- EDWARD A. HOLMES, one of the prominent and successful business
men of Milton, Rock
- County, was born in that village April 25, 1841, son of Harvey
and Abbie (WATERMAN) HOLMES, natives of Connecticut.
- Harvey HOLMES was a carpenter by trade, and became one of
the first settlers of Rock
- County, migrating hither in 1838, and settling on what is
known as the WATERMAN place, one mile south of the village of
Milton. Later he moved to the town of Harmony, and bought a
farm of 176 acres, which he improved and occupied until his death,
in 1854, at the age of forty-nine years. He was a farmer of
unusual prominence, was chairman of the county board of supervisors
a number of years, and in 1852 was elected to the State Legislature.
He was a Whig in politics. Himself and wife were active members
of the Congregational Church, of which he was a long time deacon.
The widow still survives, a resident of Santa Clara, Cal., at
the age of eighty-eight years. To Harvey and Abbie HOLMES were
born seven children, two sons and five daughters, of whom three
now survive: Edward A., our subject; Adelaide A., widow of Alfred
POST, and now a resident of Santa Clara, Cal.; and Sarah M.,
wife of John SWINTON, of Portland, Oregon.
- Alfred HOLMES, the paternal grandfather of our subject, was
a native of Connecticut, and lived
- to the age of about ninety years. He had four sons and one
daughter. Joseph WATERMAN, the maternal grandfather, was a native
of Connecticut, and an early settler of Rock County, locating
about 1839 a mile south of the village of Milton, where he lived
to the age of eighty-seven years.
- Edward A. HOLMES was reared on the farm in Milton township,
attended the district schools,
- and completed his education at Milton College. He then started
life for himself as a farmer, continuing thus until 1879, where
he engaged in a general mercantile business at Milton, until
his general store was destroyed by fire, in 1898. Mr. HOLMES
then opened a grocery store, and he has since conducted that
business. For the past twenty years he has been agent at Milton
for the United States Express Co.
- On Oct. 20, 1869, Mr. HOLMES married Miss Alice WILKINS,
daughter of Joseph and
- Celesta (JOHNSON) WILKINS, and to this union have been born
seven children, five sons and two daughters: (1) Harvey E. married
Marcia JONES, and they have two children, John Edward and Harvey.
(2) David Alfred married Nettie SPAULDING. (3) Helen Frances
married Frank A. ROOT, and lives at Appleton. (4) Walter Scott
married Ina GRAY, and lives in Harmony. (5) James Pitt, who
is unmarried, participated in the Spanish-American war; he now
has a position in the Northern Hospital for the Insane. (6)
Paul Allen died Dec. 25, 1898, aged eighteen. (7) Sarah Alice
is a student of Milton College. Politically Mr. HOLMES is a
Republican. He attends the Congregational Church.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c) 1901, pp. 383-384.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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