William Holgate was formerly active in various lines of business, and as all of his undertakings proved profitable he gained financial independence and is now living retired in Wyoming. His birth occurred in Penn township, Stark county, April 15, 1844, and he is a son of James Holgate, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Our subject was reared upon the family homestead and entered the district schools at the usual age, attending for six months a year until he was twelve years old and for three months a year until he was seventeen years of age.
     On the 12th of August, 1862, when little more than eighteen years old, Mr. Holgate enlisted in Company E, One Hundred and Twelfth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, under T. J. Henderson, and went to the front with that command. He was wounded in the shoulder at Atlanta and was in a hospital for four months. He was also held a prisoner at Belle Island for five months, but during the rest of the time was with his company and participated in the battles in which his regiment engaged. He was mustered out on the 15th of July, 1865, and was honorably discharged at Chicago and then returned to Stark county, where he engaged in farming on his own account, owning two hundred and seventy-five acres in Penn township. In 1876 he bought out a private bank in old Wyoming, nationalized the institution and served as its president until the charter was given up. He has been president of five different banks and has never held any other position in any of them. For seventeen years he conducted a furniture and undertaking business in Wyoming and proved as successful as a merchant as he had as a farmer and financier. Although he has now retired from active life he still owns nine hundred and sixty acres of land in Kansas and derives a handsome income from that investment.
     Mr. Holgate was united in marriage to Miss Charlotte A. Kissinger, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1845 and is a daughter of Alexander and Nancy (Snare) Kissinger, natives of Martinsburg, Pennsylvania.
Her father followed the tailor’s trade in early manhood, but in 1847 came to Stark county, Illinois, and acquired title to two hundred and forty acres of land in Penn township, which he cultivated until called by death. His wife is also deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Holgate have two daughters: Carrie, the wife of Charles A. Smith, a merchant of Wyoming; and Cora, who married Lyman Graves, also a resident of Wyoming. There was a third daughter, Katie, who married M. A. Sparr, but who has passed away.
     Mr. Holgate has always been a stalwart republican and has done all in his power to advance the interests of that party although all the rest of the family have been democrats and he was reared in that political belief. He is well known throughout the county, and all who have had dealings with him recognize his ability and sound judgment. He is one of the leading citizens of Wyoming, and his home is one of the fine residences of the town.