St Johns-Levy-Alachua County FlArchives Biographies.....Holmes, Fountain N. 1870 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 4, 2008, 2:35 pm Author: B. F. Johnson Fountain N. Holmes Fountain N. Holmes, managing partner of the St. Augustine Ice Works and St. Augustine Steam Laundry, a young man in the early prime of life, was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, on February 1, 1870, son of William Jones and Joanna (Edwards) Holmes. Mr. Holmes comes of two families greatly distinguished in American history. Jonathan Edwards, an ancestor on the maternal side, pastor of the first church of North Hampton, Mass., from 1726 to 1750, was easily the first man of his day in New England. While offering no new theology, he revived the spiritual zeal of old Puritan theology of New England and made it a living force. The historian, Dugdale, took Jonathan Edwards, as his model, on one side, representing the good citizen, and Max Jukes on the other side, as representative of the bad citizen, and traced up the descendants of these two. He found that from Jonathan Edwards there had come, including men who had married into the female side of the family, 1500 descendants, all of whom, with not more than a half dozen exceptions, had been men of high character, of whom 285 had been college graduates, 65 college professors, 13 presidents of colleges, 60 authors, who had furnished 135 books of especial merit, and 60 physicians, many of whom had become eminent not only in our own country, but in Europe. On the other hand, Max Jukes had, through his descendants, furnished to the country 1200 criminals and moral degenerates. As illustrating the advantages of good citizenship, the members of the Edwards family have been, as a rule, long lived, and of the Jukes family short lived. If the Holmes and Edwards families had done no more for America than to contribute to our citizenship Oliver Wendell Holmes and Jonathan Edwards, they would deserve our gratitude. Mr. Holmes' immediate branch of the family goes back to William M., who came from England to Baltimore, Md., in or about the year 1700. Prior to him Francis Holmes had settled in Boston, Mass., and his descendants in 1702 settled in Charleston, S. C. William M. Holmes married Honore Wells, who was many years younger than he. This was about 1740. They had a numerous family, of whom Elizabeth married George Wells, and they settled in Licking county, Ohio. Thomas Holmes a son also settled in that county. Alexander, another son, born in 1757, was killed in the Revolutionary War. William M. Holmes died March 10, 1758, and his widow, who was many years younger, on November 17, 1759, married Richard Brown, who served as a Colonel under General Washington. She survived until March 28, 1816, reaching the great age of ninety-two years. Her daughter, Rachel Brown, (by the second husband), married General James Wells, a brother of the George Wells who had married her half sister Elizabeth. James Holmes, Sr., third son of William M. Holmes, was born in 1748. He died February 2, 1826, aged seventy-eight. He had married Nancy Whitaker. James Holmes served in the American Revolution as a Third Lieutenant in the First Battalion of Miles' Penna. Rifle Regiment, of Capt. Richard Brown's company. He resigned on December 31, 1776, being incapacitated for further service by reason of a gunshot wound through the hips, which crippled him for life. After the Revolutionary War he first settled in Washington county, Pa., where he married as above stated. In 1802 he located with his family in Fairfield county, Ohio, and reared a large family of sixteen children. James Holmes, born 1789, seventh child of James a-d Nancy Holmes, spent his entire life upon a farm in Walnut tc -nship, near Buckeye lake. He married Sarah Ann Haver. He was a good looking man, a strong Methodist, much respected, a fine talker, and of influence in his neighborhood. Of his marriage there were born ten children. The second child was Joshua Holmes, born October 13, 1813, and died January 29, 1894. He married Mary Maria Fountain, a native of New Jersey, born June 22, 1815. The Fountains were of excellent English stock settled in the early colonial days in New Jersey and Virginia. They married on March 18, 1836, and in September of that year they moved to Allen county, Ind., where they settled upon a farm four miles west of Fort Wayne. In 1870 they moved into Fort Wayne, and Joshua Holmes was there for a short time a township assessor, and many years in stock business. His wife died March 1, 1881, and he survived until January 29, 1894. Joshua and Mary M. Holmes were parents of twelve children. The fifth child was William Jones Holmes, born October 2, 1842. He married Joanna Edwards and was the father of Fountain N. Holmes. William Jones Holmes died young, killed in a railway accident. He died on June 13, 1874, being not quite thirty-two years old. William Jones Holmes married Joanna Edwards at Roanoke, Ind., on February 6, 1861. She was a daughter of Joseph G. and Annie Edwards, who were both born and reared at Chambersburg, Pa. This Joseph G. Edwards was a son of James Edwards, a native of Pennsylvania, of Scotch descent, and his mother was Elizabeth Beaver, a Pennsylvanian, of German descent. The mother of Joanna Edwards was Annie Rudisill, of Pennsylvania, whose people were of Swiss extraction. Through the various intermarriages of this family the strains of blood blended in Fountain N. Holmes are Scotch, English, Welsh and German. This makes him a typical citizen of the United States, where many races have blended together to make what is called the American. Mr. Holmes was educated in the public schools and night schools at Huntington, Ind. From a farmer's boy, he became a newsboy, and he avers himself that he made it a point never to leave one employment until he saw a better business in sight. In 1891 he completed his training as a machinist at Fort Wayne, and in 1894 came to Florida and took the management of two ice plants, one at Cedar Keys and one at Waldo. These plants belonged to W. S. Ware, of Jacksonville, and after six years in this business Mr. Holmes severed this connection to go into partnership with John W. Simmons, of St. Augustine and Fernandina, Fla., and moved to St. Augustine, where he took full charge of the ice plant in 1900. In 1906 they built a steam laundry and since that time he has successfully managed both the ice and steam laundry business. On November 26, 1890, he married Anna K. Hilgenberg, daughter of John Henry and Emma Hilgenberg of Huntington, Ind. They have three children, Marguerite, Ralph H. and Edith Key Holmes. In national matters a Republican, in local affairs Air. Holmes contents himself with voting for the best man. A general reader of the press and of periodicals bearing upon topics of special interest, his special preferences in the reading way has been mechanical works, for which he has a strong bent. Notwithstanding the pressure of his business affairs, he has found time to serve his city for two terms as a member of the Council. In religious matters he is a communicant of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Also active in fraternal circles he is a member of the various Masonic bodies, including the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Commandery, and Shrine. He holds membership also in the Knights of Pythias and the St. Augustine Board of Trade. In a social way he is a member of the Elks and the Power Boat Club. He lays down as a good working code, "Be honest, and roll up your sleeves and work," which appears to be a very practical and complete code in a few words. Speaking of his own business which he has managed with success, he says that he manages his business, but never lets it manage him. This also is an admirable proposition for that large number of men who allow their business to worry them sometimes into nervous prostration and sometimes into the cemetery. Mr. Holmes believes that our citizens should give prompt and close attention to the betterment of our public school system and the building of the public highways, and that while he would encourage immigration, he believes we ought to watch carefully the character of that immigration and see that only desirable people come into our borders. Loyal to the State of his adoption hi s now recognized as a substantial business man of high character. Regardful of the "Golden Rule," in which he believes, he makes the interests of his employees his own and tries to advance their interests simultaneously with his own. There have been granted at various times several coats-of-arms to the Holmes, Fountain, and Edwards families from which Mr. Holmes is descended. Additional Comments: Extracted from: FLORIDA EDITION MAKERS OF AMERICA AN HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORK BY AN ABLE CORPS OF WRITERS VOL. III. Published under the patronage of The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida ADVISORY BOARD: HON. W. D. BLOXHAM COL. FRANK HARRIS HON. R. W. DAVIS SEN. H. H. McCREARY HON. F. P. FLEMING W. F. STOVALL C. A. CHOATE, SECRETARY 1909 A. B. CALDWELL ATLANTA, GA. COPYRIGHT 1909 B. F. 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