Joseph William Holden was born in Raleigh on September 30, 1844. The son of Governor William Woods Holden, and William Woods Holden's first wife Ann Augusta Young, he served in the Confederate military during the Civil War. After the war, Joseph became a republican politician and served as speaker North Carolina House of Representatives from 1868 to 1870. He died in Raleigh on October 21, 1875.