Sedgwick County KS Archives Biographies.....Holmes, E. F. 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 25, 2007, 10:18 pm

Author: O. H. Bentley (1910)

   E. F. Holmes, of Wichita, Kan., is the head of one of Wichita's best known
and most successful retail clothing stores. "There is no place like Holmes," has
become a household word in Wichita and Sedgwick county. Mr. Holmes was born in
Michigan, His parents, Robert and Elizabeth (Fisher) Holmes, being residents of
Livingston county, coming from England. The early education of young Holmes was
acquired in the public schools of his native town. About 1881 he decided that a
better career was open to him in the West and came to Kansas. Here he remained
for four years, during which time he had a mixed career as a farmer, school
teacher and stock raiser. In the fall of 1885 he returned to Michigan and took
up mercantile training, with the result that again he migrated to Kansas in the
spring of 1886 with Charles M. Gregory, and the two started the firm of Holmes &
Gregory at Cottonwood Falls, this partnership continuing for seventeen years. In
1891 Mr. Holmes again went into stock raising on a large and valuable ranch in
Chase county with great success, and there he remained for ten years. In 1902
Mr. Holmes withdrew from the firm of Holmes & Gregory and came to Wichita. Here
he formed the firm of Holmes & Jones. Three years later Mr. Jones retired and
Mr. Holmes became the sole owner of the Holmes company. From the start the
highest possible standard of merchandising was adopted and the utmost liberality
of treatment was extended to customers. In the eight years in which the company
has been in existence the volume of its business was trebled. Mr. Holmes has
always taken a deep and generous interest in boys and young men. At Cottonwood
Falls he organized the "Holmes Boys' Band," which won the first prize of $100 in
its class in a tournament at Topeka. Mr. Holmes is a life member of the Young
Men's Christian Association of Wichita, and a strong believer in its ideals. He
is also a member of the Commercial Club and the Country Club, K. of P. and K. N.
L. of S. He was married in 1886 to Miss Alberta McMillen, of Livingston county,
Michigan.

Additional Comments:
Extracted from 

History of Wichita and Sedgwick County: past and present, including an account
of the cities, towns and villages of the county

Editor in chief: O. H. Bentley
Chicago: C.F. Cooper & Co. (1910)


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