Union County, Ohio Biographies Project - O. Holmes
O. HOLMES
O. Holmes, a retired farmer, was born in Harrison County, Ohio, May 29,
1827, and is a son of Isaac and Ellen (Blackburn) Holmes. His
father, who was. a native of Now Jersey, was a blacksmith by trade, and
died in 1862, at Columbus, Ohio, where he had resided for fifteen
years. He had a family of ten children, nine of whom reached
their majority. Our subject was educated in the common schools of
Highland County, Ohio, and followed the occupation of a farmer until he
was twenty-one years of age, after which he filled the position of
clerk in a general store for twelve years, giving that up to resume
farming operations. In 1865, he came to Union County, and in 1873
he sold his farm of 100 acres and purchased a handsome property in
Richwood, to which he has retired and which he is now engaged in
beautifying. He was married, July 29, 1852, to Miss Mary A.
Johnson, a daughter of William Johnson, a native of Pennsylvania, and
Caroline Burtner, his wife, a native of Kentucky. Mrs. Holmes was
born in Champaign County, Ohio, in 1828; her ancestors emigrated to
America with the "Pilgrim Fathers," in the Mayflower. Mr. and
Mrs. Holmes' marriage has been blessed with six children, three boys
and three girls, of whom two now survive, viz., Aura Belle and Charles
T. The parents are members of the Methodist Protestant Church at
Richwood.