JONAS H. HOLDEN, CDR, USN
Jonas Holden '96
Lucky Bag
From the 1896 Lucky Bag:
Holden, Jonas Hannibal
Burlington, Vermont
"Yank" "Admiral Luce"
3 striper. 1st Class Buzzard (2). Buzzard (2).
Holden, Jonas Hannibal
Burlington, Vermont
"Yank" "Admiral Luce"
3 striper. 1st Class Buzzard (2). Buzzard (2).
Loss
Jonas was lost on August 16, 1915 when the ship he was aboard, SS Marowjine, sank in the Yucatán Channel during the 1915 Galveston hurricane.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Jonas was appointed to the Naval Academy by Congressman Powers. In October 1892, after the first practice cruise, he received the highest mark of merit and was given command of the squad as “plebe adjutant.”
In May 1895, Jonas made a drawing of the cannon captured from the British frigate “Confiance” by Commodore McDonough at the battle of Lake Champlain on September 11, 1814. The cannon was at the naval academy, and Jonas sent the drawing to Burlington's Loyal Legion.
Jonas was assistant navigator and captain's clerk on the Maine under Capt. Charles Sigsbee (Class of 1864) when the explosion and sinking occurred on February 15, 1898. He sent a telegram to his father that read “Safe, ran.” He later told a reporter that all the officers made up their minds 24 hours after the attack on the cause of the explosion and so stated that at the board of inquiry. In March, Jonas replied to the grateful resolutions from the Grand Army of the Republic of Minneapolis. The resolutions had been sent to Admiral Sigsbee, and Jonas thanked them on his behalf. His letter was dated March 16, 1898, Havana, Cuba, USS Montgomery.
In June 1898, the window of Wyman & Mansur company in Burlington exhibited Jonas' uniform, cap, sword, boarding cutlass, dagger, belt, and pistol from the Maine as well as a one-pound shell used in rapid-fire guns.
During the Spanish American War, Jonas served as a watch officer on the gunboat Scorpion. The Rutland Daily Herald of September 23, 1915, reported that “It was chiefly due to Ensign Holden's superior seamanship that the Scorpion was prevented from foundering in a gale off Frying Pan Shoals December 1898. At the risk of being swept overboard from a deck already awash, he succeeded in rigging a temporary steering wheel after both the steam and hand steering gear had been carried away and the ship was in the trough of the sea in a helpless condition.”
In February 1899, Jonas served on the Olympia, the flagship of Admiral George Dewey (Class of 1858.) In December, he spent several weeks in the mountains near Hong Kong to recover from a slight attack of the fever. He then returned to Manila.
Jonas was on the Brooklyn at Taku, China, in July 1900. He served during the Boxer uprising as flag secretary to Rear Admiral John Watson (Class of 1860.)
In March 1901, Jonas was transferred from the Brooklyn to USS Buffalo on the Asiatic station. In June, he was ordered to the torpedo station for instruction.
Jonas married Lilian Walker on October 6, 1904, at the College Street Congregational church in Burlington, Vermont. The senior officers of the Maine sent a handsome solid silver tea service as a gift, and the junior officers sent a solid silver dish. Jonas was attached to the battleship Maine (BB-10) which was in the Charlestown navy yard for repairs.
In 1915 Jonas was serving on the gunboat Annapolis when ordered to return to Washington, D. C. He was to become the director of target practice and engineering competitions. He was relieved at Corinto, Nicaragua, and boarded the ship Marowijne.
His father George was a farmer who later worked for the G. S. Blodgett, Company, manufacturer of commercial ovens. His mother was Rhoda, and his brother was Capt. George Jean Holden, U. S. Army. In June 1880, Jonas' great-grandfather Luther Holden, age 98, lived with them on his father's farm in Waltingford, Vermont.
From Find A Grave:
Born in Wallingford, Vt, Jonas Holden was the son of George B Holden of Burlington, VT. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1896. In 1904 he married Lillian Walker of Burlington, VT.
After graduating from the Academy, he served on the U.S.S. Columbia. He was on the Maine when she was blown up in Havana, Cuba and was the last sailor to leave the wreck. During the Spanish American War, Commander Holden took part in many engagements in the West Indies.
Commander Holden was a passenger on the S.S. Marowijne when the ship was wrecked during a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. All on board perished.
The inscription on his headstone:
Proceeding from duty in command of the U.S.S. Annapolis to duty as director of target practice he was lost with all hands on the S.S. Marowijne during a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico August 16, 1915.
He has a memorial marker in Vermont.
Photographs
Photo scanned and provided by Jennifer Bryan, Ph.D., Head of Special Collections & Archives/Archivist at the Naval Academy's Nimitz Library
Photo scanned and provided by Jennifer Bryan, Ph.D., Head of Special Collections & Archives/Archivist at the Naval Academy's Nimitz Library
Photo scanned and provided by Jennifer Bryan, Ph.D., Head of Special Collections & Archives/Archivist at the Naval Academy's Nimitz Library
"Naval Cadet Jonas H. Holden in civilian attire, taken by Hart, from the book THE "MAINE" - AN ACCOUNT OF HER DESTRUCTION IN HAVANA HARBOR: THE PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF CAPTAIN CHARLES D. SIGSBEE, U.S.N. (New York: The Century Co., 1899), opp. p. 184." via Find A Grave
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
January 1897
January 1898
January 1899
January 1900
January 1901
January 1902
January 1903
January 1905
July 1906
July 1907
January 1908
January 1909
January 1910
January 1911
January 1912
January 1913
January 1915
Jonas is the only member of the Class of 1896 in Memorial Hall.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
