History of Hamburg, (Fremont County) Iowa United States of America

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Samuel Holmes,of Hamburg, is a lawyer whose professional as well as individual reputation is now state wide, and well worthy of the proud commonwealth to which he belongs. He was born in West Leigh near Manchester, Eng., January 1, 1839. Both his parents were silk weavers, and in 1841 left England for America and settled on a farm near Hennepin, Ill. In 1852, his father, James Holmes, went overland to California, remaining two years. Upon his return he took his family to La Salle county, Ill., where he cultivated a large farm, twelve miles south of La Salle city. In 1863, his mother, Hannah Mort Holmes, died.

Like many sons of pioneers, Mr. Holmes obtained an education with difficulty. During the winter months he attended the public schools, working on the farm the remainder of the year. He was fond of books and of study, and made the most of the opportunities presented to him. He would go many miles to attend a debating society and was an expert speller. After he was 21 years of age he attended Granville academy and Wheaton college, working at the same time in order to pay for his board, tuition and clothing. After two years at Wheaton he taught school in his home district. He then began to read law in his leisure moments. In 1865, he came to Iowa, and in the following year located permanently at Hamburg, which was then a village of very few houses. For two years he read law in the office of R. K. Crandall, when he entered the law department of the State university and graduated in 1868. He returned to Hamburg and formed a partnership with Mr. Crandall. He was afterwards associated in the firms of Holmes & Simons, Dalby & Holmes, and Holmes & French, all leading law firms of southwestern Iowa. During the past eleven years he has been alone in the practice. Mr. Holmes has one of the largest offices and one of the most complete law libraries in that part of the state. He has been retained as counsel in many important cases in the district, supreme and United States courts. For twelve years Mr. Holmes held the office of United States commissioner, but resigned the position in order to devote all his time to his profession. He is the author of the well-known book, Township Laws of Iowa which has run through two large editions. For ten years he was vice-president and president of the Farmers and Merchants bank, of Hamburg. During recent years he has devoted some of his time to developing one of the largest fruit farms in the state.

Politically, Mr. Holmes was an uncompromising republican until the party took, what he considered to be, a ?backward step? in 1894, on the temperance question. He was a prohibitionist in theory, a leader in local and state temperance organizations, and was one of the chief factors in the re-election of Senator Clark to the state legislature, aiding him in engineering the prohibition law through the senate and house. Fremont being a border county, had the reputation of being a tough place, and rum-ruled. By vigorous personal effort, Mr. Holmes assisted in changing public sentiment, in banishing the saloons from the county and making Hamburg one of the most temperate and law-abiding, educated and patriotic cities in Iowa. Becoming an active prohibitionist, he was honored in 1896, by the nomination for judge of the supreme court, and in 1897 was nominated for representative from Fremont county, and at the prohibition state convention in 1898, he received the nomination for attorney-general. Mr. Holmes is imbued with the true spirit of the reformer and has always led in educational, moral and temperance reform. Ridicule and threats have no influence with him.

When a young man he was a Congregationalist, but in recent years united with the Presbyterian church. He is a ruling elder in the church to which he belongs. He assisted in organizing and superintending the first permanent Sunday school in Hamburg, and has been an active officer and teacher ever since. He has several times been a member of the board of education and for fifteen years a trustee of Tabor college.

He was married in August, 1864, to Sarah B. Hewitt. They have six children, Abraham Lincoln, William Thomas, Mary Elizabeth, now the wife of Rev. Evore Evans, Jesse George, Samuel Arthur and Sarah Marcia.

Mr. Holmes is a liberal man and no advanced course for human good has ever appealed in vain to him. He has the loving regard of all his fellow citizens. In a comfortable home, his children a credit to him, a handsome competence for his old age, he is enjoying the results of a life well spent in the service of the Master and his fellow-men.

SOURCE: Biographies and Portraits of the Progressive Men of Iowa published by Conway and Shaw, Des Moines: 1899.

History of Hamburg, (Fremont County) Iowa

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