Joseph Holtz

"JOSEPH HOLTZ, farmer and stock-grower, P. O. New Chester, was born in Straban Township, this county, September 2, 1839, a son of Frederick and Sarah (Snyder) Holtz, natives of York and Perry Counties, Penn., respectively. The family are of French-German descent. The Grandfather Holtz was a soldier in the Revolutionary war; while crossing the ocean was shipwrecked, but was saved by clinging to a mast. After arriving in America, he worked in the powder-mill at Philadelphia, to pay his passage money. Frederick Holtz was married in York County, in 1833, and had a family of seven children, of whom Joseph is the sixth. Our subject was reared on the farm and educated in the common schools and Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg. For three years he was engaged in the grocery and produce business in New Oxford, under the firm name of Myers & Holtz. Since then he has been engaged in agricultural pursuits and is the owner of 162 acres of land. The names of his brothers and sisters are as follows: Caroline, Sarah (wife of P. C. Harbold), Susan (wife of B. F. Leineberger), David (a farmer), Abraham (a physician, who died in Hampton) and G. W. (farmer). "