William O. Holmes, mayor and one of the highly respected citizens of the town of Bloomsburg, and senior member of the firm, W. O. Holmes & Son, plumbers, gas and steamfitters at Nos. 232 and 234 Center street, was born in Poolville, N. Y., June 20, 1842, and is a son of Rev. William E. and Caroline (Olmstead) Holmes.
Rev. William E. Holmes was a native of the state of New Hampshire and was a Presbyterian minister all his life. He passed from this life at his home in Newtown, Pa. He formed a matrimonial alliance with Caroline Olmstead, who is also deceased.
Our subject received his intellectual training in the Wyoming Seminary and then went on a geological survey throughout the state of New Jersey. He settled in Scranton, Pa., where he had resided but a short time when, in 1863, he enlisted in the signal corps and served through the closing years of the Rebellion. After the close of the war he returned to Scranton, Pa., and worked for Hunt Bros. & Blair, hardware merchants of that city for a short time; he was then employed as freight and baggage master at Kingston, Pa., for the D., L. & W. R. R.
In 1869 he removed to Bloomsburg and acted as general freight, baggage and depot agent for the same railroad company for six years. He then entered into partnership with E. K. Rollins and engaged in the tin smithing, gas fitting and plumbing business for eight years, the firm name being known as Rollins & Holmes. Later J. R. Schuyler was admitted to the firm and a complete stock of hardware was added to the business. Our subject subsequently sold his interest and for three years acted as commerce agent for Shields Bros.' hardware house.
He was next connected with Danville Stove Works and later established a branch store in Chicago, Ill. In 1891 he bought out B. F. Savitts' plumbing shop, which is located in the opera house block, and in 1898 his son, Edwin Morton Holmes, was admitted to the firm which is now known as W. O. Holmes & Son. The proprietors are well known throughout the township and by their honest methods of dealing have established a large patronage. Mr. Holmes purchased the Hartman residence and remodeled and enlarged it into a handsome home.
Mr. Holmes was a member of the town council from 1874 to 1882 and was again elected to serve in that office in 1894-95 and in 1896 he was elected president of the council and mayor of the town. He was reelected mayor in the spring of 1898.
Our subject was joined in marriage to Christina Baumgardner, a daughter of John and Catherine Baumgardner of Pittston, Pa. Mrs. Holmes died in June, 1897, at the age of fifty-four years and left a family of five children, as follows:
William D. C., station agent at Catawissa, Pa., who united in marriage with Cora Hagenbauch, and two children bless their home, William O. and D. Edward; Fred, teller of the Farmers' National Bank of Bloomsburg, wedded to Edith Ent; Bessie, wife of A. N. Yost; Edwin M., the junior member of the firm of W. O. Holmes & Son; and Christina.
Mr. Holmes is a member of Washington Lodge, No. 265, F. & A. M., also past master of the same; of Chapter No. 218, R. A. M.; past commander of G. A. R. Post No. 250; and a member of the Sons of Veterans Camp No. 270.
~ Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District, 1899
You can visit the memorial page for William Olmstead Holmes.
