Barton County KS Archives Biographies.....Holmes, Harry Hoard 1868 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com November 13, 2005, 12:44 pm

Author: Great Bend Tribune

HARRY HOARD HOLMES

THE home of Harry Hoard and Violet Louise Sowards Holmes, "Riverside Stock
Farm," distant three and one-half miles southwest from Great Bend, lies between
the Santa Fe tracks and tin Arkansas river. The residence and surroundings are
very pleasing to the eye. The house, located on a mound, is approached through
an avenue of towering locusts, the boughs meeting overhead. Forest trees of
other kinds tower in the background protecting the grass plot which is kept
green and plentifully sprinkled with flowering plants and shrubs. The house is a
two story white frame, with nine large airy rooms, sits high on its foundation,
the ceilings are high, and the many gables and porches add to its
attractiveness. The furnishings are both modern and elegant, and it is .piped
for lights and water. The main barn is 24x32, with a fifteen foot shed on three
sides. Then comes the garage, cattle barn, granaries, chicken and hog houses,
etc., and there are two cottages for tenants on other parts of the farm. The
place cavers five hundred acres of the most fertile of the famous Arkansas
Valley and is in a high state of cultivation; but it more properly classes with
the stock farms of the county, and is stocked with thoroughbred Shorthorn cattle
and Duroc Jersey hogs that have taken many prizes at the Nebraska State Fair,
Hutchinson, Kansas City and St. Louis. Fifty-five or sixty Shorthorns browse the
meadow lands, and the head herder is "Royal Ramsden," who has never been
defeated for a prize as a calf, yearling, senior yearling, or a two year old at
the Nebraska State Fair. Then there are two or three females that have never
been defeated in their class, having taken first at Hutchinson in 1910, and a
high prize at the American Royal Stock Show at Kansas City. His hogs are the
best bred in the state and are Duroc Jerseys; being sired by "Helen's Wonder"
and by "Mayboy," grand champion at the World's fair, St. Louis.

   Harry Hoard Holmes was born February 20, 1868, in Chicago, and is the son of
George Lincoln Holmes and Helen C. Kellog. The father, before coming to Great
Bend on June6, 1884, was cashier of the Chicago postoffice and connected with
the Merchants National Bank of Chicago. He made his home on the ranch for twelve
years and died on August 23, 1896.

   George L. DeVilliars Holmes, a son, who died August 14, 1886, was a member of
the family when coming to this county, as well as Mrs. Sophia Hoard Holmes, the
mother and grandmother, who died June 3, 1908. Henry Hoard Holmes was sixteen
years of age when he arrived here and was educated in the public schools of
Chicago and Great Bend. He became infatuated with railroading and prepared
himself for an engineer, and for one year held a position as engineer on the
Michigan Central out of Chicago. He transferred to the Santa Fe system and for
six years ran out of Chicago, Newton and Dodge City. His earnings were invested
with his father in the purchase of the five hundred acres surrounding his home,
and in improvements and in stocking the ranch. He is now well contented with
farm life and the pleasure of breeding thoroughbred stock for the market.

[photo] Home of Harry Hoard Holmes


   Harry Hoard Holmes and Miss Viola Sow-ards, the only child of Marion F. and
Mary Rowell Sowards, of Barton County, were united in marriage on April 13,
1890, and they have one interesting daughter, Miss Helen Hoard Holmes, as a
pledge of that union.



Additional Comments:
From:

Biographical History Of Barton County

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/barton/bios/holmes133gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ksfiles/

File size: 4.1 Kb