David & Mrs. Elizabeth Holmes

DAVID HOLMES was born in Tennessee, February 14th, 1818. He was the son of Joseph and Abigail Holmes. Joseph Holmes was a native of Virginia, and was a soldier of the war of 1812. His father before him, John C. Holmes, was also a native of Virginia, and lived to the extreme old age of one hundred and ten years. He emigrated with his family to the state of Tennessee, where he died. Joseph Holmes served as a soldier against the Indians, and was at the battle of Horshoe Bend on the Tallahoosa river, where the Indian forces were entirely annihilated. In 1828 he emigrated to Indiana, where he lived two years; he then came into Illinois, and settled in Carlinville in 1830; he built a cabin the same year on the ground which is now occupied by the county jail. At that time there were only five families living in the place. He lived there one year, and then returned to Indiana, where he died in 1834. Mrs. Holmes, after the death of her husband, returned to Carlinville with her family, where she lived until her death in 1837. The subject of our sketch was the third child in a family of nine children. During his minority he assisted his mother to provide for the family, and after her death for four years he provided for the family, his sisters keeping the house. In 1837 the family moved from Carlinville into what is now Western Mound township, where Mr. Holmes has since lived and followed the life of a farmer. In 1844, January 10th, he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Hubbard, daughter of Joel Hubbard, one of the early settlers of Macoupin county. Mr. and Mrs. Holmes have raised a family of twelve children - three girls and nine boys. In politics Mr. Holmes is a democrat, and cast his first vote for General Jackson. He and his wife are members of the Baptist church.

Such is a brief sketch of one of th early pioneers of Macoupin county. He has grown with the growth of the county. Fifty years have wrought a wonderful change in the West - then a wilderness with trees and grasses indigenous to the soil overspreading the entire country; now we have railroads, cities, villages and fruitful fields, with the promise of a future that is destined to astonish the world with its wonderful progress.

An excellent portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Holmes heads this sketch.