"A HISTORY OF THE DAVIESS-McLEAN BAPTIST ASSOCIATION IN KENTUCKY, 
1844-1943" by Wendell H. Rone.  Probably published in 1944 by 
Messenger Job Printing Co., Inc., Owensboro, Kentucky, pp. 461-462.
Used by permission.  [Daviess]

COLONEL JAMES M. HOLMES:  The subject of this sketch was born in 
Owensboro, Kentucky, on November 10, 1825.  His parents, James L. and 
Ann Griffith Holmes, were natives of Virginia and Maryland, 
respectively, and were born in 1785 and 1788 respectively.  They 
married in Shelby County, Kentucky in the year 1806 and came to 
Owensboro, Kentucky, in the year 1823.  Our subject was the youngest 
of eight children.  His father served in a volunteer company as a 
Captain, during the War of 1812, under Isaac Shelby, Governor of 
Kentucky.  He also served in the Texas-Mexican War and died in 
December, 1836, of camp fever.
	Mr. Holmes was but eleven years of age at the time of his 
father's death, but his father having spent all of his means in 
outfitting the troops for Texas, he was obliged to go to work when 
twelve years of age and never again attended school.  After working 
two years as a dry-goods clerk and two years on his grandfather's 
farm he entered a drug store as an apprentice, remaining there three 
years.  He went to Texas in l845 for the purpose of getting something 
for the services rendered Texas by his father.  In 1846 during the 
war between the United States and Mexico, he joined McCullough's Spy 
Company.  At the expiration of his term of service he worked in Texas 
for a time and then returned to Owensboro in 1848 and again went to 
work in a drug store.  In the fall of 1849 he went on a farm.  On 
October 1, 1861, he entered the service of the United States in the 
Third Kentucky Cavalry, commanded by J. T. Jackson, and four days 
later was sent out on detail duty.  He was commissioned a Captain and 
readily rose in rank until he became a Lieutenant Colonel.  Failing 
eyesight caused him to return home and upon recovering to some extent 
he reentered the army, and at the time of General Bragg's entrance 
into Kentucky he rejoined his regiment and remained in active service 
until July, 1863.  His eyesight again caused him trouble and he 
returned home.  He later re-entered the service and went to 
Connecticut to muster out troops.  In January, 1866, he returned home 
and engaged in farming near Utica in Daviess County, until about the 
year 1895, when he moved to Owensboro and spent the remaining days of 
his long life.
	Colonel Holmes professed faith in Christ in the year 1852 and 
was baptized into the fellowship of the Bethabara Baptist Church by 
Rev. J. P. Ellis.  He served the Bethabara Church as clerk in 1858-
1861 and again in 1871.  He later moved his membership to the Oak 
Grove Church (Utica), here he served as clerk in the years 1878-1887.  
He was ordained a deacon at this Church sometime near 1880 and 
remained as such until he moved to Owensboro about 1895 when he again 
moved his membership, this time to the First Baptist Church, where he 
was recognized as a deacon.  At the time of his death he was the 
senior deacon of the First Church.  From 1866 until about the year 
1910 he attended the sessions of the Association as a messenger from 
the Churches to which he belonged in that period.
	He was married to Miss Elizabeth Evans, daughter of William 
Evans, in the year 1851.  Four children were born to this union-three 
sons and one daughter.  Mrs. Holmes died in the year 1915 shortly 
after their sixty-third wedding anniversary.  Mr. Holmes was in his 
one-hundredth year when he died on August 10, 1925.  He was one of 
the last three Mexican War veterans in the United States to die.  His 
body was laid to rest in the Elmwood Cemetery in Owensboro, Kentucky.
	When Mr. Holmes was born only seven houses existed in the city 
of Owensboro and two of them were owned by his kin.  At the time of 
his death the small village had grown into a city of about 20,000 
people.  He lived through eighty-one years of the history of the 
Daviess County and Daviess-McLean Association.

Holmes Griffith Shelby McCullough Jackson Bragg Ellis Evans
=
VA MD Shelby TX CT

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/daviess/holmes.jm.txt