Benjamin Leroy Holt (January 1, 1849 – December 5, 1920) was an American businessman and inventor who patented and manufactured the first practical crawler-type tread tractor.

The youngest of four brothers and eleven siblings, the children of William Knox Holt and first, Eliza Jane Virgin, and later Harriet Parker Ames of Concord, New Hampshire.

The Holt brothers formed the Stockton Wheel Company to season woods in a way that would prepare them for use in the arid valleys of California and deserts of the West.

They based their new venture in the warm Central Valley town of Stockton, California, where the climate was suitable for drying wooden wheels.

This machine used flexible chain belts rather than gears to transmit power from the ground wheels to the working mechanism, reducing breakage and down time.

While manufacturing coach and wagon wheels and carriage bodies, Benjamin saw a need for mechanical Traction engines to replace horse-drawn machinery.

Carrying 675 US gallons (2,560 L; 562 imp gal) of water, it weighed 48,000 pounds (22,000 kg) and rode on huge metal wheels.

In 1892 the Holts manufactured a steam-driven tractor capable of hauling 50 short tons (45 t) of freight at 3 miles per hour (4.8 km/h).

[7] Benjamin returned to Stockton and utilizing his knowledge and his company metallurgical capabilities he became the first to design and manufacture a practical continuous tracks for use in tractors.

The Quartermaster Corps also used them to haul long trains of freight wagons over the unimproved dirt tracks behind the front.

Holt tractors were also the inspiration for the development of the British and French tanks, which profoundly altered ground warfare tactics.

[14] On April 22, 1918, British Army officer Colonel Ernest Dunlop Swinton visited Stockton while on a tour of the US.

[15] During 1914 and 1915, Swinton had advocated basing some sort of armored fighting vehicle on Holt's caterpillar tractors, but without success.

The Holt Memorial Hall, dedicated to his contributions to the mechanization of agriculture, opened at The Haggin Museum in Stockton, California in 1976.