Honorable Saxon Winston Holt
HON. SAXON WINSTON HOLT, merchant and banker of Newport News, for many years a member of the State Senate, is one of a family of four sons, all of whom have achieved more than ordinary distinction. His oldest brother is Henry W. Molt, who since 1912 has been Judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District and for many years one of the foremost attorneys at Staunton. The parents of these prominent Virginians were Micajah Quincy and Virginia Henry (Winston) Molt. The Holts have been residents of Surry County since Colonial times.
Saxon Winston Holt was born at Anchor plantation in Surry County, March 25, 1871. He grew up there, attending public schools and the Bethel Academy. At the age of twenty he became shipping clerk in a wholesale grocery house at Richmond, and two years later went on the road as a tobacco salesman and traveled over a large territory. Mr. Holt since 1899 has been in business at Newport News, and since 1902 has been member of the copartnership of S. W. Holt & Company, wholesale grocers and jobbers. His associate in that business is his brother, Robert P. Holt. Mr. Holt is vice president of the First National Bank of Newport News, is a stockholder and director in the First National Bank of Yorktown, and has numerous other business interests.
He has served twenty consecutive years as member of the Virginia Senate from the Thirty-sixth District. He was first elected in 1902. His personal abilities and his long experience have made him the accepted leader on the floor of the Senate and he has also been president pro tom. While in the Senate his time and study have been enlisted primarily in behalf of good roads and schools. Senator Holt was a member of the Virginia Commission to the Panama Exposition of San Francisco. He is president of the Ragged Island Gun Club, and is a member of the Hog Island Farm and Game Corporation. His favorite diversion is hunting. He is a member of file Tidewater Club, the Chamber of Commerce and Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
At Newport News in 1904 he married Miss Marian Davis Reynolds, daughter of Henry Singleton and Mary (Watkins) Reynolds. Her mother is living and her father was a cotton merchant at Norfolk. Mrs. Molt is an active member of the Presbyterian Church and the Young Women’s Christian Association. Their three children are: Saxon W., Jr., Marian Reynolds and Micajah Quincy Holt.