Woodbury County IA Archives Biographies.....Holmes, H. H. 1874 - 1924 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ia/iafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Debbie Clough Gerischer Bare67deb@aol.com July 4, 2005, 4:07 pm Author: Iowa Its History and Tradition IOWA ITS HISTORY AND TRADITION VOLUME III 1804-1926 H. H. HOLMES Henry Harrison Holmes was born in Pontiac, Illinois, on the 5th of March, 1874. He was the son of William Harrison Holmes and Aletha Beall Holmes. When he was seven years old his parents moved to South Dakota and established the family home on a farm in Aurora county northwest of Mount Vernon, that state. He attended the country school while on the farm. Later the family moved to Mount Vernon and he attended the school there until he went to the Dakota Wesleyan University at Mitchell, South Dakota. His first effort toward making a living was when as a young boy he rented some land from a neighbor and tried farming for himself. As soon as he had accumulated enough money in this way he purchased the meat market in Mount Vernon. It was there he gained a thorough knowledge of cattle values, which became an important factor in his later successful career in the live stock business. In 1900 he left Mount Vernon and went to Fulton, South Dakota, where he bought a hardware store and a line of farm machinery and implements. While he was in Fulton he was manager of a local telephone company and the Farmers Co-operative Creamery Company. Two years later he returned to Mount Vernon and bought another hardware store, and a furniture store and an undertaking establishment. In 1905 Mr. Holmes disposed of his holdings in South Dakota and moved to Sioux City, Iowa, where he became connected with the Long & Hansen Commission Company, a live stock firm with which Mr. F. M. Hatch, a former business associate of Mount Vernon, had become identified through purchasing the interests of the retiring partner, Mr. Nicholas Hansen. Within a few months Mr. Holmes bought the interests of Mr. Wallace Long, who also wished to retire. The business was continued under the old firm name of the Long & Hansen Commission Company. Later, as the business increased, Mr. Holmes and Mr. Hatch bought one of the leading commission firms in Chicago - the North Western Live Stock Commission Company, and established a new firm by that name in South St. Paul, Minnesota, and another firm by the name of Long & Hansen in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In 1898 Mr. Holmes was married to Miss Laura McDowell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William McDowell of Mount Vernon, South Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Holmes were the parents of two children; a daughter, Gladys, and a son, Dean Harrison. Mr. Holmes was fifty years old at the time of his death, which occurred March 13, 1924, at his home, No. 3 Stewart avenue, Sioux City, Iowa. Henry Harrison Holmes was a member of Tyrian Lodge, No. 508, the Sioux City Consistory and Abu-Bekr Shrine, A. A. O. N. M. S.; Sioux City Boar Club, the Sioux City Country Club, the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce, the Chicago Live Stock Exchange and the Sioux City Live Stock Exchange. For several years he had been a director of the latter exchange and was active in all its work at the time of his death. Few men in the live stock business have been more successful from every standpoint or have had a wider acquaintance or commanded more respect than Harry Holmes. He was an executive of more than ordinary ability and his advice was much sought by stockmen over the entire northwest, because of his keen vision and foresight combined with a marked conservatism. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ia/woodbury/bios/holmes15bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/iafiles/ File size: 4.0 Kb