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Holdridge, A. J., after a life of more than ordinary interest and adventure in foreign lands, returned in 1865
to hIs old home, for the next ten years was on shore and at sea, and for sisteen years has been express and freight
agent at Savannah. He was born in Galen September 16, 1838, a son of Ambrose and Charity Holdridge. His educational
opporturnties were limited, and at the age of fifteen he ran away from home and shipped from Greenport, L I., an
board the whaler, Italy. in 1854. Off the Aleutian Isles in 1866 she was dissaster in a heavy storm, and after
the loss of eleven men finally harbored in Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, and the cargo of 2,800 barrels of oil and
32,500 pounds of whalebone was saved intact, then visited a number of the South Sea Islands amqng the cannibals.
He next shipped in the Sheffield for another whaling cruise, which lasted eight months, with a net result of 2,200
barrels of oil and 19,000 pounds of Whalebone Next entering the merchant service, he visited all the principal
ports of south America, rapidly passing, by varibus promotions, from acornmon sailor to first mate, which position
he held on board the Monterey when but twenty one years of age. During the war between Peru and Ecuador he was
a blockade runner, which was on one occasion chased all day by a Peruvian man of war, withont result. At Panama,
when in the passenger steamer service, he had the dreaded Chagres fever, and after his recovery he again entered
the uerchant service, visiting London and other points in the Old World. In 1863, while on the U. S. N. ship Aphrodite
he suffered shipwreek off Cape Lookout, when the ship and twenty six men were lost, but Mr Holdridge escaped uninjured.
After the war he spent several seasons on the lakes, chiefly in sailing vessels, and subject to the usual vicissitudes
of a sailor's life, sometimes an officer and sometimes before the mast. In 1889 he married Fannie Taylor of Clyde.
Our subject has been president of the village, trustee, assessor. etc.
From:
Landmarks of Wayne County, New York
Edited by: Hon. George W. Cowles
Assisted by: H. P. Smith and others
D. Mason & Co., Publishers
Syracuse, N. Y. 1895
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