Thomas Michael Holt

Thomas Michael Holt (July 15, 1831 – April 11, 1896) was an American industrialist who served as the 47th governor of North Carolina from 1891 to 1893.

Thomas M. Holt AF & AM Masonic Lodge, located in Graham, NC, is named in honor of the former governor.

[4] Holt studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for one year before briefly moving to work in a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, dry goods store.

(Edwin Michael Holt had formerly manufactured the so-called Alamance Plaids, the first cotton goods produced in the South on power looms.

As governor, he was actively involved in establishing a new system of county government, in the construction of the Western North Carolina Railroad and the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway as well as the North Carolina Railroad, which Holt served as president, as well as in increasing the funding for public schools, the university, and the state hospitals.

Plaque to Governor Holt on the Major Joseph Winston monument, commemorating Holt's role in establishing Guilford Battle Ground Company and his gift of the Winston monument
Alamance Cotton Factory, built by Edwin M. Holt, 1837, first manufacturer of colored cotton fabrics in the South on power looms