Holst, Christ

Submitted by Mike Miller

Christ Holst, florist, of New Orleans, La., has a large cemetery business in the city, and seems to be especially adapted to the business in which he is engaged, for he is a great lover of flowers and has been familiar with their care since his, boyhood days. He was born at Wismar, Germany, in 1854, and in his native town received a liberal education and learned his trade. At the age of nineteen years he left the Fatherland, and with limited means came to the United State. to carve out a fortune for himself on a foreign shore. He fortunately had friends in this country and others soon sprang up around him, and in various ways they kindly assisted this enterprising young German to gain a foothold on the ladder of success. From the very start he displayed much energy and ability and all his enterprises were attended with good results. Upon first locating on American soil he settled at Lyons, Iowa, where he was successfully engaged in business for four years, but in 1878 he came to the Crescent City, after having visited almost all the principal cities of the Union, and proclaims New Orleans to be "the desirable, the lovely and the beautiful." Mr. Holst established his present business opposite Greenwood cemetery in 1886, and since then he has made the locality one of the many lovely spots for which the Crescent City has become famous. His garden and greenhouses are filled with rare and beautiful plants from almost every clime, and are arranged as perfectly as his skill and taste can make them. He is in all respects a leader in this interesting line of trade, and his patronage is derived from the most fashionable parts of the city and suburbs. He is admirably fitted for this most pleasing of occupations, and he keeps constantly on hand all kind, of rustic work, wire and earthen ware, and possesses unequaled facilities for successfully meeting the most exacting demands. He is an affable and educated gentleman, with whom it is a pleasure to converse or to meet. He is, socially, a member of the I. 0. 0. F.; the Encampment, being high priest of the latter, and also belong, to that honorable order, the K. of P., as well as others of minor note.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 484. Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.