Representative Elias Selah Holliday

Elias Selah Holliday (March 5, 1842 – March 13, 1936) was an American lawyer, Civil War veteran, and Republican politician who served four terms as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1901 to 1909. Born in Aurora, Dearborn County, Indiana, he spent the early part of his life on farms in Indiana, Missouri, and Iowa, experiences that acquainted him with the agricultural and rural concerns that would later inform his public service. He attended the common schools and, as a young man, taught in the public schools in Iowa, beginning an early association with education and public life.

During the American Civil War, Holliday enlisted in the Fifth Kansas Regiment, entering the Union Army as a volunteer. He served throughout much of the conflict and was mustered out on August 12, 1864, with the rank of first sergeant. His wartime service, which coincided with some of the most intense years of the conflict, marked him as part of the generation of veterans who would go on to play prominent roles in local and national politics in the postwar era.

After the war, Holliday pursued higher education and professional training in Indiana. He attended Hartsville College in Bartholomew County, Indiana, and subsequently engaged in teaching in Jennings County, Indiana, continuing the educational work he had begun in Iowa. He then turned to the study of law at Mount Vernon, Indiana, and was admitted to the bar in 1873. That same year he commenced the practice of law in Carbon, Indiana, establishing himself in the legal profession at a time when the state was undergoing significant economic and social development.

Holliday moved to Brazil, Clay County, Indiana, in 1874, a community that would remain his home for the rest of his life and the principal base of his political career. In Brazil he quickly became active in municipal affairs. He served as mayor of Brazil from 1877 to 1880 and again in 1887 and 1888, guiding the city during a period of growth associated with coal mining and industrial expansion in the region. He also served as city attorney in 1884 and as a member of the city council from 1892 to 1896, gaining extensive experience in local governance, municipal law, and public administration.

Building on his local service, Holliday entered national politics as a member of the Republican Party. He was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-seventh Congress and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1901, to March 3, 1909. As a Representative from Indiana, he participated in the legislative process during a significant period in American history marked by the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, the rise of progressivism, and debates over regulation, economic policy, and America’s expanding role in world affairs. During his four terms in office, he represented the interests of his Indiana constituents in the House of Representatives and contributed to the work of Congress as part of the Republican majority of the era. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1908, thereby concluding his congressional service after eight years.

Following his retirement from Congress, Holliday returned to Brazil, Indiana, and reengaged in the practice of law. He continued his legal career there until 1922, remaining a respected figure in the community and drawing on decades of experience as a teacher, lawyer, Civil War veteran, and public official. His long life spanned from the antebellum period through the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and into the interwar years, reflecting the broad sweep of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American history.

Elias Selah Holliday died in Brazil, Indiana, on March 13, 1936, at the age of ninety-four. He was interred in Cottage Hill Cemetery in Brazil. His career, which included service as a soldier, educator, municipal official, attorney, and four-term U.S. Representative, left a lasting imprint on both his local community and the state of Indiana.