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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Jefferson County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Robert R. Holmes, one of the most promising of Jefferson County’s younger citizens, was born in De Soto County, Miss., December 13, 1859, and is a son of Dr. L. and Sarah (Herron) Holmes, of the same county and State (the latter a daughter of Hamilton Herron, a prosperous farmer of Shelby County, Tenn.). The parents were married in the State of their nativity, on December 9, 1857, and made De Soto County their home until the year 1860, when they moved to Jefferson County, Ark., and located on the farm upon which Robert now resides. The father was naturally born to the profession he chose in after life, as he always exhibited a preference for the study of medicine even in his boyhood. At the proper age he attended lectures, having graduated in the literary department of the University of Mississippi (Oxford) in 1854, and subsequently in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1857, and after graduating he commenced to practice in his native State. On his arrival in Arkansas he entered actively into his profession, and attained a celebrity that extended not only through Arkansas but in some of the surrounding States. He rose to an eminence that was as enviable as it was deserved, and his brilliant record in the medical archives of Arkansas are emulated by many. Dr. Holmes was also engaged in farming, and at the time of his death, which occurred December 3, 1886, of swamp fever, he owned about 1,000 acres of valuable land. He was a good business man, a favorite in society and popular with all classes, and on his death the county lost one of its most valuable citizens. He was a Mason (by which body he was buried in Bellwood Cemetery, Pine Bluff), and in politics was a Democrat. The Doctor and wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and both gave substantial aid to many worthy enterprises connected with church and educational affairs. They were the parents of nine children, of whom five are yet living: Robert R., Lula (who married February 20, 1884, John A. Hudson, a prosperous farmer of Jefferson County), Addie, Sallie and Ida Lee. Those deceased are Mary and Finley (infants), and O. Renty, aged eighteen years, who died October 4, 1880, a promising son. He was truly a young man of model worth, temperate in all his habits, unselfish, morally inclined; full of tenderest affection and a fond and obedient child, in short endowed with so many excellencies of mind, manners and heart that he was loved and respected by all who knew him. Katie, nine years old, died September 22, 1887; she was the youngest child and the pet and joy of the household, death claiming her just nine months after her father. Robert R. received his education in De Soto County, Miss., and at Pine Bluff, Ark., learning the higher branches at the latter place under Prof. Jordan. Upon reaching his twentieth year, the management of his father’s plantation was entrusted to him, and since then he has given it his entire attention. Under his judicious management it has been greatly improved; new houses erected and a cotton gin built, and he has displayed by more ways than one that he is the right man in the right place. In politics he is a Democrat and active in his support of that party. He is regarded with favor by every business man in the community who have recognized his enterprising spirit, and his popularity is as flattering as it is genuine.

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This family biography is one of 136 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Jefferson County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Jefferson County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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