JONAS H. HOLDEN, CDR, USN
Jonas Holden '96
Lucky Bag
From the 1896 Lucky Bag:
Biography & Loss
From Find A Grave:
Born in Wallingford, Vt, Jonas Holden was the son of George B Holden of Burlington, VT. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1896. In 1904 he married Lillian Walker of Burlington, VT.
After graduating from the Academy, he served on the U.S.S. Columbia. He was on the Maine when she was blown up in Havana, Cuba and was the last sailor to leave the wreck. During the Spanish American War, Commander Holden took part in many engagements in the West Indies.
Commander Holden was a passenger on the S.S. Marowijne when the ship was wrecked during a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. All on board perished.
The inscription on his headstone:
Proceeding from duty in command of the U.S.S. Annapolis to duty as director of target practice he was lost with all hands on the S.S. Marowijne during a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico August 16, 1915.
He is buried in Vermont.
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
January 1897
Naval Cadet, Columbia
January 1898
Naval Cadet, Maine
Others at this command: LTjg John Blandin '82, LTjg Friend Jenkins '86, and ENS Darwin Merritt '95.
January 1899
Ensign, Scorpion
January 1900
Ensign, Monterey
January 1901
Ensign, Brooklyn
January 1902
Lieutenant (j.g.), Naval Academy
January 1903
Lieutenant (j.g.), Maine
Others at this command: LCDR Leroy Garrett '79, LT Albert Beecher '84, LT William Moffett '90, and MIDN Caspar Goodrich '01.
January 1905
Lieutenant, Maine
July 1906
Lieutenant, Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.
July 1907
Lieutenant, Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.
January 1908
Lieutenant, Missouri
January 1909
Lieutenant Commander, Missouri
January 1910
Lieutenant Commander, flag secretary, Atlantic Fleet, Connecticut
January 1911
Lieutenant Commander, inspector in charge, Naval Proving Ground
January 1912
Lieutenant Commander, inspector in charge, Naval Proving Ground
January 1913
Lieutenant Commander, inspector in charge, Naval Proving Ground
January 1915
Commander, commanding officer, USS Annapolis
Class of 1896
Jonas is the only member of the Class of 1896 in Memorial Hall.
