Career
Holt practiced as a lawyer from 1853 to 1873, except for a period of service as a Confederate soldier during the Civil War. He was a delegate to the West Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1872. In that year he was also elected to the position of local circuit court judge.
After the circuit boundaries were reformed, he was again elected to a circuit judge position.
In 1890 he was appointed to the state Supreme Court of Appeals to fill a vacancy, and then was elected to the remaining 4 years of that term in 1892. In 1871 he and Alexander F. Mathews founded the Bank of Lewisburg.
lieutenant was the first bank in Greenbrier County, opening for business on July 29. From 1871 to 1888, it was the only bank between Staunton, Virginia and Charleston, West Virginia.
