My Genealogy Hound

ENOS HOLMES, Sr. Within the bounds of Berrien County, or indeed the entire State, no better representative of honest, upright manhood could be found than the above-named gentleman, who was for many years identified with the work of the county, especially Bertrand Township, in which his home was located. He was quite prominent in local politics, and in early times was Supervisor of the township for several years.

We trace the Holmes family back to Nathaniel Holmes, of Coleraine, Ireland, in 1660. He was followed by six generations, his lineal descendants, each named Nathaniel, as shown by the records of the city of Coleraine, and records of the family since emigrating to this country, making a total of seven generations named Nathaniel. There is a tradition in the family that they came over from Scotland to Ireland at the time of the Presbyterian emigration, of which MacCauley speaks in his history of England.

Enos Holmes was the seventh of ten children of Nathaniel and Catherine (Allison) Holmes, and was born in Peterborough, N. H., December 14, 1799. His father was born in Londonderry, N. H., September 5, 1759, and died in Peterborough September 10, 1832. His grandfather, Nathaniel Holmes, was born in Coleraine, Ireland, and died in 1764, at Londonderry, N. H. The great-grandfather, Nathaniel Holmes, and great-grandmother, Jane Hunter, lived in County Antrim, Ireland, and died there. They left a family of five sons, of whom Enos Holmes’ grandfather was the fourth. Enos Holmes’ father, Nathaniel Holmes, came to Peterborough, N. H., to live in 1784, soon after his marriage, and they lived on the same farm the remainder of their lives. He was a Deacon of the Presbyterian Church and when quite young rendered much service in the War of the Revolution.

Nathaniel Holmes, the father of our subject, went to Cambridge as a waiter to Lieut.-Gen. Ferguson, and after that as a waiter to his (Holmes) father-in-law, Maj. Duncan, of Londonderry. He was urged in September, 1776, to enlist in the company of a certain Capt. Finley, by his brother-in-law, William Moore, who offered to make his wages equal to $10 per month. He declined on the plea that his clothes were all worn out. His sister, Mrs. Moore, hearing the conversation, said, “Billy, you furnish the shoes and I will furnish the clothes.” It was a great mystery how she could do it, as there were only two pounds of wool in the house. The next morning their flock of sheep was brought to the barn, and four early lambs were robbed of their fleece, and the wool was colored, spun, woven and made into clothing in twenty days, and when Capt. Finley came through the town on his way to Saratoga the young soldier was ready to join the company. He was afterward at the battle of White Plains. He returned safe, whether to Peterborough or Londonderry is unknown, and Mr. Moore fulfilled his engagement of making his pay as good as $10 per month.

Enos Holmes was born in Peterborough, N. H., and lived on the farm until after he was twenty-one years old. He taught school two winters, and after marrying Louisa Adams, at the age of twenty-five, moved to Springfield, Vt., and in company with his brother, John Holmes, and brother-in-law, Daniel Adams, started a cotton factory, which they carried on for about eight years. He lost his property in 1837 through the United States Bankrupt Law, and went to western New York and settled on a farm, after going to the “Far West” and buying about eight hundred acres of land in Illinois and some land in Michigan. He moved to Michigan in 1846, and settled on a part of sections 4, 8, and 18, in Bertrand Township, near the village of Buchanan, where he resided until his death. May 23, 1869. Louisa Adams, his wife, was the seventh of eight children of Daniel and Phebe (Britton) Adams, and was born in Jaffrey, Vt., December 14, 1806. She married Enos Holmes at the age of eighteen, and died January 25, 1876.

Her father, Daniel Adams, was born March 14, 1768. At the time of the battle of Lexington, his father, Joseph Adams, lived in Cambridge, and seeing the British soldiers coming on their way to Concord, escaped through the back door to the woods, the British firing at him and shooting through his hat. They made his wife, grandmother of Louisa (Adams) Holmes, get up from a sick-bed, with a child, Anna Adams, three weeks old, and flee to the corn crib, firing at her as she went. Two of his daughters hid upstairs, while Daniel Adams, then eight years old, hid under the bed. When the soldiers took down the clock, he stuck his head out from under the bed and told them not to touch that clock or his father would whip them. The British petted him and made much of him for his bravery and did not further molest him. They piled the furniture up in the middle of the room and set it afire, then left on their way to Concord. The family put out the fire and saved the house after the soldiers were gone. The British did not stop on their way back, being in too great a hurry to escape the attentions of the Continental soldiers.

Daniel Adams was born in Cambridge and lived on a farm in Jaffrey after he was married, being selectman of the town for several years. His father, Joseph Adams, was born July 8, 1715, and died May 3, 1794. He was a grandson of Dr. Henry Adams, of Braintree, Mass., and a cousin of President John Adams. He was married to Martha Frost January 10, 1740, and to Hannah Hall, his second wife, September 11, 1750. He was the father of fifteen children, of whom Daniel Adams was the thirteenth. Their united ages at one time amounted to thirteen hundred years. His father, Joseph Adams, the great-great-grandfather of Louisa (Adams) Holmes, was born September 21, 1688. His parents, George and Martha Adams, were married on the 28th of February, 1685. Henry Adams, the ancestor of the Adams family, emigrated from Devonshire, England, in 1630 and settled in Braintree, Mass.

Enos Holmes and Louisa Holmes were the parents of nine children, four of whom died in infancy. Catherine A. Holmes was born October 26, 1826, and married John C. Marble March 8, 1858. She lived in St. Joseph County, Ind., for some years and died October 2, 1872, without issue. Daniel A., born May 28, 1829, went to California across the plains in 1849 with ox-teams, but returned to Michigan in 1852 and married Sarah J. Baker, who bore him fourteen children, six of whom still survive. He settled on a farm in Weesaw Township in Berrien County, Mich., in 1855, where he now resides. Louisa A., born May 4, 1831, married Orson Marble December 25, 1851, by whom she had ten children, all of whom are grown to manhood and womanhood, and all are living. Enos, born August 11, 1841, in Clarendon, Orleans County, N. Y., married Martha Burruss February 13, 1873, by whom he has one child, and is now living on the homestead occupied by his father and himself successively since 1846. John G., born October 4, 1852, in Michigan, married Juliette Scidmore December 27, 1876, and has by her two daughters. He is the editor of the Buchanan Record, of which paper he has been the proprietor since January 25, 1875.