J. C. Holman. Merchant, banker, stock rancher and general business man, J. C. Holman has been a conspicuous figure in Hughes County for many years. Though a white man, his life since early boyhood has been spent in the old Indian Territory and the new state. Mr. Holman possesses executive and business ability far above the average and his judgment and experience have been used freely in public office, to which he has been called by his fellow citizens. His home is at Stuart, but his name is known all over Hughes County and in that section of Eastern Oklahoma.

He was next to the oldest in the family of five children. The parents Wesley and Elizabeth (Parker) Holman were Texas people, but were living temporarily in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, when J. C. Holman was born November 27, 1868. Six weeks after his birth they returned to Texas and located in Limestone County. When Mr. Holman was nine years of age his parents moved into Indian Territory, locating in the Chickasaw Nation, there remaining for eleven years, and then moved to the Choctaw Nation. For the past twenty-seven years J. C. Holman has been a resident of Hughes County, and there the big work of his career has been accomplished.

As a boy he attended one of the old time subscription schools, maintained by contribution from the parents of those children who attended, the tuition fee being usually a dollar a month for each scholar. This school which Mr. Holman attended was kept in a log cabin. he grew up on a farm, and farming has been the backbone of his business prosperity and success, He kept his home on a farm until 1902 and for the past fifteen years has been also active in business as a general merchant, his location for eleven years being at Gerty, and since then at Stuart. During the first four years he was associated with his brother, W. H. Holman, under the name Holman & Brothers, but since then has been alone.

Mr. Holman is president of the Stuart State Bank and has held that position since it was organized, in 1912. He also has a fine ranch of 3,000 acres twelve miles southwest of Stuart, and 2,100 acres of that land are his own property, and he has 700 acres under cultivation. This is the center for his extensive efforts in stock raising, and he has both cattle and horses, but a few years ago he introduced into Hughes County the first herd of registered Hereford cattle and has given much attention to the raising of thoroughbred cattle of that strain and his own example has proved of broad benefit to the entire county.

After Oklahoma became a state Mr. Holman was chosen one of the first county commissioners of Hughes County and filled that office five years. He is a democrat and an official member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. While a man of striking initiative and ability, Mr. Holman freely gives credit to his capable wife for much of his financial success. In 1892 he married Miss Mollie Hobbs of Gainesville, Texas. They have been married now upwards of a quarter of a century, and they enjoy the comforts of one of the best homes in the county. Their two children are named Rene and Lynn.