Holt is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Breckinridge County,

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, United States. Holt is located on the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

and Kentucky Route 144, north-northeast of Cloverport. It was also known as Holt's Bottom.

History

Holt was named after

Joseph Holt Joseph Holt (January 6, 1807 – August 1, 1894) was an American lawyer, soldier, and politician. As a leading member of the James Buchanan#Administration and Cabinet, Buchanan administration, he succeeded in convincing Buchanan to oppose the ...

, who was appointed Commissioner of Patents in 1857, Postmaster General in 1859, and Secretary of War in 1860 during the administration of President

James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvan ...

. He was appointed Judge Advocate General by President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

and was the judge during the trial of conspirators in the Lincoln assassination.Breckinridge Bicentennial Committee Program. Accessed from Breckinridge Historical Archives. The Holt post office opened in 1880 and continued to operate until 1958. There was also a school near Holt called Holt School and a church known as Holt Chapel. Judge Holt's home, which is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, still stands and Judge Holt is buried in a private cemetery next to the home.

Notable people

* Judge Joseph Holt (1807–1894), Commissioner of Patents (1857), Postmaster General (1859), Secretary of War (1860), and Judge Advocate General under President Lincoln.

References

Unincorporated communities in Breckinridge County, Kentucky Unincorporated communities in Kentucky Kentucky populated places on the Ohio River {{BreckinridgeCountyKY-geo-stub