My Genealogy Hound

A. L. Holmes, of Loomis & Holmes, owners of the Kirksville Foundry, and proprietors of the Variety Wood Works and Grist mill, was born in White County, Ind., in 1848. He was reared in that county until the age of twenty-one, when he then spent a year in Iowa. He then came to Kirksville and followed the builders’ and mechanics’ trades for two years, and spent three years in Howard County at the same business. He then resumed his trade in Kirksville until 1880, when he established his Variety Wood Works, and soon after added the grist-mill with G. Amick as a partner during three years. He now employs from six to twelve workmen. In February, 1886, the Kirksville Foundry was established. Mr. Holmes has one-half interest in this, but Mr. Loomis, formerly of Iowa, has charge of this department, which is destined to be one of the leading institutions of Kirksville. In October, 1876, our subject married Etta Barnett, a native of Howard County, Mo., and by whom he has two daughters: Essie and Lillian B. Mr. Holmes is a member of the A. O. U. W., and is an able manager and mechanic. The paternal grandfather, Moses Holmes, was in the naval service in the War of 1812. John J., the father, was born in New Jersey about 1822, and spent his childhood in Ohio. He was about ten years old when his parents moved to Indiana, and there he married Rebecca Jenkins, who died in 1853. The father then married Jane, a sister of his first wife, and by whom he had five children. He died in December, 1883. A. L. is the only survivor of three children born to his first marriage.