Laurentius (Lawrentius, or Lawrentias) "Renty" Holmes MD 
| Born: 1835, Jun 17 in Bibb County GA Died: 1886, Dec 3 - buried in Bellwood Cemetery, Pine Bluff, AK Physician: graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School — 1857 Laurentius, Sally (or Sallie), and their infant son, Robert, moved to Plum Bayou, Jefferson County AR, either in late 1859 or 1860 (Robert was born in MS). |
Dr. L. [Lawrentius] and Sarah (Herron) Holmes of the same county and State (the latter, a daughter of Hamilton Herron, a prosperous farmer of Shelby County, Tenn.). [They] 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. ... The father [Laurentius] 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, 1880, 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 0. Renty, aged eightteen (sic) 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.
See Goodspeed's Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Jefferson County, Arkansas, 1889. *
Renty's Family Family tree 
Children: Robert R. Holmes (b. 13 Dec 1859 in MS, d. 3 Dec 1880 in Pine Bluff, AR) - see footnote *,
0. Renty Holmes (b. ~1862 in AR, d. 4 Oct 1880),
Lula L. Holmes Hudson (b. 1864 in TX, d. 1890 - buried in Jefferson County AR - Find A Grave Memorial # 58887420) - m. John Asbury Hudson (b. 1858, d. 1937 - Find A Grave Memorial # #64736287),
Addie Holmes (b. ~1866),
Sallie Holmes (b. 1870),
Ida Lee Holmes (b. ~1873),
Mary Holmes (d. in infancy),
Finley Holmes (d. in infancy),
Katie Holmes (b. ~1877, d. 22 Sep 1887)
Renty's Heritage Family tree
Parents: Finley Holmes, Emily Goodwyn Raines Holmes
Siblings: Georgiana Jane Goodwin Holmes [Wood] Bott,
Robert Raines Holmes,
Alpheus Cadmus Holmes,
Finley Holmes (III),
Thomas A. Holmes,
Francis Holmes,
Abercrombie Holmes,
Nathaniel Holmes,
Marcia Elbertina Holmes [Treadwell] Beardsley,
Winfield W. Holmes
- Graduate of the University of Mississippi - 1854
- Attended and Graduated the University of Pennsylvania
* According to Goodspeed's Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas [Goodspeed Publishing Company. (1889). Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas. Goodspeed Publishing: Nashville. p. 178.], Robert R. Holmes was "born in De Soto County, Miss., December 13, 1859 and is a son of Dr. L. [Laurentius] and Sarah (Herron) Holmes of the same county and State. ... 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."
Family tree
Sources:
United States Federal Census data
(2004). Historical Census Browser. Retrieved [Date you accessed source], from the University of Virginia, Geospatial and Statistical Data Center: http://mapserver.lib.virginia.edu/.
Family Records, unpublished records of the Holmes family - correspondence, Bibles, interviews, etc.
Newspaper accounts of weddings and deaths, and other public documents for wills, land transfers, etc.
Beasley, Irene. (1973). AS I REMEMBER THEM ---. (Memoirs of the Holmes' family - printed for family distribution)
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