The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 988 CHARLES M. HOLTZINGER. Among those who are actively and successfully engaged in business as wholesale dealers in fruit at Yakima is Charles M. Holtzinger, who was born in Hamburg, Iowa, September 9, 1874, a son of Captain Milton S. and Sarah A. (Scott) Holtzinger. The father won his title by service throughout the Civil war, in which he enlisted as a private, his valor and loyalty gaining him promotion until he rose to the rank of captain in the Fourth Iowa Cavalry. He died in Iowa in the year 1879, while his wife survived until 1917. Charles M. Holtzinger, in the acquirement of his education, passed through consecutive grades in the public schools of his native city until he had completed a high school course. He was reared to the occupation of farming and devoted his attention to that pursuit in early manhood. In 1894 he became connected with the fruit business as a dealer in apples at Hamburg, Iowa, and later he engaged in buying fruit in the cast for A. A. Lash, of Lincoln, Nebraska. He afterward spent eight years with E. F. Stacy & Sons of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and traveled all over the United States as fruit buyer for that firm. In 1912 he entered business on his own account in Yakima, opening an office at Zillah. He had been in the Yakima valley each year from 1908 as representative of the Stacy interests. In starting out on his own account he began as a fruit broker and in 1913 he opened his office in Yakima. In 1918 he erected a fine new two-story building, one hundred by one hundred and ten feet, at the corner of West Yakima and Second avenues. His new plant has a ladies' rest room and it is supplied with gas and water, with which girls who are employed may cook food. The general office is here maintained and there are also two private offices, with large general packing rooms for fruit. He employs more than a hundred people and his fruit goes out under the "Big Z" brand. His shipments in 1917 amounted to over four hundred cars of fruit. His building is of the and brick. He has a complete storage plant in the basement and his is the only warehouse in this district that can run trucks into the basement. The railroad tracks extend along the side of the warehouse and he has gravity carriers, electric conveyors and all modern equipment. He uses a twenty-ton automatic Fairbanks scale which is the largest in the town and he has his own trucks for gathering and delivering fruit. In all of his business affairs he follows most progressive methods and is regarded as one of the representative wholesale fruit merchants of this section. His business is steadily growing and the enterprise of his methods is one of the strong features in the attainment of his present prosperity. At different times he has owned several ranches but has disposed of all of these. On December 21, 1902, Mr. Holtzinger was married to Miss Lela F. West, a native of North Carolina, and they have become parents of two children, Ruth and Frances. Mr. Holtzinger gives his political allegiance to the republican party but has never been an office seeker. He belongs to the Yakima Country Club and the Commercial Club, and his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Methodist church, to the teachings of which he always loyally adheres, guiding his life thereby. His record proves conclusively that success and an honored name may be won simultaneously. ******************************** Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in January 2008 by Jeffrey L. Elmer. Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.