In at least three distinct lines of endeavor has the subject of this article been a successful laborer and in them all he has demonstrated his adaptability and also his integrity and worthy manhood. William P. Holliday was born in Pike County, Missouri, on August 4, 1833, being the son of Dr. George R. and Sarah T. ( McMahill ) Holliday, natives of Kentucky and Illinois, respectively. The father was born in 1815 and died in 1898. He went to Pike County in 1825 and was a pioneer in Monroe County, Iowa, when it was a territory. Mrs. Holliday was born in 1811 and died in 1902. Her parents settled among the very first white people in Warren County, Illinois. Our subject was taken by his parents to Warren County when he was two years old, then to Monroe County, Iowa, when he was nine years old. There he grew to manhood and received his literary education and then attended the medical college in Keokuk, Iowa. In 1856 he commenced the practice of medicine in Iowa, continuing there until 1861. Then came a move to Warren County, where he continued for two years. There he was enrolled in the militia, but was never called into action. He moved to Jasper County and then Atchison County, Missouri. In 1880 he moved to Gordon, Texas, one hundred miles west from Dallas. He followed his profession there and in 1881 he was ordained a minister of the Church of Christ. He preached and practiced medicine and the following year went to the Choctaw Indians and did evangelistic labor for five years. He visited in his old home in Illinois after this and then came to Garfield County, Washington. He bad continued his profession all the time and was also active in the ministry. 1880 marks the date of the western trip and later he dwelt on Bear ridge. Latah County, in Douglas County, Oregon, then again on the Bear ridge, and in 1896, Dr. Holliday came to his present place, two miles southwest from Kippen. Since coming here he has been active as a physician, has bandied his farm and also proclaimed the gospel continuously. He is now the pastor of the church at Ilo and is regularly heard in the gospel each week. In Pike County, in November, 1855, Dr. Holliday married Miss Mildred, daughter of Bennett Nalley, a school teacher and native of Virginia. He was a soldier in the Mexican War. Mrs. Holliday was born in Pike County in 1833 and her brother, John Nalley, still lives there. Dr. Holliday has brothers and sisters named as follows Americus C, and Benton A., both in Sullivan County, Missouri; Dr. Samuel N. in Oklahoma; Dr. Milton J., in Taney County, Missouri; Joseph M., in Kansas; Susan R. Garnett, in Leavenworth, Kansas. The following named children have been born to the Doctor and his worthy companion: George T., in this County; James B., in Yakima; William P., in Moscow; Richard M., in Moscow; Martha J. Richardson, at Lookout; Mildred A. Perry, in California. Dr. Holliday is a member of the Masonic order. He is an active Democrat and is an influential figure in the campaigns, being an enthusiastic and powerful orator. He has always labored for his friends’ promotion in office but has steadily refused this for himself. He was a member of the first state convention in Idaho and has always been in the County convention, being now committeeman. He was the first president of the Nez Perces County Pioneer Association, and has recently been again elected to that position.
Source: An Illustrated History of North Idaho: Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho; Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903