and was there married in 1878 to Miss Lucinda Larimore, who was adopted and reared by Mrs. Allen McCaskill. Seven children have been born to this union: Mary, John Thomas, Rebecca, Harrison, Poletta Jane, Lydia Bell, and Orta, died in infancy. Since his marriage Mr. Holland has lived on the old farm, three miles above McDonald, where he and his brother own 300 acres of excellent land. He and his brothers have also been engaged in merchandising for about nine years, first at Van Buren and since the railroad was built, at McDonald, under the firm name of J. Holland & Co. They also own a grist mill at McDonald, and for some time were in the lumber business. Mr. Holland is postmaster at Peggy and McDonald, and he and Mrs. Holland are members of the Methodist Church. He is a Democrat in politics and cast his first presidential vote for S. J. Tilden in 1876.