Past and Present of
Buena Vista County, Iowa
by C. H. Wegerslev and
Thomas Walpole. Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1909.
H
Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton.
William Holmes
Since 1870 William
Holmes has been identified with the agricultural life of Buena Vista
county and he today owns a good farm of two hundred and forty acres,
situated on section 32, Scott township, which he rents, while he makes
his home on forty acres near the city. He was born in Ayrshire, Scotland,
January 21, 1843, a son of William Holmes, Sr. who was born in Dumfrieshire,
Scotland, and was there married to Janette Reid. They emigrated to the
new world in 1858, and locating in Bradford county, Pennsylvania, the
father there engaged in farming and spent his last years in the Keystone
state. There were two sons of that marriage, the brother of our subject
being Robert Holmes, who removed westward to Dallas county, Iowa, at
an early day and homesteaded eighty acres of land. He still makes his
home in this state. The father was married a second time and by that
union there were five sons, John, Thomas, Frank, James and Charles,
and two daughters, Ellen and Mary Ann.
William Holmes of
this review was a lad of fifteen years when he accompanied the family
on their emigration to the United States. He soon found employment as
a farm hand, being thus engaged for three years, or until he was eighteen,
when he enlisted for service in the Civil war. In Bradford county on
the 26th of August, 1861, he joined a company of light artillery under
General McClellan. Mr. Holmes participated in many of the most important
battles of the war, including Yorktown, Antietam, Gettysburg and Bull
Run, and was also in the siege of Atlanta. He was later sent to Bridgeport,
Alabama, and at that place was granted a thirty days' furlough, which
he spent at his home in Pennsylvania. When that time had expired he
again joined his command and remained at the front until the close of
hostilities, receiving a most honorable discharge at Key West, Florida.
Returning to the
north, Mr. Holmes located in Jasper county, Iowa, where he engaged in
farming for a year and a half and then continued his journey to Dallas
county, farming near Perry for one year. In 1870, however, he took up
his abode in Buena Vista county, homesteading a claim of one hundred
and sixty acres in Scott township, where his brother Robert also secured
a homestead. He then went to Dallas county and spent the winter. It
was while residing there that William Holmes was married February 26,
1870, to Miss Mahala A. Fletcher, who was born in Cass county, Michigan,
but when eight years of age was brought to Iowa and was reared in this
state. Her father, Thomas E. Fletcher, was born in Canandaigua county,
New York, and was one of the first settlers of Cass county, Michigan.
William Holmes took
his young bride to his claim in Buena Vista county. He built a sod house
in which they made their home for some time, and with an ox team he
broke his land. He divided the fields into convenient size by building
fences, set out as orchard and shade trees, erected good and substantial
outbuildings and in due time replaced his little pioneer home with a
good modern residence. As time passed and he prospered in his undertakings
he bought an additional eighty acre tract, thus becoming the owner of
two hundred and forty acres. He cultivated this farm until 1904, when
he leased the land and purchased forty acres of land near Storm Lake,
to which he removed and which he has since cultivated. He is now numbered
among the worthy citizens of Buena Vista county and the success which
he enjoys is well merited, for it has come to him as the result of hard
labor and excellent business judgment. He owns stock in the canning
factory at Storm Lake and is thus interested in the industrial life
of the city.
The marriage of
Mr. and Mrs. Holmes was blessed with twelve children, of whom nine still
survive. The record is as follows: Stella, the wife of Edward Mainweiring;
Leroy, a farmer of Jamestown, North Dakota; Lewis J., who resides in
Spokane, Washington; Lottie, the wife of David Scofield, a resident
of Cherokee county, Iowa; Alice, the wife of A. T. McCrista, of Oklahoma;
Jessie, who died at the age of three months; Luella, the wife of James
Johnson, of Buena Vista county; William, a resident of Marstonmoor,
North Dakota; Thomas, who died in the fall of 1907 when a young man
of twenty-three years; Ida, who acts as housekeeper for her brother
William in North Dakota; George, who died in October, 1907, when a youth
of eighteen years; and Hazel, a student at Storm Lake.
Mr. Holmes is a
stanch supporter of the republican party and several terms served as
township trustee, while for a long period he was justice of the peace.
He has acted as treasurer of the school board for a number of years,
has been highway commissioner and has served as a delegate to county
conventions on numerous occasions. Both he and his wife are members
of the Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Holmes maintains pleasant
relations with his old army comrades through his membership in Baker
Post, G. A. R., at Storm Lake. Though born across the water, he has
practically been reared in this country and has therefore allied himself
with its interests. He possesses all the elements of what in this country
we term a "square" man - one in whom to have confidence, a
dependable man in any religion and any emergency. He is always found
ready to meet any obligation of life with the confidence and courage
that come of conscious personal ability, a right conception of things
and an habitual regard for what is best in the exercise of human activities.
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