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THE

AMERICAN FAMILY

REV. OBADIAH HOLMES

COL. J. T. HOLMES

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A LINE OF ANCESTORS

Obadiah Holmes

Katherine Hyde

b. 1606

b. 1608?

Manchester, Eng.

1630

d. 1682

d. 1684

Newport, R. I.

Jonathan Holmes

Sarah Borden

b. 1633-4

b. 1644

Manchester, Eng.

Portsmouth, R. I.

1665

d. 1713

d. 1708?

Newport, R. I.

III

Newport, R. I.

Obadiah Holmes

Alice Ashton

b. 1666

;;,. b: 1671 ■;,.•;''. ;;'!/

Gravesend, Long Island, N

. Y

I^^fiddlctown, N. T'." ' '' • '•

1696

d. 1745

d. 'i?l'6'" • '

Middletown, N. J.

MididktbWh; N, 'f: V

IV
Joseph Holmes Elizabeth Ashton

b. 1698 b. 1700?

Middletown, N. J. Upper Freehold, N. J.

m. 1722-3

d. 1777 d. 1750

Upper Freehold, N. J. Upper Freehold, N. J.

A Line of Ancestors

Obadiah Holmes

b. 1728
Upper Freehold, N. J.

d. 1794
\\'ellsburg. Vs..

m. 1755

Mary Clunn

b. 1732

Lamberton, N. J.

d. 1812
Indian Shortcreek, Ohio.

Joseph Holmes Sarah AIcNabb

b. 1771 b. 1783

Mecklenburg/^' \"a. Shepherdstown, Xa.

m. 1799

d. 1868 d. 1862

Indian Shortcreek, O. Indian Shortcreek, O.

VII

Asa S. Holmes

b. 1806

Indian Shortcreek, O.

m. 1837

Mary McCoy

b. 1814

Brownsville, Penna.

d. 1901
Indian Shortcreek, O.

' « f' ' ,', • ' d'. 1891 •• . -
» « f f , , ' • • • ' ' • , '

/ \ ; ^bxd'ia}! Skor-tcreeii-,;

'©P/e Qf''^U tbepe persons was ever twice married; and from
0''?.9Qrcii>%pcaily 300 years.

Not
1606 to^'

*N?.nT5 'VfiaKgeHHd 'Sh^'pherdstown, 3 775.

INTRODUCTION

In volume 64, at pages 237-239, July number, 1910, of The
New, England Historical and Genealogical Register is a brief out-
line of the immediate English ancestry and connections of Rev.
Obadiah Holmes.

The research on the genealogical line, which led back to him,
as the immigrant ancestor, was commenced in January, 1900, as
the result of the receipt of two letters from relatives in the west,
one residing at Kansas City, Missouri, and the other at Denison,
Iowa. The former was seeking to settle his relationship to
Colonel Joseph Holmes, 1771-1868, a pioneer of the early days in
Western Pennsylvania, the Pan Handle of Virginia and Eastern
Ohio, and the latter was disclosing a short page of manuscript
about the family which he had received from a Rhode Island
genealogist, who had disappointed him by his exceedingly limited
discoveries, in that behalf.

Obtaining a literal transcript of the family record in the Bible
of Col. Joseph Holmes and a similar transcript from the Bible of
his son Asa, an investigation of the ancestral line was commenced,
following it backward, with the design, at the outset, of tracing
from son to father, noting births, names, marriages, residences
and deaths, to Colonial times, if possible.

Once enlisted in the work, the enterprise and the interest grew
and extended and broadened and deepened until it became the
absorbing engagement — occupying every spare moment outside
of the profession — of making an elaborate brief on the facts and
the law of an intensely interesting case.

It is enough here to say that there are more than 45,000^ manu-
script pages, in bound and indexed volumes, where there was no
thought, at the beginning, of ever accumulating as many as 100
pages, and, beside, there are many and various books, perhaps
1,500,^ and original documents of rare interest to the collector,

2 ^^'ooo I October 15th, 1914.

6 Introduction

bearing upon the family history and its times, now in the same
library.

It is in compliance with the urgent solicitations of some of the
distinguished members of the family — and of many, who do not
stop to think of distinction^and of outside friends, to make an
outline, at least, of this accumulation, that the task is undertaken
while the demands of an exacting and jealous profession are still
upon the author.

The plan and hope for a half dozen years have been that a
small volume of the family history might be written, which
would show what is now known of it from the Knight in the
train of W^illiam the Conqueror — 1066 — -Ranulphus or Randulphus
Houlme, Randolph Holmes — to the Pioneer, Obadiah Holmes,
on the crest of the Appalachian range, in 1775, moving westward,
with his family, as part of the tide of emigration from the sea-
board colonies to the wilderness, through which for almost half
a century, stretched the wavering and crimsoned line between
savagery and civilization, from W^yoming to the mouth of the
Beautiful River.

Such volume was to be followed by a second, like unto it^^
which should connect with the first and show something of the
history of that pioneer and his descendants, as, in the next century
and a quarter, or more, they lived and labored and struggled and
fought along that line and when it was finally broken, spread
away across prairies and plains and mountains, taking part in
founding and building the greatest empire the world has ever
seen.

The plan and hope mentioned have not been realized, and this
fact, with the danger of loss of the material, by fire or other
calamity, furnishes the basis of the more urgent of the solicita-
tions to make an outline.

No extended or connected genealogy of this branch of the
family, or of any part, of it, worthy of the name, has been found,
and the more pretentious of the partial lists contain numerous
errors or inaccuracies, omissions and imperfections. The de-
scendants seem all to have been too busy with the present or look-
ing forward — "still achieving; still pursuing" — to take the

Introduction 7

backward look beyond the range of living memory and mere
traditions ; too busy making history to waste the time, as it must
have seemed to them, to make any special record thereof ; and no
stranger to the blood has been found to assume the burden,
financial and literary.

Such a synopsis or resume, as is here presented, may be useful
to the descendant, or the collateral, or the stranger to the blood,
who may, at some later time, undertake to compile from the
record, if preserved, the larger history of the family, if such
history should be left by the collector partly or wholly unwritten.

If the accumulations, in these libraries, should be lost or
destroyed, original investigation and research anew from east to
west, here pointed out, may be materially aided.

The credit for the Register article referred to, in opening, is
largely due to Ernest Axon, Esq., genealogist and correspondent,
of Manchester, England. It does not do him or his work justice,
because it is a mere excerpt and condensation of a part out of the
English line and the wealth of facts and data prepared and fur-
nished by him from the records of Lancashire and Cheshire
churches and offices and courts, and elsewhere in England,
through some two hundred years preceding the birth of Obadiah
Holmes, the immigrant, and now a portion of the accumulations
mentioned.

This will not be a genealogy or a history, but a mere memoran-
dum along a line, on which some one may later work, genealogi-
cally and historically.

By way of illustration, a careful approximate estimate was
made and it was determined that, in 1790, the descendants of
Rev. Obadiah Holmes then living and dead numbered five thou-
sand.

Details, though many are at hand, cannot be given place in such
an outline and the memory of what the record shows rather than
a research of it must be relied on, largely.

Thanks are due and hereby cordially tendered to hundreds of
correspondents, who cannot now be named. It would be ingrati-
tude, however, even under the circumstances, not to make special
mention of the indebtedness for most intelligent and valuable aid

8 Introduction

to Judge George C. Beekman of Red Bank, New Jersey, to Judge
John C. Burke of the Newport, Rhode Island, bar, and to Mrs.
Mary Hohnes Rue of Cream Ridge, Monmouth County, New
Jersey. Colonial Archives and documents and histories of Massa-
chusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York^ New Jersey,
Virginia and Pennsylvania and the Northwest Territory ; county,
city, village and church histories ; genealogical works ; state, county
and family records ; mortuary inscriptions, documents, letters,
memories, all have contributed.

Columbus, October 15, 1910.

Ernest Axon, Esq., Manchester, England

REV. OBADIAH HOLMES

Obadiah Holmes, the immigrant to this country, was born
near Manchester, England, in 1606-7. His baptism occurred at
Didsbury, on the 18th day of March, 1609-10, as "Obadiath s. of
Robert Huhne."

For as much as an hundred years after his birth the name con-
tinued to be spelled in different ways : Hulme, Hulmes, Hullmes,
Holm, Holme, Holmes, and otherwise, when it finally, about the
beginning of the eighteenth century, gradually settled down to
the present form — Holmes.

The name is said by different authors to be a derivative, like
Hill, Dale, Wood and others, from the character of the land or
place, of residence of the first person, who took and thereafter
bore it, and signifies a meadow surrounded by water, low, flat
land, the deposit or made land at the confluence of two rivers or
streams.

Flat grounds near water in Scotland are called holms, other-
wise, more fully defined "a river, island, meadow, also cultivated
rising ground." Beardsley, in his English surnames, says, "An
holm was a flat meadow-land lying within the windings of some
valley stream."

This Obadiah was the son of Robert and Katherine Johnson
Hulme, who were married at Stockport, near Manchester, on the
8th 'day of October, 1605. The father, Robert, was baptized
August 18, 1578.

Obadiah's grandfather, Robert Hulme of Reddish in the Parish
of Manchester, a very old man, was buried at Stockport, January
14, 1604-5, and his grandmother — registered as ''Alyce wydow
of Robte of Reddiche" — was buried at the Collegiate Church, now
Cathedral, Manchester, September 7, 1610; but it is not the pur-
pose, at this time, to trace the line further backward.

12 American History

They seem to have been parHamentarians, not loyalists, during
the long civil war.

On the 20th day of November, 1630, at the Collegiate Church,
Manchester, Obadiah Hulme married Katherine Hyde. On the
27th day of June, 1633, they buried, at Stockport, John, "infant
of Obadiah Hulmes of Redich."

With two brothers, John and Samuel, it is said that he was-
educated — but it is not said that he graduated — at Oxford Uni-
versity. Both the others matriculated. Samuel is known to have
graduated. In his mature years, out of a tender conscience,
Obadiah expressed regret that he had been somewhat wild and
had given his loving Mother serious concern about himself and
his ways when he was passing from boyhood to manhood. It
seems to have been neglect and possible errancy as to religious
duties and ideas. If this was the trouble, he bravely atoned for it.
In 1638, Obadiah Holmes, with his wife Katherine and their son
Jonathan, then perhaps a little more than three years old, sailed
from Preston, on the river Ribble, in Lancashire, some twenty-
eight miles northeast of Liverpool and about the same distance
northwest of Manchester, for the new world. They had a tem-
pestuous voyage and did not enter Boston harbor until six wrecks
had passed. There were neither Mauretanias nor Lusitanias on
the high seas in those days.

Soon after landing at Boston the little family made its way up
the coast and settled at Salem, destined to become, within the life-
time of the immigrant, associated in history with the prosecutions
and executions for witchcraft — an association, which, like Tenny-
son's Brook, will "go on forever."

He was, according to the record, admitted to membership in the
church at Salem on the 24th day of March, 1639, and within that
year, with two others, was granted two acres of land at Salem, on
which they established glass works, sometimes said to have been
the first in America. They were known and styled as "glassmen."
It is stated in some of the books that bits of their glass are still
occasionally found on the land so granted and used. They made
the common window glass.

In volume 1 of Felt's Annals of Salem, page 169, among first

Holmes Family 15

settlers, appears the name ''Obadiah Hullines, g. 1." — grant
of land — "1639." Austin, R. I. Diet., dates the grant December
1st of that year.

Evidently, some one in copying mistook the Hullmes for
Hullines.

On page 173, same volume, Obadiah Holme and Catherine
Holme became members of the First Church of Salem under the
year 1639. After his name are, again, the letters "g. 1." — grant
of land. The latter was perhaps for the glass works.

It seems clear that it was the same man in each list.

The church had been organized August 6, 1629. It held an
important meeting on the 29th of that month attended by twenty-
seven members. "Mr. Increase Nowell" — of whom more anon —
was one of them ; no women were present.

In passing, this illustrative item is taken from the Salem rec-
ord—1 Felt 198:

"Aug. 21, 1637, John Gatchell is fyned tenn shillings for border-
ing upon the Town ground without leave. And, in case he shall
cutt of his loung har of his head into a seuill frame in the mean-
time shall have abated hue shillings of his fine."

Man is a debating animal, and it has been well said that human
nature is much the same in all ages. The leading subjects of dis-
cussion in and about Salem, throughout the thinly settled Colony
of Massachusetts Bay, and extending into other colonies, in those
days, were the church and the different phases of theology and
church doctrines and practice. Indeed, these things came with
the men and women from Plymouth and Leyden, beyond seas.

It is to be noted that the migration of the Pilgrims to the rocky
New England shores was to escape the persecutions of the church
at the old homes.

Not to reflect on our "Pilgrim Fathers" unjustly or too severely,
it may be said that the religious freedom, which they sought and
established in the Pilgrim Colony, was to worship God after the
forms and in the ceremonies as they established them by law, or
take the consequences.

16 American History

Obadiah Holmes had done some thinking and been, at times,
somewhat disturbed on rehgious subjects while attending Oxford
University and prior to and after his marriage, and it seems fair
to say that the legal rigidity of the established church, as he
found it in the new country, disappointed him. His mental ten-
dency was toward dissent from some of its doctrines and practices
and it was neither his desire nor inclination to keep silent in the
midst of religious discussion. So warm did that discussion grow,
as the months and years went by, touching the teachings and
practices of the established church, the multiplied points of dissent
and difference and the provisions of the civil laws and their
enforcement with reference thereto, that by the year 1644 the
Immigrant was evidently looking forward to a change of resi-
dence, for on January 1, of that year, in a division of land at
Rehoboth, sixty miles away, east, he drew lot Zl , which a year
later — January 10, 1645 — he forfeited by failure to fence or to
move his family to it. The next year, however, he moved to
Rehoboth — first called Seekonk — and settled on, perhaps near,
the little river of that name, so that he is sometimes in history
referred to as Obadiah Holmes of Seekonk. He was ^excommu-
nicated from the church at Salem, practically (lri\en from Massa-
chusetts— banished the colony — by religious persecution.

In the same year — 1646 — he joined Rev. ]\Ir. Newman's church
at Rehoboth ; but he soon found that he had not removed beyond
religious and other controversies when making his second settle-
ment in the new country, and the membership of the Rehoboth
church was presently divided on doctrinal and legal lines and
ranged behind the minister and Obadiah Holmes, as the respective
leaders.

Mr. Bliss, in liis History of Rehoboth, issued in 1836, at page
205, says,

"The leader on the part of the Schismatists, as they were then
denominated, was Obadiah Holmes, a native of Preston in Lanca-
shire, England. The precise date of his emigration to this country

is not known. He was admitted to the church in Salem. Mass.,

,-. J.

March 24, 1639; from this he was excommunicated in 1646,

Holmes Family 17

■ .". ^
removed with his family to Rehoboth and became a member of

Dr. Newman's church."

From pages 46 and 63 of the volume, it appears that the
Rehoboth Church disturbance was on in 1649. It must have
reached a climax in that year for on the 29th day of October,
Obadiah Holmes entered suit for slander against Samuel
Newman, the minister — born in England in 1600, also educated
at Oxford — laying his damages at £100, the slanderous charge
complained of being that the plaintiff had committed perjury in
some court proceeding. The defendant, Newman, confessed his
error and that he did not have the facts to sustain the charge
and so lost out or was cast in the litigation.

In passing, it may be said that so far, the month and day of
sailing from Preston have not been ascertained ; the year would
seem to be fairly determined as 1638. The statement that he was
a native of Preston is inaccurate and probably originated from
the fact that it was his sailing point. No evidence has been
found that he ever returned to England.

On the 2d day of October, 1650, he, with others of Rehoboth,
was indicted by the Grand Jury, at New Plymouth, for holding
meetings on the Lord's day from house to house, "contrary to
the order of the court." , ..

This looks as if there had been anetfeer excommunication, A
copy of the indictment is as follows :

"October 2, 1650.

"Wee whose names are heer underwritten, being the grand
inquest, doe present to this Court John Hazell, Mr. Edward
Smith and his wife, Obadiah Holmes, Joseph Tory and his wife,
and the wife of James Mann, William Devell and his wife, of
the towne of Rehoboth, for the continuing of a meeting uppon
the Lord's-day from house to house, contrary to the order of this
Court, enacted June 12, 1650.

Thomas Robinson/'

and others to the number of fourteen.
Among the members of that court, then sitting, were Governor

18. American History

William Bradford, Capt. Miles Standish and John Alden, ''gen-
tleman."

Dr. Newman and his remaining church members had followed
up the church contest and the excommunication and the disastrous
slander suit by obtaining the order of June 12, 1650, as Haman
had followed Mordecai and the Jews, and obtained the law
against them for not keeping the "King's ordinances."

This indictment quite clearly fixes the date of the removal of
Obadiah Holmes and several of his dissenting adherents and
friends from Rehoboth to Newport. It was doubtless in the fall
of 1650 and the removal accounts for the absence of any further
record or proceedings on the indictment of October 2, 1650, on
the island of Aquidneck. It was only eight miles to Providence
but they chose to make the final home down at Newport. Before
the removal, they were all baptized, became out and out Baptists
in doctrine and practice, and Obadiah Holmes became their leader
and pastor.

By the. last removal, he made several things certain:

Newport was his residence the remainder of his days ;

In the Rhode Island colony, he was to enjoy one of its perpetual
guaranties — freedom of conscience in religious matters ;

He was to enjoy there intimate and sympathetic friendship and
association wath men whose names in church and state, in peace
and war, w^ill never be historically dimmed. Among them, were
Roger Williams, Dr. John Clarke, Gov. Arnold, Samuel Gorton
and Gov. Coddington.

In July, 1651, Dr. John Clarke, Obadiah Holmes and John
Crandall, not only acquaintances, but close church friends — not
then of the established church — left Newport for a summer visit
among their former neighbors in Massachusetts, and with a con-
cern and mission for the welfare of their church in those parts.

On Sunday, July 20, they were holding religious services in the
house of a blind and invalid brother, named William \Mtter, a
little way out of Lynn, some few of the neighbors having assem-
bled there for the services. While Dr. Clarke was reading and
expounding passages of scripture, two constables, with a warrant
for the three visitors, broke in on the scene and arrested them.

Holmes Family 19

The magistrate who issued the warrant was Robert Bridges. The
offense charged against them consisted, in brief, in conducting
such religious services in non-conformity with the statutes in
such cases made and provided. They were worshipping God
according to the dictates of their own consciences, and not in the
places and according to the prescriptions and forms of the civil
law regulating the worship in what was called the established
church, and they were declaring doctrines on the subject of bap-
tism which it regarded as heretical, in a high degree.

The exact form of the judgments pronounced against them is
at hand and will show, not only the offense charged but the sen-
tences ultimately imposed by the court.

The arresting officer, in the supposed discharge of his duty,
took them from Mr. Witter's to the church, which the civil law
required them tO' attend, and when they failed to remove their
hats knocked them off their heads.

There was a polite wish expressed by Clarke and Holmes that
they might be heard on the questions about which they disagreed
with the representatives and adherents of the established religion,
and when the privilege was denied them. Holmes seems to have
been somewhat insistent on speaking out in meeting, and so, as
well as by holding a service and administering the rite of baptism
on the next day, incurred the extra £10 assessed against him,
when the court came to measure up the fines.

Two days later — July 22d — they were taken down to Boston,
a dozen miles, committed to the common jail and the trial before
the General Court began one week later, as the date is recalled.

The members of the Court were

"John Indicott, Governour.
Tho. Dudley, Deputy Govern.
Rich. Bellingham.
William Hibbins.
Encrease Nowell/'

The trial or hearing was what would be called in the phrase and
figure of these days "a howling farce." It was the assumption
by the Governor — Endicott — and his assistants of the guilt of the

20 American History

accused and the practical stifling of the defense when Clarke and
Holmes sought to speak in their own vindication. The members
of the court shot questions at them, or made statements to them,
which showed their guilt prejudged. Rev. John Cotton, the
New England Divine, who had once barely escaped a charge of
heresy, himself, and who, showing the zeal of the convert, after-
ward, in the lifetime of the accused, boldly defended and sought
to justify roasting witches to death, mixed into >the hearing, with
denunciation and coarse abuse of the prisoners. The violence
of some of the bystanders, in the presence of the court, and with-
out its rebuke, went so far that Holmes was assaulted, struck,
and cursed by a spectator, a minister of the Gospel of peace. Rev.
John Wilson, who said with the blow^, "The curse of God or
Jesus go with thee," while in the custody of an officer, in the
presence of the court, and within the protection of the law.

The judgment of the highest tribunal of the Colony — the Gen-
eral Court — was in substance :

That Obadiah Holmes pay a fine of £30 or be well whipped ;
That John Clarke pay a fine of £20 or be well whipped ; and
That John Crandall pay a fine of £5 or be well whipped.

The latter fell under condemnation for being in supposed bad
company. He does not appear to have done or said anything to
which exception was taken, otherwise.

The exact words of one of the sentences will give a compre-
hensive idea of all of them and of the intolerant spirit of the law,
as interpreted and administered, and of the times.

"The Sentence of Obediah Holmes of Seacuck, the 31 of the
5th M. 1651.

"Forasmuch as you Obediah Holmes, being come into this
Jurisdiction about the 21 of the 5th ]\I. did meet at one William
Witters house at Lin, and did hear privately (and at other times
being an Excommunicate person did take upon you to Preach and
to Baptize) upon the Lords day, or other dayes, and being taken
then by the Constable, and coming afterward to the Assembly at
Lin, did in disrespect of the Ordinance of God and his Worship,
keep on your hat, the Pastor being in Prayer, insomuch that you

Holmes Family 21

would not give reverence in veiling your hat, till it was forced ofif
your head to the disturbance of the Congregation, and profess-
ing against the Institution of the Church, as not being according
to the Gospell of lesus Christ, and that you the said Obediah
Holmes did upon the day following meet again at the said
William Witters, in contempt to Authority, you being then in the
custody of the Law, and did there receive the Sacrament, being
Excommunicate, and you did Baptize such as were Baptized
before, and thereby did necessarily deny the Baptism that was
before administered to be Baptism, the Churches no Churches,
and also other Ordinances, and Ministers, as if all were a Nullity :
And also did deny the lawfullness of Baptizing of Infants, and
all this tends to the dishonour of God, the despising the ordi-
nances of God among us, the peace of the Churches, and seducing
the Subjects of this Commonwealth from the truth of the Gospel
of lesus Christ, and perverting the strait waies of the Lord, the
Court doth fine you 30 pounds to be paid, or sufficient sureties
that the said sum shall be paid by the first day of the next Court
of Assistants, or else to be well whipt, and that you shall remain
in Prison till it be paid, or security given in for it.

By the Court,

Encrease Nowell/''

They were recommitted to the common jail. They were not
without friends and sympathizers, however. The friends of
Clarke and Crandall speedily raised the amounts of their fines
and paid them, so that they were promptly released, really before
they were advised as to what was going on, in that respect.*

The fine of the other was heavier and it required a little more
time to raise the amount, but his friends were ready to pay it when
he learned what they were proposing to do.

He promptly forbade the payment of the fine, making it a
matter of conscience, and his scruples, in that behalf, were re-
spected.

It was the clear perception by him of the far-reaching principle

*Brooks Adams, in his Emancipation of Massachusetts, says that Cran-
dall's fine was never paid.

22 American History

involved. That principle had been in a struggle, at a disadvan-
tage, often apparently hopelessly lost, in the British Isles and
on the Continent for hundreds of years ; but its elements were
eternal, immutable — it zvotild ''rise again."

That principle was religious freedom, the right of every man,
woman and child to worship God according to the dictates of his
or her own conscience.

Obadiah Holmes denied the right of the civil power to thrust
its hand or its mace between man and his Maker. He stood
loyally and faithfully by the divine, the higher, law and was
governed by and responsible to it alone in his relations to the
Creator and Governor of the Universe.

It is remembered that the primary definition of a martyr is one
who yields his life for the cause, but there is a secondary and
broader definition : "One who suffers death or grievous loss in
defense or on behalf of any belief or cause, or in consequence of
supporting it."

Unavailing efforts were made to induce him to recant, at least,
so far that the alternative of corporal punishment might be
avoided. The 5th day of September, 1651, came and he was
taken from the jail, where he had been confined from the date of
arrest, stripped naked down to the waist — he refused to aid by
touching even a button of his clothing — tied to the post and pub-
licly whipped.

Before the whipping began, they waited a while, expecting
''Gouvernour Indicott's" presence, "but he came not," and, at last
a Mr. Flint in presence of Mr. Encrease Nowell, one of the
Judges, an elder in the Church, "saith to the Executioner, 'Fellow,
doe thine Office, for this fellow would but make a long speech to
delude the people.' "

Take that lashing to the understanding, just as it occurred.
There were thirty strokes, with a three-cord whip — ninety strokes
in all, in a sense — held by the robust executioner, not in one
hand, but in both hands. The strokes did not follow each other
quickly, or lightly, to the end of the number. The testimony
comes down to us from that day, uncontradicted, unqualified.
The blows were laid on slowly and with all the strength of the

^1 (l A^ ScrcU^ /i/U.i,,i.a.,CyyjiJ^

n"! / j ti^rr^ jo^ee. k£.^e_ ^ /J/cM. -5~, / 7 70.

<±)-t:SXZ. ^^

Location of Whipping Post

Holmes Family 25

officer wielding the instrument of torture. There was a pause
after each as if to give the officer time to recover the strength,
which its dehvery had exhausted. The punishment proceeded
with great dehberation. The executioner was giving the by-
standers an exhibition of his skill on the body of an adjudicated
malefactor. Each blow must be within the ancient definition and
injunction — "well laid on;" the criminal must not only be pun-
ished as his crime deserved, but he must be made to show his
suffering under the punishment. Slowly the white stripes grow
red and blue and black welts as the beating proceeds. Presently,
the blood begins to ooze from spots of the broken flesh; then
more, and more, and more, broken spots add their contributions
and the life current begins to trickle in little streams down to the
waist to soak into the clothing. On, and on, and on, go the
fearful cuttings of the lash which, itself, is growing red, but no
sound or evidence of pain or suffering has escaped the bleeding
victim. The executioner throws into the blows the last atom of
strength. Not to elicit a moan will be to suffer disgrace, himself,
in the eyes of the onlookers. He spits on his hands, at intervals,
three times, at least, during the scourging, to gain time, to in-
crease and protract, the suffering of the offender and to give
himself a surer, firmer hold of the whip stock. Still slowly the
count proceeds, every fifteen to twenty seconds, or longer;
''twenty-five" — ''twenty-six" — "twenty-seven" — "twenty-eight" —

"twenty-nine" "thirty;" and the brutality ended; it was

atrocious.

The blood is running into the Martyr's shoes past all the soak-
ing of the clothes. The thongs or wristlets, which bound him to
the post, are loosened ; the law has taken full satisfaction out of
his flesh and blood — it was a punishment really in violation of
law — but it has not touched the heroic spirit. There has not
been a groan or a murmur from the victim. The first sound from
his lips were the words to the magistrates, who stood about as
witnesses, ''Yoii have struck me as zuith roses;" and to his dying
day, more than thirty-one years later, he testified that he did not
suffer pain while the punishment was being inflicted, though
there were many days afterward, running into weeks, during

26 American History

which his only rest and sleep were obtained by a sort of lying or
resting on his knees and elbows.

Several of his friends, who expressed sympathy with him when
he was released, were arrested, imprisoned and fined for so
■doing, among them, John Hazel, a man said to have been between
sixty and eighty years of age, rather infirm, who had traveled
more than hfty miles, from Rehoboth, to be with his friend
Holmes in his troubles. So broken was Mr. Hazel by his arrest,
imprisonment, fine and ill treatment, for his devotion to the
sufi:'erer, that he died within ten days, and before reaching his
home.

The cruellest purpose in all the unholy business, however, was
in the issue of a new warrant, in an effort to re-arrest Obadiah
Holmes, try and sentence him again and whip that sore back
before he could leave Boston. The purpose was crueller than
death — it is a species of libel on death to make such a comparison.
His friends defeated the purpose, however, by spiriting him away.

Those who stirred the fires at Oxford about the Bishops,
Latimer and Ridley, on the 16th of October. 1555, or the Indians
who danced around the burning Crawford on Tymochte Creek,
•on June 11, 1782, had no more cruelty in their hearts; and one is
reminded of what Latimer said, and of what is said about him,
on that last day. The Bishops were then chained to the stakes.

"Be of good comfort, ^Master Ridley, and play the man ; we
shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as, I
trust, shall never be put out." He "received the flame as it were
embracing it. After he had stroked his face with his hands and,
as it were bathed them a little in the fire, he soon died, as it
appeared, with very little pain, or none."

Obadiah Holmes returned to ^^^wpoi't and in 1652, succeeding
Dr. John Clarke, he became the second minister of the first Baptist
Church in AmeT4ea. Providence claims to have the first, but the
clear weight of the evidence seems to be the other way, though the
issue is not now verv material.

^^^^en he was whipped there were eight living children in his
family ; the ninth was born afterward.

The martyrdom of the father put no spot or stain on any of

Site of Whipping Post

Holmes Family 29

them and in a few years, comparatively, the shame which intoler-
ance, the lash, the thumbscrew, the pillory, the gibbet, the fagot
and even the hideous peine forte et dure — pressing to death be-
tween two thick strong planks— of the Dark Ages brought to
Massachusetts, made it safe for a Baptist, a Quaker, a dissenter
or confessor of any sort, or even an Infidel, to visit Boston, or
Salem, or Lynn, or live anywhere in safety in the great old
Colony.*

A writer for that same Memorial History — mentioned in Mr.
Bartlett's foot note — letting his prejudice or his resentment run
away with him, or losing his grip on his good taste, discussing
the incident in Boston's history says, "The Court sentenced the
ofifenders to pay respectively a fine of five, twenty, and in the case
of Holmes, thirty pounds, 'or be well whipped.' The fines of
Crandall and Clarke were paid, against their wishes by friends.
Holmes, not allowing this in his own case, was cruelly whipped.
He had previously been in trouble in Plymouth and was regarded
.as a nuisance here."

Then, after describing and dwelling on the ofifenses and the
legal status of the times, in a religious way, he utters a sweeping
vindication of the "nuisances," "contumelious strangers" and their
principles and contentions, in these words, before he leaves the
page :

''•Tt is a sad story. Most pure and excellent and otherwise
inofifensive persons were sufiferers and generally patient ones. But
the struggle was a brief one. The Baptists conquered in it and
■came to equal esteem and love with their brethren. Their fidelity

*Asked with reference to the exact location of the whipping post, Hon.
Joseph G. Bartlett, of Boston, under date of September 1st, 1910, furnishes
the sketch map and the photograph card herewith presented.

He says :

"The whipping post was situated in front of the first church. (See Win-
sor's 'Memorial Hist, of Boston,' Vol. 1, p. 506 ; there are other author-
ities all of which agree.) The first church was located on the site of the
present Brazier Building, No. 27 State St.

"The house of Rev. John Wilson was directly opposite, so that worthy
could have had a reserved seat in his chamber to witness and enjoy the
castigation of Obadiah Holmes. At the next corner the 'Boston Massacre'
took place. T enclose a photo of the end of the Old State House, which
looks down on the spot where the. whipping post stood."

The photograph represents the reading of the Declaration of Independ-
ence, July 18th, 1776.

30 American History

was one of the needful and effective influences in reducing the
equally needful but ineffective intolerance of the Puritan Com-
monwealth."

The victim's own account of the transaction, written soon after
the return to Newport to London friends, is quite full and specific^
but is without a word of bitterness^ and in all that has been pre-
served of his writings, language or sentiments, not an expression
from him has so far been found of passion or resentment or ill-
will toward any human being. The spirit manifested on the
instant of his release from the whipping-post seems to have
remained with him down to the end of his life. 'T told the
Magistrates" — he wrote — " 'You have struck me as with Roses f
and said moreover, 'Although the Lord hath made it easie to me^
yet I pray God it may not be laid to your charge.' " Such an
utterance while the blood was still flowing from the quivering
flesh of that back, lacerated by three times thirty lashes, was
saintly, if it did not mount to the miraculous.

The activity, standing and influence of Obadiah Holmes in
Rhode Island and in other colonies and portions thereof were
very marked in the years which followed his martyrdom. The
church at Newport was his permanent charge for more than
thirty years and his devotion to it and its interests was uninter-
rupted and unswerving, so long as he lived.

March 11, 1655-6, the records show his name in the list of
jurors for the General Court held at W'arwicke, Roger \Mlliams
presiding, with the words "put out" following the name. Next
morning he appeared as one of the court commissioners for
Newport. The "put out" as a juror probably meant that he had
not yet been admitted or received as a freeman of that Colony.

On the 17th of March, 1656, he appeared at \\'arwicke as one
of the eight court commissioners — the General Assembly — for
Newport, Roger \Mlliams, moderator. On the 20th of Alay,
1656, he, with others, was received as a freeman of the Colony.
Next day he sat as one of the six court commissioners from
Newport. "John Sanford, Clarke/'

He was again one of the commissioners of the General Court,

Holmes Family 31

''held for the Collony at Warwicke, November 2d, 1658," Benedict
Arnold, moderator.

John Crandall was one of the court commissioners from
Newport to the General Court, held at Providence, May 17, 1659.
He was a commissioner, again, May 22, 1662.

Through these years. Dr. John Clarke was in England as the
Colony's agent, looking after the people's interests in the contest
over the charter and resisting the proposal of Massachusetts and
Connecticut to divide and absorb Rhode Island. The General
Assembly was carefully looking after him and the interests, which
he was safeguarding at the courts of the Protector and the King,,
in succession. The people finally won.

It was a notable victory to which Dr. Clarke gave a dozen years
of his life, and Charles II is entitled to have some of his follies
forgotten and to have the lasting credit of guaranteeing to Rhode
Island autonomy and the principles not only of civil, but of
religious, liberty. Under that guaranty there were no whippings
"for conscience sake."

The words of the Charter, issued July 8, 1663, on the vital
point, were, "We" — "have therefore thought fit, and do hereby
publish, grant, ordain and declare. That our royal will and pleas-
ure is that no person zmthin the said Colony, at any time hereafter^
shall be any wise molested, punished, disquieted or called in
qvt-estion for any differences in opinion in matters of religion,"

From 1641 down to 1688 Samuel Hubbard was a resident of
Newport, a lawyer of those days, a man of affairs and, part of
the time, the General Attorney of the Colony. He kept a record
through that long period in the form of a diary, with his corre-
spondence, which was preserved in part, at least, down to the
middle of the nineteenth century. He and his family were for
more than twenty years members of the First Baptist Church of
Newport.

It is noted that in 1657 Mr. Hubbard and his pastor went on a
preaching tour to the Dutch on Long Island, so that the minister's
subsequent interests in that region and beyond were founded on
some previous knowledge.

By the way, Hubbard had been sent by the Church, August 7,.

2i2 American History

1651, ''to visit the bretherin who was imprisoned in Boston jayl
for witnessing the truth of baptizing behevers only, viz., Brother
John Clarke, Bro. Obadiah Holmes and Bro. John Crandall."

About 1655, Hubbard and wife parted company or sympathy
with the pastor and the church on the doctrine of Sabbath observ-
ance. They gradually became pronounced Seventh Day Baptists.
The actual withdrawal of Hubbard and his wife and daughter,
with four others, from the church and the formation by them of
the first Seventh Day Baptist Church in America are dated
December 23, 1671 ; and while that church controversy, according
to the Hubbard mss., grew warm among former familiars, it did
not extend to the disturbance, apparently, of their personal
friendships.

Through years of research, assurances of talented and capable
men and women, who had made investigations, were accumulated,
that a manuscript volume of certain original documents from the
pen of Rev. Obadiah Holmes^ known to have been long preserved,
had been hopelessly lost or destroyed, and in some instances
copies were generously offered in the room and stead of originals,
hut the search for the latter was never quite wholly abandoned.

In 1901, it was confidently stated that the boundaries of the
Holmes farm, at Newport, Rhode Island, could not be found or
traced ; in 1910, they were found and traced by both the original
deed and the plat — annexed to it — of date "ye first day of
March Sixteen hundred and fifty seven." The land bounded ''on
ye sea, on ye southwest and ye south." There were some four
liundred acres of the tract, acquired at the date mentioned, to-
gether with a one-fourth interest in an adjacent planting tract.
The land had been known as the "Sachuset farm" and was
retained by the minister through the remainder of his life.

It was located on salt w^ater, on the western shore of an arm of
the sea, called the Seconnet River.

The deeds and plats and illustrations make clear the precise
location and boundaries of the Holmes farm. The land had been
acquired jointly by the four men named before the date of the
deed of March 1, 1657, by which the minister became sole owner
of the title in fee.

uj^ llii pill

- <^Cff^' ^--J & ? >i»" ^

'''ft- -^

.: >' ft- "It I,-

Deed of 1657

J^ J Can tin^ J-'-u^^ L& i(cs ^Uc<L

i4^orrwL.^

Cf='

4l£^.^^

'Ja^^^cnr ^ Q^yyurvv^

-.j/rp^/^

Holmes Farm 1657

Holmes Family 2i7

The Holmes Burying Ground, hereafter described in some
detail, is located on the farm and makes a sort of retaining point
from and to which family history may be traced with a species
of accuracy, in some respects and some directions, which doubt-
ful traditions and inventions and imaginations and perversions
and the flight of years may not affect, or discredit, or obliterate.

He acquired and owned other lands because an original deed
for them is produced, which he made to his son Jonathan for, the
consideration named, "one hundred and five pounds and tenn
shillings" and considerations mentioned in his will, conveying
''all my housing and lands lying and being within the presinks of
the town of Newport aforesaid," bounded northerly by the farm
of Stephen Burton of Boston, eastwardly by the sea or salt
water that runs up to Portsmouth, southerly or southwardly by
the lands of Phillip Smith, James Man and William Devill and
north-west by a highway or common, ''all which said parcels of
land so butted and bounding containing one hundred acres, more
or less, with dwelling houses and houses, barns and all and singu-
lar the premises and appurtenances thereto appertaining or
belonging, to my said son Jonathan Holmes and his heirs and
assigns forever for him and them to have and tO' hold, with sixty
sheep six cows tenn oxen," with special warranty, "this ninth
day of Aprill 1681."

Signed "Obadiah Hullme."

^ Witnessed by "Edward Thurston" and "Weston Clarke."

Mann and Devill and Smith are names found as companions in
the Plymouth indictment of October 2, 1650.

It is tradition that Obadiah Holmes, "the confessor," as he is
sometimes styled in history, brought with him when he came to
America the first tall clock that was ever brought into the country.
The clock is now in the rooms of the Long Island Historical
Society of New York, still marking time after, at least, two
hundred and seventy-two years of such duty.

It is stated that such clocks were so rare in those earlier days
that, as a rule, only royalty or the nobility could afford them.

The present clock case is evidently more modern than the
movement and the latter, no doubt, came over packed in a box

38 American History

and was first cased or swung to a wall, in Salem, Massachusetts,
in the early winter or spring of 1638-9.

The day this photograph was received!, it was shown the
author's driver and he was told the clock had been keeping time
nearly two hundred and seventy years and was still running on
Long Island ; catching his breath and looking his informant in
the face for a moment, he said, "Well ! what do you think o'
that?" There was no answer.

The "genealogical'' inscription on the paper under the glass
door in front of the weights and pendulum, and which "took
white" and is illegible, in the photograph, is in these words :

"This Clock was presented
by

John H. Baker, Esq. of Brooklyn
in May, 1869

To the Long Island Historical Society

This clock has been running for over 200 years. It
was brought to this country from London in 1639,
by the Rev. Obadiah Holmes, at whose death it
passed to his oldest son Jonathan, then to Jonathan's
son Joseph who left it to his son John Holmes who
was the great grandfather of the donor."

^tff ^tf ^tf ^c ^Ic ^If ^tf ^tf

The remainder of the inscription is historical of the minister
and contained in substance in this sketch.

Well on toward the end of his life, when the shadows were
lengthening away to the east, "the Generall Assembly of the
Collony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, held at
Newport" on "Aprill the 4th," 1676, when King Philip was waging
his war of extermination against the whites, and when these
words from the Harper Encyclopaedia tersely show the situation,

"In the spring of 1676 the work of destruction began. In the
course of a few weeks the war extended over a space of almost
300 miles. Weymouth, Groton, Medfield, Lancaster and Marl-
borough in Massachusetts, were laid in ashes. Warwick and

Holmes Family 41

Providence in Rhode Island were burned, and isolated dwellings
of settlers were everywhere laid waste. About 600 inhabitants
of New England were killed in battle or murdered ; twelve towns
were destroyed entirely, and about 600 buildings were burned,"

"Voted, that in these troublesome times and straites in this
Collony, this Assembly desiringe to have the advice and concur-
rance of the most juditious inhabitants, if it may be had for the
good of the whole, doe desire at their next sittinge the Company
and Councill of Mr Benedict Arnold, Mr John Clarke, Mr
James Barker, Mr Obadiah Holmes, Mr William Vaughan, Mr
William Hiscocks, Mr Christopher Holder, Mr Phillip Shearman,
Capt'n John Albro, Mr William Wodell, Mr George Lamton, Mr
Robert Hodgson, Mr William Carpenter, Mr Gregory Dexter,
Capt. Randall Houldon and Capt. John Greene ; and the Generall
Sargeant to inform the severall persons the Assembly's desire
herein.

''Voted, this Assembly is adjourned till Tuesday next, the 11th
instant."

This was Gov. Arnold, the great grandfather of the General,
who went astray in loyalty to the patriot cause during the Revo-
lution. He was Governor of the colony under the Royal Charter
in all, some seven years after 1662, and in 1670 was sent to Eng-
land as its agent.

The descent of General Arnold from the Governor is traced by
Charles Burr Todd in "The Real Benedict Arnold," issued in
1903.

Among the persons so consulted, was Christopher Holder, a
Quaker, who landed in Boston, July 27, 1656, and for his faith
was whipped there September 23, 1657. There were thirty
stripes laid on, "as near as the hangman could in one place, meas-
uring his ground and fetching his strokes with great strength
and advantage." November 22, 1659, he was banished the colony
of Massachusetts, one of his ears being cut off. He became a
freeman of Rhode Island in 1673, and died at Newport, January
13, 1688.

These two striking examples of persecution for the faith that

42 American History

was in each, lived many years after punishment, as did others ;
some were tortured and some were killed outright.

One of the partners of Obadiah Holmes in the glass business
at Salem, from 1638 to 1645, was Lawrence Southwick. His
wife's name was Cassandra. Their daughter's name w^as Provided.
Their sons names were Josiah and Daniel. The family were
Quakers. In the course of the persecutions against that people,
under a judgment imposing lines for their religious faith and
practice, it was ordered by the General Court that Provided and
Daniel, who had no separate property — they had just attained
majority — should be sold into slavery to pay the fines, the expec-
tation being that ship captains, then in Salem harbor, would buy
them and carry them away to Mrginia or Barbadoes ; in fact, the
judgment ordered the transportation.

A telling illustration appears in the Essex Antiquarian, and
there is one not quite so striking in Drake's New England
Legends. Governor Endicott and one of the Judges, in gay
apparel, appeared, with a priest — a churchman — between them,
mounted on fine horses and in presence of a crowd, the High
Sheriff crying his sale of the comely maiden, meekly standing by.
No one would bid for her or carry her away on shipboard, a
temporary victory for the people, and the sister and brother were
finally released. This was in 1658, seven years after Obadiah
Holmes had been publicly whipped.

For some reason, by mistake, or otherwise, AMiittier gave the
mother's name to the daughter, in the poem,

"Speak out m}- worth}' seamen! no voice, no sign replied;

"And when again the Sheriff spoke that voice so kind to me
Growled back its stormy answer like the roaring of the sea, —

" 'Pile my ship with bars of silver, pack with coins of Spanish gold,
From keel-piece up to deck-plank the roomage of her hold,
By the living God who made me ! I would sooner in your bay
Sink ship and crew and cargo than bear this child away !'

■"Well answered, worthy Captain. Shame on their cruel laws !
Ran through the crowd in murmurs loud, the people's just applause."

The Southwicks were banished the Colony and took refuge on

Holmes Family 43

Shelter Island, New York, where Lawrence and his wife soon
-died, it is said, "within three days of each other."

Another partner in the glass business was Ananias Conklin.

I know how futile and useless, and, in a way, how unjust it is,
but I confess to a feeling of deepest horror, indignation and
resentment against the burnings, scourgings, maimings, persecu-
tions and banishments of those days, down tO' about 1695.

As I look back at them, in some detail, the laws would seem
to have been enacted by lunatics and enforced by fiends incarnate.

In the year 1675 the minister, for the reasons stated by himself,
wrote several distinct messages which he designed and intended
to leave at the close of his life to the persons or classes in each
indicated. The style and size of the paper used in these writings
are shown by the photograph of a page, number four, of the first
of the documents in his book, bound up, where there are in all six
of them, which may be described as follows :

1. An address in the nature of a letter — and that is the nature
of each number — to his friends and brethren, touching his own
life and conduct, probably more than a dozen pages.

2. A declaration of faith at the solicitation of his Brother
Robert and other friends and brethren, embracing thirty-five
separate theses covering, in general terms, the whole ground of
bis religious belief and practice, in seven or eight pages.

3. A letter to his wife, presently copied in full, four pages.

4. A letter to his children also copied in full, four pages.

5. A letter to his "dear and well beloved brethren the Church
•of Christ at Newport on Rhode Island."

"In 1675." "Obadiah Hullme."
Six and a half pages.

6. A letter unto the world, containing fifteen pages ; followed
by this note :

"Copied to 50th page inclusive, which ends the present ms.
Remaining leaves are cut off, stubs remaining."

These are the "Holmes documents," in connection with testa-
tor's will, which have been a sort of igjiis fatnus through full ten
years of search, at times, as stated, almost abandoned as hopeless.

44 American History

Through the courtesy of a descendant of Rev. Obadiah Hohnes^
Mr. C. M. Bull of Newport, in this year 1910, neither genealogist
nor lawyer will have such a search for them, or copies, in the
next three hundred years.

Finding the deeds and plat of 1657 and the deed of 1681 and
the inventory of 1682, was a genuine surprise.

In the years since the memoirs were written, some purloiner
improved an opportunity to cut out the last live sheets, as the
stubs show, and so secure a specimen of the minister's w^riting,.
his final sentiments on a lofty theme and his final signature and
authentication of his final messages.

Extracts are made from some of these documents.

From the first :

"The twentieth day of the tenth month in the year 1675 I Obediah Hullme
now come to the evening of the day being sixty-nine years old there or
thereabouts and wishing to give some account of my estate and condition,
what it was, and what it is, and what my hopes are, what
shall be hereafter, unto my friends and relations whether in old England or
new, considering I have had so many requests and desires from brethren
and friends as I have had to that end, and purpose, and I know^ not but it
may be some occasion to provoke some others to try their evidences them-
selves, and not to take all on trust as I fear many are too apt to do. * * * *

"And first I must remember my honored parents who were faithful in
their generation, and of good report among men, and brought up their
children tenderly and honorably. Three sons they brought up aright to the
University at Oxford but the most of their care was to inform and to in-
struct them in the fear of the Lord, and to that end gave them much good
counsell, bringing them often before the Lord by earnest prayer, but I the
most rebellious of all did neither hearken to counsel nor any instruction,
for from a child I minded nothing but folly, and vanity, * * * * j
was not only rebellious against my parents but against the Lord, * * * *
continuing in such a course for four or five years ; and then

began to bethink me what counsel my dear parents and my dear mother had
given me, many a call many a time with tears and prayers, my rebellion tO'
my honored parents then looked me in open face, and my dear mother
being sick it struck me my disobedience caused her death, which forced me
to confess the same to her, my evil ways and danger.

"****! had done before but all this while I never

considered sin according to the true nature of it as huge, loathsome to the-
Lord, but as it brought judgment upon me or on man yet was I fearful to
sin and began to love to read the scriptures and frequent in prayer and other

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Page of Memorial

Holmes Family 47

duties, and took delight among professors tliat were of the strictest sort
easily seeing the gross evil and danger of the formal ministers and professors
and so the conformity was only superstition, a name. Yet for all that I had
no rest in my soul, though I was in a manner as strict as any, and as I was
enlarged in sorrow for sin or deep in humiliation, enlarged in prayer or
filled with tears, my comfort came in and increased but as I failed in them
so my sorrow was renewed and when I looked over my best performances
found them full of sin. Oh then the fears doubts and questions of my own
estate, I judged it was all done in hypocricy which sin my soul did then
abhor. Even in this sad and doubtful state I continued very long, yea many
years, and although I could speak comfortably to others yet had often much
disquiet within my soul and so was my comforts according to my enlarge-
ments.

"Not long after this there was in me a great love to the Lord, but alas !
I was deceived by my own heart and the ministers who told me there must
be such and such a love to him as to keep to him in duty and to part with
all for him, but they left me short of understanding him as I should and
my selfish heart was willing to love him or part with all for him yea, my
dear honored father, brethren and friends, house and lands and my own
native country for time, and to avoid the popish relics of the Bishops and
that filthy hellish rabble and to separate from them and all those that men-
tioned them and was fully known in my own country, and adventure the
danger of the seas to come to new England, where I tried all things in sev-
eral churches and for a time thought I had made a good choice or change
but in truth it little differed from former times and my spirit was like a
wave tossed up and down, as not yet come to dig so deep as I should, or to
consider the only ground of a well grounded hope, * * * *

"Now considering that I am come to the evening of the day I may expect
my change every moment and the great desolations in this day causeth me
to consider what is my hope and expectation for another life immortal for-
ever, yea, everlasting.

**********

"The Lord moved my heart to write these lines that they might speak
forth my mind if I should lie down in silence, if I should be taken away
suddenly by the enemy or die with sickness and my senses or memory
should fail me; that then my dear and near relations, and my brethren nat-
ural and spiritual and the world may know what I was what I am and what
I expect to be and enjoy ; and it may be some may make but a scorn of what
is writ and others slight the same; but it may be some may ponder and
weigh the same and if any receive either information or comfort give the
glory unto the Lord forever and ever, Amen." .

From the second :

"For this faith and profession I stand and have sealed the same with my
blood at Boston in New England and hope through the strength of my Lord

48 American History

shall be enabled to witness the same to death altho I am a poor unworthy
creature and all my righteousness are as tilthy rags and have nothing to
plead or to say or to tiy unto but to grace and have nothing to rest on but
only on the free mercy of God in and through Jesus Christ my Lord and
Saviour to whom be honor and glory and praise forever and ever Amen

"Thus have I given you an humble and true account of my standing and
of my dear wife's standing in our faith and order that you may consider
the same comparing wdiat is written by the Holy scriptures which are highly
esteemed as our rule to-wards God and man commiting this and you to the
w'isdom and counsel of God Yours in all love to serve continually having
you in our prayers, fare ye well.

''This for Air. John Angher, and ni}- brother Robert Hullme, and brother-
in-law, and sisters ; with Mary Howly, and to them that love and serve the
Lord.

"For Robert Hullme at his house in Redish near Gorton Chapel in the
parish of Manchester.

''This deliver with care. Li Lancashire."

The third and fourth are the letters to the wife and children,
respectively. Their spirit and expression are so tender, true, wise
and catholic in the relations which they illustrate, that not a
syllable of apology is offered for printing, in this little book, from
the originals, every syllable of each, just as the author left it two
hundred and thirty-five years ago.

"A letter to my dear wife, if she remain in the land of the living, after
my departure, as a true token of my love unto her.

"My most dear wife, my heart hath ever cleaved to thee ever since w^e
came together and is knit to the in death which is the cause of these lines as
a remembrance of Gods goodness to us in continuing us together almost
forty years not deminishing us in our off spring since the first day till now
onh' our first born who hath made all our conditions comfortable to us
whether infullness or emptiness lifted up or thrown down, in honor or dis-
grace sickness or health by giving us contentation and love one with and to
another but more in a special manner in causing his fear to fall upon us
and his love to be placed in our hearts and to know his w'ill and to conform
us to the obedience of the same as to be willing to take up the cross and to
follow the Lord not fearing what man can do unto us for the Lord being
on our side who can be against us, for with his rod and staff he hath com-
forted us, yea hath been our present help in a needful time; and we have
cause while we live to praise his holy name while we are together and
w^hen death doth separate us that the loLger liver many praise him while
breath remains.

"Wherefor I, having some thought I may go away before thee, having
signs or tokens that my day is but short and it may fall out I cannot or may

Holmes Family 49

not speak to thee at the last shall give the some considerations for thy medi-
tations in a time of trouble or affliction that they may speak when I cannot
if the Lord please to speak in them and by them consider how the Lord
carried thee all along ever since thou hadst a being in this world as by ten-
der parents and since thou camest from them the Lord hath provided for
thee and preserved thee in many dangers both by sea and land and given
thee food and raiment with contentation and he hath increased our store
sometimes to our admiration also continuing our health in very great meas-
ure as also given us great posterity who hath increased to a great number
and hath provided for them in a comfortable manner and that the Lord hath
kept them from such evils as might have befallen them to our grief but we
have had comfort in them, as also consider the peace we have enjoyed and
love we have obtained from our friends and neighbours and strangers, yet
my dear wife these things are but common favours that many may have
their part in, but consider that choice particular favor that many receive not
which God hath given to thee in choosing and calling thee to the knowledge
of himself and his dear son which is life eternal and to draw thy heart to
cleave to him alone esteeming him as the chief good as a pearl of great
price or worth and causing thy heart to part with all for him which love
hath constrained thee to hearken to his voice inquiring what his will was
that thou might obey his holy will and commandments so as to serve him
in thy generation. Oh ! consider that great love of the Lord to cause thy
soul to cleave to him alone and so he to be thy only portion so that he
having given thee his son hath with him given thee all things thou dost
enjoy and so to be to thee both in life and death thy advantage, the con-
sideration of which causes me to put thee now in mind when I am re-
moved, to consider him as thy husband as thy father as thy Lord and
Saviour alone who hath said whom he loveth he loveth to the end and that
he will not leave them nor forsake them neither in the six nor seven troubles
but carry them through all till he bring them to glory wherefore lift up thy
heart and be not discouraged and say to thy soul why art thou so disquieted
within me hope in God and trust in his name and thou shalt not be disap-
pointed, and let thy love to me end in this that it is better for me to be
out of the body and to be with the Lord, at rest with him, and to be freed
from that body of sin and death which I was in while I was in this' present
evil world, which caused much sorrow of heart to me in secret, for when
I would do good evil was present with me, and consider the fears you had
concerning me every day both for pains and weakness, and dangers of the
many troubles that might befall me, but now let thy soul say he is out of all
dangers, freed from sin and satan, and all enemies and doubts, and death is
past, and is overcome and conquered, and he is at rest in a bed of quiet-
ness as to the body and with the Lord in spirit, but at the resurrection
that weak, corrupt, mortal body shall be received immortal and glorious,
and shall see and know as he is known therefore say, why shall I mourn

50 American History

as one out of hope but rather rejoice in hope of the gloryous resurrection
of the just. And now my dear wife do thou live by the faith of the son of
God, exercise patience and let patience have its perfect work in thee. It
will be but a little while before thy day will end and thy time will come to
sleep with me in rest and that he that will come will come and will not
tarry ; keep close to the Lord in secret, be much with God in prayer and
improve every season for thy souls advantage ; in special in holy medita-
tions. Be cheerful and rejoice in God continually care not for the things
of this world, say not what shall I eat or wherewith shall I be clothed, for
thy Father knoweth what thou hast need of and he hath given thee much
more of these things than ever thou or I could expect or have deserved,
and thou hast enough and to spare if his good pleasure be to let thee
enjoy the same, if not he alone is a sufficient portion, yet I question not
but he will preserve what thou hast and bless it to thee; wherefore make
use of that he is pleased to let thee enjoy, I say make use of it to thy
present comfort, and now thou art but weak and aged cease from thy
labour and great toil and take a little rest aud ease in thy old age live on
what thou hast for what the Lord hath given us I freely have given thee
for thy life to make thy life comfortable wherefore see thou doeth it so
long as house, land or cattle remain, make much of thyself and at thy
death then what remains may be disposed of acaarding to my will ; and
now my dear wife whom I love as my own soul I commit thee to the
Lord who hath been a gracious merciful God to us all our days, not once
doubting but he will be gracious to thee in life or death and will carry
thee through this valley of tears with his own supporting hand. Sorrow
not at my departure but rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice in
the God of our salvation, and in nothing be careful but make thy request
to hirn who only is able to supply thy necessities and to help thee in time
of need unto whom I commit thee for counsel wisdom and strength and
to keep thee blameless to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to whom
be all glory honor and praise, forever and ever Amen fare thee well."

The maiden surname of Katherine Hyde Holmes was unwrit-
ten in America for almost three hundred years, so far as records
have been found 'to show. Genealogists and historians, mention-
ing her as the wife of Obadiah Holmes, wrote and had it printed

"Catherine ." That has now been corrected and made

definite and certain, and justice to her character and memory
requires that she shall not be forgotten otherwise.

In the marriage vows of that November 20, 1630, were the
comprehensive pledges, which bound her to the one man and to
marital faith and duty so long as both should live ; but the extra-

Holmes Family 51

ordinary future was then veiled and obscured beyond the vision
of either.

She left behind for all time her earthly kith and kin, and the
little grave at Manchester, and, cleaving unto the one man, as in
duty bound, under those marriage vows, with him and their one
son she set her face toward the great ocean and the vast, strange
land beyond it, with its scattered little settlements and sparse
population, a mere imperfect, ragged fringe along the coast of a
continent, backed by an unknown and seemingly boundless wilder-
ness.

God constituted essential, unchangeable differences in the na-
tures of the sexes. The man is the natural warrior; the woman
is the angel of peace. Man is aggressive, carrying sword and
shield ; woman needs that shield and wars with her nature when
she grasps the sword.

There are exceptions to the rules, but these are the rules.

Everywhere, from Preston in 1638 to the Middletown farm, at
Newport, in October, 1682, she is found in her place beside that
husband.

Trials, sufferings, crosses ; victories, triumphs, rejoicings, were
borne with the life blood in its current through that heart, and
the letter of the husband to her as his beloved "aged wife," away
at the end of the long pilgrimage, corroborated by his earnest,
affectionate, written injunctions to their children to care for her,
is a tribute — it was not written for the public — to her faithfulness
through all, at once, both simple and sublime.

It is late, but better late than never, to challenge attention to
the ''gude wife," while the martyr husband is not forgotten, and
the challenge is ventured.

A few words preliminary to the other letter :

Obadiah Holmes was one of the twelve patentees named in the
original patent from the Duke of York for the Monmouth grant
embracing Monmouth County and parts of Middlesex and Ocean
Counties in East Jersey, dated April 8, 1665. His name later
appears in the records of that county and he held interests there,
though, as already suggested, he never became a resident of that
colony. Charles II was then king.

52 American History

His name, with that of his oldest son, appears among the
organizers of the first Baptist Church in East Jersey — at Middle-
town, Monmouth County — and the purchasers of the ground on
which to erect the meeting house there. This was in 1667.

Three of his sons, Jonathan at Middletown in Monmouth
County, Judge Obadiah, on Staten Island, New York, and Samuel,
at Gravesend, the western extremity of Long Island, commencing
in 1667, made settlements so near each other that each from his
home could see the tree-tops about the homes of his two brothers.
These homes and the interests about them were magnets to draw
the father and mother and other members of the family as visit-
ors, from time to time, so long, at least, as the father and mother
survived. Nay, more, their daughter Lydia became the wife of
Captain John Bowne, one of the leading and most distinguished
citizens of those regions, in his day, resident at first at Gravesend,
then for much longer time at Middletown, in Monmouth County.
This was another magnet to attract such "visitors."

There have been much confusion and inaccuracy among
genealogists and historians as to the number, names, dates of
births, marriages and deaths of the children of Obadiah and
Katherine Hyde Holmes, but this is neither the time nor the
place to attempt critical or extended corrections. This confusion
has been emphasized in the case of the Rev. Obadiah Holmes and
his son Judge Obadiah. The latter was not a Monmouth paten-
tee, but the pamphlet or book of errors and the entanglements
that have grown up since the birth of the son in 1644, cannot now
be written, under the plan of these sketches.

"A letter to all my children : My dear children a word or two unto
you all who are near and dear unto me and much on my heart as I draw
near to my end and am not like to see you nor speak to you at my de-
parture wherefore I am moved to leave these lines for your consideration
when I am gone and you shall see me no more ; and take it as the real
truth of my heart in love to you all. for as I have been a means to bring
you into the world as corrupted and as sinful creatures as you were when
conceived and brought forth into the world, as so as I was even so are ye
by nature children of wrath as well as others and yet the Lord- had mercy
on me and I trust will shew mercy on you in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ as he hath begin with some of you to cause them to know him and
to serve him to love and obey him, so I trust will he shew mercy to you

Holmes Family 53

all. Wherefore my dear children above all things in this world let it be
your care to seek the Kingdom of Heaven and his righteousness, first and
above all things and to consider what you are by nature even enemies to
God be ye thoroughly convinced of that, and by actual transgression sin
as yet. Know such great love as cannot be expressed by men nor angels
hath the Lord sent and held forth even his son his only son to save and
deliver from wrath as not to perish but to have eternal life even to all
and every one that believes in his only son for in him is life.

"And now my son Joseph remember that Joseph of Arimathea was a
good man and a disciple of Jesus and was bold and went boldly and asked
the body of Jesus and buried it. My son John remember what a lovely
and a beloved disciple he was. My daughter Hope consider what a grace
of God hope is and court after that hope that will never be ashamed but
hath hope of eternal life and salvation by Jesus Christ. My son Obadiah
consider that Obadiah was a servant of the Lord and tender in spirit and
in a troublesome time hid the prophets by fifty in a cave.

"My son Samuel remember Samuel was a chief prophet of the Lord
ready to hear his voice saying speak Lord for thy servant heareth.

"My daughter Martha remember Martha although she was cumbered
with many things yet she loved the Lord and was beloved of him for he
loved Mary and Martha. -

"My daughter Mary remember Mary she chose the better part that shall
not be taken away and did hearken to the Lords instructions.

"My son Johnathan remember how faithful and loving he was to David
that servant of the Lord.

"My daughter Lidiah remember how Lidiahs heart was opened her ear
bored her spirit made to be willing to receive and obey the apostle in
what the Lord required and was baptized and entertained and refreshed
the servants of the Lord.

"Now my dear children consider how great love the Lord hath held forth
in his son and to him for life and for cleansing and pardoning that you
may be delivered from that great bondage and slavery that by nature you
are in. Know you it is the Lord only that must draw you by his own
power unto his son and that the son came to seek and to save that was
lost even to the sick the whole need him not and therefore be ye careful
ye reject him not and defer not the present tender of grace but while it is
called a day harden not your hearts but turn to the Lord by true repent-
ance and give credit to the Lord and testimony concerning his son that is
to believe on him and so shall ye be saved. My soul hath been in great
trouble for you to see Christ formed in you by a thorough work of the
Holy Spirit of the Lord that it may appear you are born again and en-
grafted to the true vine that so you being true branches may bring forth
fruit unto God and serve him in your generations although my care and
counsel hath been extend to you as you all know yet it is the Lord must

54 American History

work both to will and to do of his own good pleasure wherefore wait on
him with care and diligence carefully, read the scriptures and mind what
is therein contained for they testify of him and let your hourly desires be
to him that he would effectually be your teacher of his Holy Spirit. Be-
ware ye hearken to any one that shall speak contrary to the scriptures for
if they do speak otherwise it is because they have no light in them, and
let your conversation and life be squared by the same and they will direct
you how to behave yourselves toward God and man, and next to the
loving and fearing the Lord have you a most dear and tender respect to
your faithful careful tender hearted, loving aged mother. Show your
duty in all things honor her with high and cheerful love and respect and
then make sure you love one another. It hath been my joy to see your
love one to another, let it continue and increase, so may you be good
examples to others, visit one another as often as you can and piit one
another in mind of the uncertainty of life and what need there is to pre-
pare for death, take counsel one of another and if one see cause to advise
or reprove the other hearken to it and take it well. Be ye content with
your present condition and portion God giveth you and make a good use
of what you have by making use of it for your comfort for meat and
drink and apparel it is the gift of God and take care to live honestly justly
quietly with love and peace among your neighbors, and if possible be at
peace with all men and in what you can do good to all men in special to
such as fear the Lord and forget not to entertain strangers according to
your ability if it be done in sincerity it will be accepted specially if it be
to a disciple in the name of a disciple and do to all men as you would
have them do to 3'ou. Seek not honor of men nor praise from men but
the honor that is of God by the truth that is part with all for the truths
sake and if you would be Christs disciples ye must know and consider ye
must take up your cross and follow him through evil report and losses,
but yet know he that will lose his life for him will save it, and if you put
your hand to the plough you must not turn or look back, remember Lots
wife but be constant to death and you shall receive the crown of life. This
my dear children have I according to my measure counselled you and the
good Lord give you understanding in all things and by his spirit convince,
reprove and instruct and lead you into all truth as it is in Jesus that when
you have done your work here he may receive you to glory. Now the
God of truth and peace be with you and unto whom I commit this and you
even to him be glory for ever and ever, amen. The 17th day 10^
1675."

The Martyr had become, also, the Patriarch.

John, evidently their first born, was, as already shown, buried
at Stockport, near Manchester, England, June 27, 1633.

Jonathan — the registry of whose birth has not been found —

Holmes Family 55

would seem, from all the known facts, to have been more than
three years of age when they sailed for America in 1638.

It will be observed that the father did not address them in the
order of their ages and the order adopted seems to have had no
special reason for it — Joseph, John, Hope, Obadiah, Samuel,
Martha, Mary, Jonathan, ''Lidiah."

Having lost one child named John, they conferred the name on
an after-born brother — not at all an unusual thing.

These children were then — when this letter was written — all
mature men and women between forty-two and twenty-two years
of age.

Of one of these children the next chapter will give some
account, but the outline plan, being followed, will not admit of
details with reference to his brothers and sisters. A few words
as to some of them may not be out of place.

Judge Obadiah settled first, as indicated, on Staten Island, New
York. He was the clerk of the courts and finally held a com-
mission as a Judge or Justice from Governor Leisler, who had
the misfortune — 1691 — to be hanged for treason, so called. He
was not guilty, but was on the contrary patriotic and faithful to
his colony and his duty. Concurrently with the mishap to the
Governor, the Judge made a final settlement at Salem in the
colony of West or South Jersey, a little way below Philadelphia
and across the Delaware river. He was a Judge of Salem county
perhaps a dozen years, was a prime mover in establishing the
Baptist Church at Cohansey, the place of his residence, and in
that region, and occupied its pulpit as one of its ministers —
though never in the regular ministry — in addition to his judicial
and other duties as a leading citizen. He was twice married and
when he died left several children. A son was drowned in early
manhood. Many of his descendants, and especially of his daugh-
ters, are residents on Staten Island, at this day. He was buried
at Cohansey, West Jersey, about 1722.

Lydia became the wife of Captain John Bowne and they finally
settled at Middletown in East Jersey. One of their daughters,
Sarah, married Richard Salter. Hannah, the daughter of Richard
and Sarah Salter, became the wife of Mordecai Lincoln and the

56 American History

mother of his son John — "Virginia John," he is styled — who was
the great grandfather of Abraham Lincoln, a full martyr in the
cause, which secured the freedom of the bodies, as well as the
souls, of millions of men, women and children. Virginia John's
son Abraham was the President's grandfather and was killed by
Indians in the '80's of the eighteenth century, after his removal to
Kentucky.

John remained at Newport. He was twice married ; was a
Lieutenant in the militia, many years — sixteen — the general treas-
urer of the colony of Rhode Island, a member of the House of
Deputies, at different times, often employed and trusted, other-
wise, in the public service, and died October 2, 1712, leaving a
widow and several children.

Samuel, who married Alice Stillwell, settled at Gravesend and
some of his descendants still reside there and on Staten Island.

Edwin Salter of New Jersey, one of the Holmes blood, who
wrote the Early Dutch Settlers of that colony, prepared a three
and a half column article on "Rev. Obadiah Holmes, his ancestry,
children and neighbors," which was printed in the Monmouth
Democrat, newspaper, of September 6, 1888. Near the close, he
said:

''The Rhode Island accounts of the family state that Mary,
daughter of Rev. Obadiah Holmes, married John Browne, born
1634, son of Rev. Chad Browne. This Browne family is the one
distinguished in Rhode Island, and from some of its members
Browne University took its name. John Browne and wife Mary
had children ; John, Born March 18, 1682, and James, Obadiah,
Martha and Deborah."

These additional observations are taken from a letter of the
present author dated, December 15, 1900:

Mary, daughter of Rev. Obadiah, must have been born about
1648.

Mr. Salter might have gone further with the evidence drawn
from names of the Brown children. John was the name of an
uncle and Martha was the name of an aunt. I have seen it
stated somewhere that Mary and Martha were twins.

Holmes Family 57

Mr. Salter did not seem to know of the John, born and who
died at Manchester, England, nor of Joseph, who was well known
at Newport. He says there were eight children.

I have much regretted that Mr. Salter's health failed and that
he died before he prepared the more detailed history of the
Holmes family, which he had in mind, for he was a discrimi-
nating and capable genealogist and writer.

By the way. Brown University, located at Providence, founded
in 1764, one of the strongest institutions of learning in the land,
was known as Rhode Island College until 1804.

Most, if not all, of the other children lived and died in Rhode
Island.

There is a well written, a judiciously prepared, historical and
documentary account of the Boston incident set forth in Volume
One, Chapter four, at pages 173 to 212, inclusive, of the History
of the Baptists, written by Rev. Isaac Backus, 1724-1806, of
Middleborough, Connecticut, and completed, the first volume
July 9, 1777, and the second one in June, 1796. The author's
prefaces are enlightening on the general features of his history of
those times.

Rev. David Benedict's History of the Baptist Denomination
contains an intelligent, but somewhat brief, account, at pages 364
to 380 of his first volume, published in 1813. He was Pastor of
Pawtucket Church, R. I.

No history of the Baptist Church in America can be complete,
which overlooks Obadiah Holmes as one of its founders and
builders. The fathers of its history. Backus and Benedict, sepa-
rately, have fully and fairly fixed his place and credit, not only in
the Baptist Church, but in the wider domain of the free religion,
the freedom of conscience, which America's millions enjoy today;
and the place and credit have been illumined and strengthened, if
that be possible, by church historians down to and including Rev.
Drs. Thomas Armitage and H. M. King in their separate writings
of these current years.

In his case, it may justly be said that "the blood of the martyr
has been the seed of the church."

It is a fact that there have been some Massachusetts historians,

58 American History

Avho in writing of the period, the precise period, and times in
which the shameful beating of Obadiah Hohiies occurred, seem
never to have heard or read of it, and, accordingly, make no men-
tion of it, though it lay directly in their paths, and the search for
the finer details of the transaction where it occurred and where,
ordinarily, their record of it might reasonably have been expected
to.be found, has been disappointing. Some of them have been
more just and generous. The pens of Rhode Islanders have far
more effectually illustrated the subject.

W rong, shameful, atrocious, by the standards and teachings
of later times ; law, righteousness, God's service, by the standards
of those times ; Mr. Justice Story, in the Salem Centennial ad-
dress, touched the heart of such matters. Said he,

"Let Witch Hill remain forever memorable by this sad catas-
trophe, not to perpetuate our dishonor, but as an affecting, endur-
ing proof of human infirmity, — a proof that perfect justice
belongs to one judgment seat only, — that which is linked to the
throne of God."

It was after the memoirs and the letters to wife and children
and friends and brethren were all written and after he had come
down to the close of his last winter on earth that, admonished of
the duty of making final disposition of his worldly affairs and
business, he called in his friend Weston Clark and executed his
last will and testament.

The body of the instrument seems to be in the hand-writing of
Mr. Clark ; the signature is plainly that of testator.

"These are to signifie that I Obadiah Holmes of Newport
Rhode Island being at present through the goodness and mercy
of my god of sound memory and being by dayly intimation putt
in mind of the frailty and uncertainty of this present life doo
therefore for settling my estate in this world which it hath pleased
the lord to bestow upon mee make and ordain this my last will
and testament in manner following committing my spirit unto the
lord yt gave it me and my body to ye earth from whence it was
taken in hope and expectation that it shall from thence be Raised
at the resurrection of the Just.

C J^^r

■'"j'c-) /■ ■'-■■''^i-'l ■•' - ■

V //

f V

The Will

Holmes Family 61

Item. I will that all my just debts which I owe unto any per-
son be payd by my executors hereafter named in convenient time
after my decease.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my daughter Mary Brown five
pounds in mony or equivalent to mony.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my daughter Martha Odlin
tenn pounds in ye like pay.

Item. I give unto my daughter Liddiah Bowne tenn pounds.
Item. I give and bequeath unto my two grandchildren ye chil-
dren of my daughter Hopestill Taylor, five pounds each and if
either of them decease the survivor to have tenn pounds.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my son John Holmes tenn
pounds. Item. I give and bequeath unto my son Obadiah
Holmes tenn pounds. Item. I give and bequeath unto my
.grandchildren the children of my sonn Samuel Holmes tenn
pounds to be payed unto them in equal portions all those portions
by me bequeathed my will is shall be payed by my executors in
mony or equivalent mony.

Item. I give and bequeath unto all my grandchildren now
living tenn pounds and tenn shillings in ye like pay to be layd
out by each of them

Item. I give unto my grandchild Martha Brown tenn pounds
in the like pay all which afforesaid legacies are to bee payed by
my executors hearafter named in manner here expressed that is
to say the first payment to be payed within one year after ye
decease of my wife Katranne Holmes twenty pounds ye year till
all ye legacies be payd and each to be payd according to the de-
gree of age. My will is and I do hearby appoint my son Jonathan
Holmes my executor with bond, unto whom I have sold all my
land housing and stock for these formed of my said legacy

and my will is that my executor shall pay unto his
mother Kajtranne Holmes if she survives and lives the summ of
twenty pounds in mony or mony pay for her to dispose of as she
shall see cause lastly I do appoint my loving friends Mr James
Barker sen. Mr Joseph Clarke and Mr Phillip Smith all of New-
port to be my overseers to see this my will truly is formed in
writing.

62 American History

\Miereof I have hereunto sett my hand and seal this ninth day
of April, 1681

Obadiah Hullme (Seal)

Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of :

Edward Thurston
Weston Clark
"Edward Thurston Sen and Weston Clarke appeared before
the Council the 4th day of November 1682 and did upon their
engagements declare and own that thay saw Obadiah Holmes
deceased syne seal and deliver the above ritten will as his act and
deed and at y time of y sealing thereof he was in his perfit mem-
ory according to y best of our understanding.
Taken before the Council

Attest. Weston Clark Town Clerk

''The above written will is entered on record in the 80 page of
the Council book No 2 belonging to y town of Newport

Weston Clark Town Clerk"

Judge Burke in a letter to the author says :

"Concerning the will it is my opinion that it was written by Weston
Clark as the writing of the body of the will is similar to the writing in
the certificate which was undoubtedly written by Weston Clark, Town
Clerk.

"There is no copy of this will — probate — obtainable. As you know the
records of the town of Newport were taken by the British during the
British occupation, during the Revolution, and shipped to New York on
a British transport which sunk in Hell Gate, New York.

"Several years later the records were returned by General Carlton in a
dilapidated condition and rotten, having been under water for years.
Such as are legible are being restored by the Newport Historical Society,
but no records of a date prior to 1702 are in existence. I have no doubt
the will was 'entered on record' as the certificate of the town clerk states."

The following are some of the variegated answers to the author
in -the first decade of this century as to the will of Rev. Obadiah
Holmes, "not in existence;" "never proved or recorded;" "it had
but two witnesses while the law required three, and so it never
took effect;" "it was lost in a wreck at Hell Gate, New Y^ork, dur-
ing the Revolution," and so on.

Hon. John C. Burke, Newport, R. I.

Holmes Family 65

The answers were somewhat perplexing and all the time the
original was quietly resting in Newport.

The inventory is as follows :

"An inventorie of the goods and housekind of

Obadiah Hullme deceased the fifteenth day of
October Anno Domini 1682

tr. s. p.

Pewder valued at fourteen shillings 00 14 00

Wooden vessels and barrels valued at fourteen shillings. 00 14 00

Brass and iron ware valued at 1 tr 8s 01 08 00

Tooles and chairs valued at 1 tr 8s 01 08 00

Beds with furniture belonging valued at 5 tr 05 00 00

Old wheels with glass and a fire pan 4s 00 04 00

One sadle bridle and pillion valued at 12s 00 12 00

One chest valued at 4s 00 04 00

Wearing cloths valued at 3 tr 03 00 00

Books valued at 8s 00 08 00

Ten mares and one coalt valued at four pounds ten shill-
ings 04 10 00

Rept due ; The summe of ten pounds 10 00 00

One hundred and five pounds 10s (as it

appears in ye deed) 105 10 00

'~28 ~02 ~00
The above said goods and housekind valued by

valued by, Elias Williams and 105 10 00

Rowland Robinson this sixth day

of November Anno Domini 1682 133 13 00

Elias Williams and Rowland Robinson have engaged according
to law to the best of their understanding that it is a true as above
written taken before mee this 11 day 10 month 1682

John Assistant

The above writton inventory is entered on record in ye 81 page
of ye counciells book No 2 belonging to ye town of Newport

Weston Clarke Town Clerk"

Rev. Obadiah Holmes was forty-five years old when he received
that beating, evidently in the prime of his strength. It, no doubt,
discounted his days. One feels that it was his heart that was
giving him the warning symptoms as three score and ten ap-

66 American History

preached in 1675, when he was inditing the final messages, which
should speak for him if he should suddenly be disabled to speak
for himself.

It was the still nearer approach of the end in 1681 and the
appreciation of the weary work, at times, of the life engine that
led to the preparation of the will, beyond whose date he journeyed
more than a year.

Accord him the discount of the fearful scourging to which he
was subjected and the plain consequences thereof, and, humanly
speaking, he would have lived to more than four score years.

Thus, while in limited phrase and space he has been sketched,
there is enough, it is hoped, to show what manner of man he was
and what manner of life he lived.

"The last scene of all."

He had purchased, as we have seen, and at the time of his death
for a quarter of a century had owned, the farm five miles east of
the village of Newport — that distance from the present Court
House — on which is located what is still known as "The Holmes
Burying Ground."

He died on the 15th day of October, 1682, and they laid his
remains away there. A\'ithin a couple of years, approximately —
the spring of 1684 is ventured — when Katherine Hyde, the faith-
ful wife, passed away, they buried her on the same lot and their
graves are known and marked even down to this day.

The Burying Ground is forty feet from north to south by fifty
feet from east to west, a rectangle. It is neatly walled in, the
wall being built of loose — unmortared — stones, piled up on each
other, about three and a half feet in height, with no gate or
opening through it. The Ground is located on the west side of a
public highway, in ]\Iiddletown, about one-half mile north of
Berkeley Memorial Chapel and, perhaps, four hundred and fifty
feet west of the Seconnet River, a little arm of the sea.

The graves of the ]\Iartyr and his wife are located, the hus-
band's south of the center of the lot nearly half way to the wall,
and the wife's in a corresponding position north of the center.
The marble slab at the grave of the wife had fallen in 1901, hav-
ing been broken ofif at the ground. It was set up for the purposes

, ^>»^ f

The Holmes Burying Ground, Looking North Along East Wall

Looking South from Southeast Corner of Cemetery

Looking Toward the River from Outside the West Wall

Looking South From North Wall

Holmes Family 71

of the photograph. The slab at the grave of the husband was
then still standing.

The inscriptions on these markers are as follows :

'Tn Memory

the Rev. Obadiah Holmes

Baptist Minister

from Great Britain

who died October 15th

1682 in the 76th year

of his age"

'7. Stevens."

"in
Memory

Catherine

wife of the

Revd. Obadiah

Holmes."

"J- s."

There are forty distinguishable graves on the lot, possibly all
that were ever there. The author had them platted, located and
numbered, and copies made of every inscription still decipherable
in the year 1901, thirty-one in all.

The latest burial seems to be indicated by the inscription of
which the following is a copy :

'Tn Memory of

Sarah Dillingham

daughter of

John and Mary Holmes

who married first

Doct. Wm Tillinghast

and afterward

Capt. Edward Dillingham

She died May 24, 1836

in her 80th year."

American History

The following list of locations of graves and of inscriptions
from tombstones was made with great care by competent persons
under the supervision of Judge Burke and furnished by him on
the 5th of June, 1901.

It embraces every decipherable word on the gravestones to be
found in that little cemeterv on the date last mentioned.

4.
5.
6.

7.
8.

10.

11.

12.
13.
14.

15.
16.
17.
18.

19.

Stone broken and only stub re-
maining ; no inscription.

Stone broken and only stub re-
maining; no inscription.

Stone broken and only stub re-
maining; no in-cription.

Stone broken and only stub re-
maining ; on inscription.

Stone broken and only stub re-
maining; no inscription.

In memory of the Rev. Obadiah
Holmes, baptift minifter from
Great Britain who died Octo-
ber 15th 1682 in the 76th year
of his age — J. Stevens.

Stone broken and only stub re-
maining; no inscription.

Joseph Holmes x 1746

Margaret Holmes x 1765

Sarah Holmes x 1745

Jonathan Holmes x 1746

Joseph Holmes x 1753

Lydia Holmes

In X memory x of x Air. Jona-
than X Holmes x son of the x
Rev. Obadiah Holmes x J. S.

In memory x of x Sarah x wife
of X Mr. Jonathan Holmes.

20. In memory of x Joseph Holmes

X who died x Octo. 26 A. D.
1746 X in y 70 year of his age.

21. In memory of x Margaret y wife

X of Air. Joseph Holmes x
and daughter of Elder x John
Fones & Lydia his x wife late
of North X Kingstown x she
died December x 2d 1765 x in
y 73d year of x her age.

22. In memory of x Lydia x daugh-

ter of X Joseph Holmes x &
of Margaret.

23. In memory x of x Sarah y

daughter x of x Joseph
Holmes x & of Margaret his
X wife died Octo x y 2d A. D.
1745 X in y 18th year of x her
age.

24. In memory of x Jonathan y son

X of Joseph Holmes x & of
Margaret x his wife died x
Nov. y 27th A. D. x 1746 in
y 17th year x of his age.

25. In memory of x Joseph y x son

of Joseph X & Margaret
Holmes x died April y 27th x
1753 in y 21st x year of his
age.

26. Miss Prudence x Weaver x 1815.

27. Mr. John Holmes x 1799.

28. Mrs. Mary Holmes x 1817.

29. Doctor William x Tillinghast x

1786

30. S. D.

»v.«-„ •{

"'"•"■<^A

iBW..

Looking West from East Wall

... . ,.^'-

"*'.
H

Tombstone of the Minister

^ 3 V

7 ^

11 11 /3 /y

1 ^ Z-O 0^1 ^^ -^^3

^4- ^ «5'-

Xi.

Z,^ Z9 Z9 ?>0

■

3 3

3y 3^^ 3^ J73^

3 ? y ^

}

Holmes Family

31. William T. x Dillingham x 1827

32. In X Memory x of x Catherine x

wife of the x Revd. Obadiah
Holmes, x J. S. ( P. S. This
stone is lying on the ground
face down in about the posi-
tion shown on the plan.)

33. In memory x of x Miss Pru-

dence X Weaver x who died x
Nov. 14 1815 X in the 70th
year x of her age

34. In Memory x of x John Holmes

Esq X who died x Nov 27th
1799 X in the CSd x year of
his age.

35. In Memory of x Mrs. Mary x

Holmes x who died x Aug 11
1817 X in the 80 year x of her
age.

36. In memory of x Doctor William

X Tillinghast x he departed
this X life January 22d x 1786
in the x 33d year of his age.

ig-

37. In Memory of x Sarah Dillinj

ham X daughter of x John &
Mary Holmes x who married
first X Doct. Wm. Tillinghast
X and afterward x Capt. Ed-
ward Dillingham x she died
May 24, 1836 x in her 80th
year.

38. In memory of x William T. Dill-

ingham X son of Edward x &
Sarah Dillingham x born
July 23, 1794, x died June 26,
1827.

39. In Memory x of x Catherine

Matilda x daughter of x Mr.
John Baker x & Avis his wife
x who died Sept 20th x 1804.

40. In Memory x of x John Holmes

X son of x John & Avice x
Baker.

CAPTAIN JONATHAN HOLMES

Jonathan Holmes, the second child of Obadiah and Katherine
Hyde Holmes, was born near Manchester, England, in 1633-4.
His older brother John died in infancy, June 27, 1633. He came
with his parents to America in 1638 and shared the fortunes of
the family from the landing at Boston, through the settlement
and life at Salem down to 1646, through the experiences at
Rehoboth, down to the removal and final settlement of the family
at Newport, Rhode Island, in the fall of 1650. He was, at this
last removal, a boy of fifteen, the oldest of the eight boys and
girls, who listened with awe, in August, 1651, to the strange
story told of the father's arrest, trial, sentence and imprisonment,
on the visit to Salem and Lynn ; who waited and doubtless wor-
ried over the end of it all, and who wept over the story of the
merciless lashing, which Puritan justice administered to that
father on Saturday, the 5th day of September, 1651.

Of the history of his boyhood and early manhood no special
items have been preserved. The general features, however, seem
to stand out quite clearly from the light thrown on them by the
history of the times and of his father and the family, and from
the light thrown backward from his active private and public
career, covering almost, if not quite, fifty full manhood years,
during which he was making a record.

There can be little doubt that a portion of the boyhood and
girlhood years of the growing sons and daughters of the minister
and his wife was spent on that Middletown farm on the Seconnet
river, four or five miles east of Newport, and from that half-
proved fact and the facts that are definitely known may be
approximately inferred the nature of the life and training of the
high and virile and forceful characters, which they are found to
have been, in their several stations, through mature years.

80 American History

It was April 8, 1665, that the Duke of York issued the Mon-
mouth patent — often in history styled the Nicolls patent — in
which Obadiah Holmes, the father, was named as one of the
twelve original patentees, and under which, it is known that his
son Jonathan was one of the twenty-four associates, not specifi-
cally named therein as an original patentee.

At Portsmouth, R. I., say ten miles north of Newport, resided
the family of Richard Borden, one of the earliest to settle in
Rhode Island and among the most prominent of the colony.
Richard Borden was admitted a freeman of the colony June 20,
1638. Among the ten children was Sarah, said to have been
born in May, 1644.

In the year 1664-5, Sarah Borden became the wife of Jonathan
Holmes, when he was approximately thirty years of age.

Prior to the issue of the Monmouth patent, April 8, 1665, he
had visited the Monmouth country and with others had nego-
tiated, with the Indian Sachems, for lands in that portion of East
Jersey, and was so interested in the issue of the patent and the
titles and business and employments and profits, which that in-
strument would, in a great measure, inaugurate, ratify, validate
and confirm.

In this enterprise had been Captain John Bowne, who, in 1663,
had married Lydia Holmes, his sister, and soon afterward
removed from Newport and settled at Gravesend, Long Island.

His father and mother, W^illiam and Ann Bowne, had been
neighbors of the Holmes family at Salem, Mass.

Some time during the year 1665, perhaps, after the issue of
the patent and, certainly, after his marriage, Jonathan Holmes
and his bride joined Captain Bowne and his wife and resided,
it is said, in their home, at Gravesend, while the patent and settle-
ment plans and matters were under consideration.

While they were so living and employed, on the 17th day of
July, 1666, the first child of Jonathan and Sarah Borden Holmes
was born in the Bowne homestead. He was named Obadiah.

It is recorded that the second child of Captain John and Lydia
Holmes Bowne was born on the 18th day of July, 1666. He was
named Obadiah.

J?-

-h

.^0,

'.^^-^

If^

BEACH"

Modern Plat Including Holmes Farm

Holmes Family bo

This latter youth, after the next century came in, had some
trouble in court with Mordecai Lincoln over the settlement of
the estate of his father, Capt. John Bowne, in East Jersey, and
Mordecai moved into the colony of Pennsylvania while the Jersey
Sheriff still held a writ of execution against him for some $1500.
No matter about that now.

By the next year, 1667, Jonathan Holmes had helped to found
Middletown, Monmouth County, East Jersey, and December 30,
1667, became the owner of lot 9, in the town and the next day
had assigned to him lot 7 of the Poplar field, a sort of outlot.
His brother Obadiah, though never a resident of East Jersey,
was assigned, at the same dates, lot 20 in Middletown and lot 6,
in the Poplar field.

Captain Bowne was one of the original Monmouth patentees
and had lot 28 in the town and lot 9 in the Poplar field assigned
to him at the dates just mentioned.

The children of the Minister would seem to have been enjoying
the benefits not only of the name, but of the means and assistance,
otherwise, of the father.

The residence of Jonathan Holmes at Middletown, East Jersey,
dates from the year 1667. Some of the inhabitants were there as
early as May, 1666. Ten years later, in the year 1677, Captain
Bo.wne owned 1316 acres in Monmouth county and Jonathan
Holmes owned 797 acres.

On page 45, Deed Book B, Monmouth County records, is a
deed from five Indian Sachems to Jonathan Holmes, dated
August 12, 1667. This was extinguishing the Indian title to the
land to the end that the conditions of the Monmouth patent when
complied with might carry to him the fee simple clear of claims
and encumbrances.

According to the record, on the 6th day of January, 1667-8,
"william Lawrence and Jonathan Hulmes" constituted the first
court holden at Middletown and made orders as to fences, felling
timber, wolves and overseers of fences.

These items contain the gist of the record as to the beginning
of his East Jersey career and until 1684 that career was both
busy and honorable in that colony.

84 American History

He was one of the organizers of the first Baptist Church at
Middletown, which church had the presence and the inspiration
of his father at that organization. It occurred in 1667. That
w^as more than a hundred years before the Ordinance of 1787,
but "The Confederate Congress" on July 13th, the latter year, in
the declaration, at the opening of Article III, that

"Religion, morality, and knowledge being neces-
sary to good government and the happiness of man-
kind, schools and the means of education shall
forever be encouraged,"

saw no more clearly
the principles involved than did the East Jersey "Adventurers" in
their wilderness by the sea. Most of them had migrated from the
little colony — Rhode Island — whose charter, after twelve years
of battle, largely at his own expense, with the colonies of Massa-
chusetts and Connecticut, at the English Courts, Dr. John Clarke
had secured from Charles II, as already shown, the charter of
July 8, 1663.

On the 22d da}' of April, 1668, Jonathan Hulmes and (ieorge
Mount were chosen deputies "in the general assembly to be held
at Portland poynt," and November 1, next ensuing, Hulmes and
Edw^ard Tartt were chosen such "deputies to act with the general
assembly at Elizabeth Towne."

Before the beginning of 1668 Captain John Bowne had removed
his residence from Gravesend to Middletown.

The people of Middletown were then living in entirely new
cabins or houses, and as the stock ran at large and commingled
more or less for grazing and feeding purposes the owners had
duly recorded marks, mostly on the ears of the animals, by which
they were distinguished from the common herd. The first re-
corded ear mark of the cattle of Jonathan Hulmes was January 4,
1668.

It would not be advisable to detail, at much length, the contro-
versy in which the people of Monmouth County, at this time.
became involved over their patent. A very general idea of it
must sufiice.

Holmes Family 85

The Monmouth patent, issued as ah-eady stated, April 8, 1665,
was signed by Governor Nicolls, then in office. It purported to be
the grant of the Duke of York to whom Charles II had made a
larger grant in 1658.

In the Monmouth patent were provisions for settling one hun-
dred families and cultivating lands on the grant within three years,
which, if complied with, should give the settlers the lands rent
free, including customs, excise, tax or levy of every sort for a
period of seven years ; but the Duke had made a general grant,
covering territory embraced in the later Monmouth patent, to Lord
Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, June 24, 1664, more than nine
months prior to the Monmouth grant, in his name, by Governor
Nicolls.

On the faith of the Nicolls patent and without knowledge of
the prior grant, the settlement movement in Monmouth had oc-
curred.

Ph. Carteret was governor and May 30, 1667, the General As-
sembly under him, so to speak, had passed an act that the towns
should pay a public rate of £5 each, which Middletown and
Shrewsbury repudiated ; and at the November session of that
body, 1667, Mr. Luke Wattson and Mr. Samuel Moore were
deputed to make demand and if not paid distrain for the sums so
levied. This raised "Cain," as did a question of taxation, though
on different grounds, one hundred years later.

Through the year 1668, the tax deputies were pushing for the
collection of the public rate and the good citizens were warming
up to the assertion of their rights under the grants contained in
the Monmouth patent.

When Jonathan Hulmes and Edward Tartt from Middletown
and Thomas Winterton and John Hans from Shrewsbury pre-
sented themselves at Elizabeth Town as deputies to the General
Assembly, November 3, 1668, and declined to subscribe the oaths
of allegiance and fidelity to the proprietary government, except on
conditions, of course, to wit, the recognition of their rights and
those of their constituents under the Monmouth patent, they were
dismissed by the Assembly and those seats remained vacant
through that session.

86 American History

The citizens were called upon to aid in the distraint for the
taxes.

At a town meeting held on "ffebruary ; 4; 1668,"
'Tt is ordered that James Ashton ; Jonathan Hulmes Richard
Gibbons Richard Stoutt william Lawrence and Edward Tartt
shall give answer to the governors men in the towns behalfe"

Edward Tartt was, by resolution, authorized to sign and seal
the answer to the governor, when prepared.

'Tt is likewise ordered that noe in habitant shall be seised upon
or caried by violence out of the towne //// tJic fozvnc sees f further'

Jonathan Hulmes and Edward Tartt were appointed a sub-
committee to prepare the draft of this answer, and unchallenged
tradition says that Jonathan Holmes as the original author penned
it — the first declaration of independence ever written and adopted
in the new world.

This answer to the governor and the Lords Proprietors was
submitted to the citizens in lawful assembly on the 17th dav of
March, 1668-69, for their action, when, "it was unanimously
resolved that this following act shall bee our positive resolution
and shall be presented to the generall assembly : — "

The answer is a careful and comprehensive recital of loyaltv to
the King — then Charles II — and to lawful government : of the
grants of rights, powers and privileges in the Monmouth patent,
under which they claimed, issued as stated by the Duke of York ;
of the issues made by the claim of the Lords Proprietors that thev
had purchased from the Duke the right to tax the patentees,
their associates and grantees, for the use and occupation of the
lands, which they had acquired, embraced in that patent, and to
collect quit rents for them by distraint, in violation of such char-
tered rights, and the climax of the declaration is reached in the
language,

''We are at present resolved not to intangle into any other in-
terest pertaining to any men but sJiall by the assistanee of God,
stiek to our patent; the liberties and privileges thereof wJiieh is
€ur interest, zvhieh zvas onee eomniitted to us, not to betray like
treacherous men; ivho for filthy lucre have bein ready to betray

Holmes Family 87

themselves and others, hut to deal faithfully zvith, it being a trust
committed to usf

Dr. Stillwell in his Miscellanies, Volume 2, page 365 — see also
p. 150 — has tersely stated the case and the outcome.

''The contention of the settler was that he had in good faith abandoned
one home for another, under assurances of no rent for lands which he
bought of the Indians, and for which he braved the hardships of a new
country, the solitude of a wilderness and the dangers of the wild beasts
and savages, while the Proprietors claimed that the titles given by Gov-
ernor Nicolls were void, as they were issued at a date subsequent to their
ownership of the land, and that he could not grant that which he or his
master did not own ; to which the settler demurred, answering that
Governor Nicolls' acts were binding till he was relieved of office. Defiance,
disputes, appeals, friction, riots and imprisonments, covering many years
and many changes of ownership, were the outcome.

"A grant of 500 acres of land to such of the patentees as had purchased
Indian titles was finally accepted and the long contention closed."

This last observation, however, does not apply strictly to Mid-
dletown, as, on May 28, 1672, the governor and council, upon an
address made by James Grover, John Bowne, Richard Hartshorne,
Jonathan Holmes, Patentees, and James Ashton and John Hanse,
Associates, made in w^riting five important concessions under the
Monmouth patent, w^hich led to the settlement of the trouble so
far as Middletown and Shrewsbury were concerned, and their
deputies thereafter sat in the General Assembly. This could not,
as it did not, give stability and justice to the government of the
Proprietors. That remained and was an affliction for many years.

September 12, 1673, Jonathan Holmes was chosen Captain,
with John Smith, Lieutenant, and Thomas Whitlock, Ensign, of
the Middletown Company, and by order of the Council of War
they were mustered into service next day. This was under the
dominion of the Dutch which lasted this time about a year.

The troubles between the English and the Dutch were then
brewing over their titles to the territories known as New Nether-
land, which spread away in every direction from Manhattan
Island.

The grant of New Netherland to the Duke of York was made
by Charles II in March, 1664, and on the 8th of September next
ensuing, the country so known, including New Amsterdam,

88 American History

passed into the possession of the Enghsh under menace of the
guns of a fleet sent to make the conquest. The stubborn and irras-
cible governor, Peter Stuyvesant, was finally subdued, without
bloodshed, under the frown of the guns of the fleet and the com-
manding sentiment of his own people against the useless sacrifice
of war.

The name of the Proprietor supplanted that of the Dutch in
part and thenceforward it became New York until by a sudden
dash the Dutch fleet recaptured the city on the 9th day of August,
1673. when they changed the name to New Orange. Thev held
possession until the next year, when, pursuant to a treaty, they
surrendered it to the English.

In 1665. the population of the city was approximately fifteen
hundred souls.

]\Iiddletown. the ^Vlonmouth grant. East Jersey, were all quite
close to the seat of war between the two nations on this side of
the ocean and the mustering of troops in that vicinity, in Sep-
tember. 1673. is quite clearly explained thereby.

Captains Jonathan Holmes and John Bowne were chosen
deputies to the General Assembly ^.lay 27. 1680. It met at Eliza-
bethtown on the 2d of June next following. On the next dav
Captain Bowne was chosen speaker of the Assembly.

After eighteen years of residence in East Jersey. Jonathan
Holmes moved his family back to the old home. Newport. Rhode
Island. The intimate reasons for this removal cannot be cer-
tainly stated as matter of record or of history. He retained his
landed and other interests at ]\Iiddletown and Perth Amboy. He
had been honored by the marked confidence of the people, again
and again, and no jar or clash or unkindness appears anywhere
in his Jersey relations. He had prospered in a property way and
all their children had been born at Gravesend and ]\Iiddletown ;
there were nine of them.

Obadiah. the oldest, was then eighteen years of age and seems
to have remained at ]\Iiddletown in charge of his father's busi-
ness, property and interests and to have remained to the end of
his life a citizen of the Colony of East Jersey, resident of
IMiddletown.

Holmes Family 89

Rev. Obadiah Holmes and his wife had passed away recently.
Their oldest son in America had passed the half century mark
in age and had evidently led an active and laborious life, prac-
tically on the frontiers. He had been a mature man when he
left Rhode Island and his connections there had kept alive a
knowledge of his character and talents and their growth and
strength.

His father's will had been made April 9, 1682, in which he
had been named as sole executor. What, if any, influence the
settlement of his father's estate had upon the determination to
return to Newport is not so far directly and positively shown.

It is not a far cry, however, to the conclusion that there were
satisfactory reasons drawing him back to Rhode Island and in
the latter part of 1683 or the early portion of 1684 he made the
removal. It seems to be a safe inference that the death of his
mother and the settlement of his father's estate were factors
having some influence on the removal.

On the 6th day of May, 1684, the General Assembly of Rhode
Island, sitting at Newport, voted that Jonathan Holmes and
thirteen others be and they were admitted freemen of the colony.
William Coddington was, at that date, its governor.

Jonathan Holmes was then fifty years of age and was "of
Newport."

He was chosen one of the deputies for Newport and sat in
the General Assembly, which met at Newport February 26,
1689-90.

On the 27th of that month, with seven others, including
several officers of the colony named, he was appointed and
empowered to demand of the late governor William Clarke ''and
receive the Charter and all other papers and things in his cus-
tody, belonging to this Collony." The late governor refused
to surrender the documents, but told the committee it might
forcibly break open the chest containing them and take them
away, which it proceeded to do.

John Holmes, Captain Jonathan's brother, was, that same day,
elected General Treasurer of the Colony.

March 1, 1689-90, the General Assembly being advised by the

90 American History

fomier Treasurer, Air. John Woodman, that Alajor Roger
Holden held some £30 in money, 'as also about 300 lbs of wool
&c.," appointed and empowered Mr. Jonathan Holmes and four
others to demand and if necessary distrain for this property as
it had been raised toward building the Colony house and for the
maintenance of government. The committee secured the money
and so reported and was discharged on the same day, and the
money was weighed and counted to the Treasurer, Mr. John
Holmes, bv another committee for the Colony's use.

Jonathan Holmes took his seat as a member of the General
Assembly at a called session, "on special occasion for their Alajes-
ties service," at Portsmouth, September 16, 1690. A condition
of, war made "the raising of revenue for the supply of soldiers
and other necessary charges, against their Alajesties enemies,"
a necessity.

On the 30th of October, Air. Jonathan Holmes was on a com-
mittee of eight to inspect the method of collecting taxes. The
report was that there were adequate laws on the subject and
the collection of the taxes was for executive officers.

Captain Jonathan Holmes was a deputy in the General /\ssem-
bly, which met at Portsmouth, Alay 5, 1691. and, June 24, was
one of a committee of five empowered to demand and receive
''the General Records belonging to this Collonv and all other
writings and papers that are in his hands that concern the Court
or Colony afi:airs from Weston Clarke late recorder." Clarke
claimed the right to hold on to the records and papers until his
accounts were closed. The matter was finallv settled when he
was assured that he would receive any balance due him.

John Holmes, the General Treasurer was found to owe the
Colonv il. 19 s. on the moneys and wool received from his
predecessor in the office, ''Jo^^^"^ W^oodenman."

The session of the General Assemblv opened at Newport, July
2, 1695, with this action :

"Capt n Jonathan Holmes, Mr A\'illiam Cory, Mr Jonathan
Sprague, Mr Thomas Greene, Air John Heath, Capt'n Joseph
Daniel, Air Joseph Hull, are by this Assembly appointed a com-
mittee, they or the major part of them, to inspect the former rate

Ffom \\flll

(/) Lcio<^0^' '^oMntJ-'

f\rom Deed

fro/77 letter to Church
from Pow' of ATTY

Tracings of the Father's Signatures— Photograph of the Son's Signature

Holmes Family 93

of three hundred pounds, what is behind unpaid, and how it
shall be gathered and paid, and propose a method by rating each
person to the value of his estate two pence per pound, by the
best method they can find and make return to this Assembly."

The little colony in the sea had before it the eternal question
of taxation, its rates, adjustment and collection. On a wall in
Egypt was found, not long ago, pasted under numerous layers
of paper, or parchment, the complaint of a tax-payer on account
of oppressive rates, more than 4000 years old. The question is
perennial and represents an irrepressible conflict between public
power and interests and private judgment as to taxes and tax
rates.

The return of this committee was — and the General Assembly
made it the law — "that the said rateby each person rated shall
be paid into the General Treasury by the 20th of August next ;
in ready money ; or wool at seven pence half penny per pound ;
butter at four pence per pound ; Indian corn at two shillings per
bushel ; rye at two shillings, three pence ; pork, the barrel, one
pound, eighteen shillings."

Real estate was to be fully and fairly appraised and equalized
and the rate should be two pence per pound of the valuation.

Cattle of the different classes had special rates according to
ages.

At the same session, with four others, Captain Jonathan
Holmes was chosen to run the eastern line o*^ the Colony, accord-
ing to "the best of their understanding" and "the boundarys of
the Patent," and, if Massachusetts should show hostile opposition,
to report progress.

As the question seems to have been open in 1705, the com-
mittee, presumably, did not establish the line.

He sat as deputy in the General Assembly at Newport, May 5,
1696. Eighty-three persons were admitted as freemen of the
Colony and the Assembly dissolved. Next day, he was elected
by the General Assembly one of the two Justices and his brother,
^'Lieut John Holmes," was re-elected General Treasurer.

He was one of a committee of six to prepare a report for

94 American History

levying impost duties ''upon wines, brandies and strong liquors
imported into the collony." and in a prompt report the basis for
such levies was laid and Capt. Samuel Cranston became the
collector.

He was elected by th^ Assembly one of the six Justices on
the 4th of May, 1698, and Mr. John Holmes was re-elected
Treasurer.

At the session of the Assembly begun at Newport, ^lay 3^
1699, he was still a member and his brother John was still
Colonial Treasurer and the same things were true of the session
begun at the same place April 30, 1700, when Jonathan Holmes
was elected Speaker of the House of Deputies.

Among the proceedings at the session begun May 6. 1701,
John Holmes, Jr. and Joseph Holmes, sons respectively of the
Treasurer and the bpeaker were "accepted freemen of the Col-
lony," along with fifty-seven others of whom twenty-three were
from Newport.

Elections were in May. On the next day, Jonathan was
elected one of the Justices and the brother — "Lieut. John" — was
re-elected Treasurer.

The same conditions as to official positions obtained with theni
at the session which opened at Newport May 5, 1702, the Captain
being re-elected Speaker of the House, on the 6th of that month.
Each brother was a member of the House at this meeting.

Among the proceedings at the session held at Newport, August
25, 1702, it was voted "that Captn Joseph Sheffield, and the
Treasurer Lieut. John Holmes, have full power to account with
Jahleel Brenton. concerning his voyage for England, on the
Collony 's account, and make their return to the Assembly."

In 1702-3, February 2, the Assembly appointed Captain Jona-
than one of the Commissioners to have charge of the sending
of Captain Sheffield to England as agent of the Colony. This
was in the contest over the charters for the Colony ; the central
proposition of the Assembly then being to uphold the existing
charter of Rhode Island. The forwarding and instructing of
such agent were fully entrusted to the commissioners. One item
of the act was in these words :

Holmes Family 95

"That if it should please God that he the said Sheffield, should
be taken either in his going or coming, to or from the aforesaid
realm of England, that then the charge and cost of his redemp-
tion shall be had and borne at the proper cost and charge of said
Collony."

That session closed with the following action :
"Voted, That the Acts passed at this sessions of Assembly,
shall be published by beat of drum in the town of Newport,
forthwith under the seal of the Collony, and that the recorder
shall within ten days after the adjournment of this Assembly
send forth copies if possible, to each town in this Collony, under
the Seal of said Collony, and to have eight shillings for each
copy paid out of the General Treasury, forthwith, and upon the
publication hereof, this Assembly is adjourned to the first Tues-
day in Aprill next, to the Collony House in Newport ; except the
Governor or Deputy Governor see cause to call it sooner."

May 2, 1704, John was a deputy and his brother was not in the
Assembly, and the same conditions obtained as to each, June 19,
1705.

Captain Jonathan was again a deputy May 1, 1706, the Assem-
bly sitting at Newport. Another John Holmes, Jr. was among
the admissions from Newport to be freemen of the Colony, and
the Captain sat as a member of the House at the session begun
July 3, 1706. He appears again as one of the deputies at the
session begun and held at Newport, February 25, 1706-7, and
was in attendance for the last time as a member of the law-
making body of the Colony of Rhode Island on the 6th day of
May, 1707, when elections were held for officers and the next
Assembly, whose tenure of office should date from the following
day.

His brother, Lieut. John, was chosen a deputy for that next
year and the name of Captain Jonathan Holmes disappears
finally from the legislative records of the Colony, which have
come down to these days. He was growing old for the active
duties of life. Born in 1633-4, when he walked out of the Colony

96 American History

House at Newport, free from his office as a deputy, on the 6th
of Alay, 1707, he was in his seventy fourth year, "living on
borrowed time." By reason of strength, he was to see six more
years, but the highest wisdom has described them,

"The days of our years are three score years and ten ; and if
by reason of strength they be four score years, yet is their
strength labor and sorrow^ ; for it is soon cut ofif and we fly
away."

In the struggle with the Lords Proprietors in East Jersey over
the guaranties of the Monmouth Patent the patentees, their
associates, and those claimino- under them said, we "shall bv the
assistance of God, stick to our patent." Sticking close to the
record of the life of Captain Jonathan Holmes, made in times
when most of the writing was done, not on paper or parchment,
but on the face of the earth to subdue it and on the billowing
seas to conquer subsistence and homes and make the beginnings
of a new worW, it is not too much to say that : —

Clearly, here was a strong character playing a leading part
among men wherever through the more than fifty years of
mature life his lot was cast. From the early days in East Jersey
when the wilderness and the savage were to be confronted ;
when chartered or patented rights were to be vindicated by word
and deed ; when the Sovereign's government, and provinces were
to be protected against or reclaimed from the invader in legisla-
tive hall or at the head of his troops, the persistency of that
career, in the lead, has about it a note, which rises to the end
and in the definition of good citizenship may justly be called
admirable. It was an eminently successful life in his day and
generation.

Som_ehow, from the opening to the close, reasoning from the
known to the unknown and building on the facts and the logic,
it seems perfectly just to say that there was neither self-seeking,
nor vanity, nor clap-trap, nor folly, nor frivolity in his composi-
tion; but there was sound common sense with a solid judgment,
both alert and informed in action, and there was an admirable
staying quality, reliable as a rock. There are two things, nay
three, that stand forth in his historv and character : — Men trusted

Holmes Family 97

■ him ; he never betrayed a trust, and, the crowning characteristic
of the man furnished the reason for both, the earnest, steady
effort of his whole hfe was to find his duty and discharge it.
He justly deserved the prominence that he attained in the early
histories of two, at least, of the Colonies in which he lived. He
was not unknown in, at least, three others : Massachusetts, Con-
necticut and New York.

It would be unjust not to mention the credit due to the faithful
wife. New England had no better blood than flowed in the
veins of the Bordens and the flavor of a strong, helpful, charm-
ing life, in the relations of wife, mother, neighbor, comes down
to us through more than two hundred years, clinging about the
memory of Sarah Borden Holmes. Her husband owed her
much ; she was a help-meet, indeed.

The names of their children, mentioned by him in his will,
made in 1705, were Obadiah, Jonathan, Samuel, Sarah, Mary,
Catharine, Martha, Lydia and Joseph.

If Joseph was not beyond "eighteene" — the toga age under
the law — when he was admitted as a freeman of the Colony in
1700, then he was born in 1682 and the growth of the family
from 1666, the birth year of Obadiah, the eldest, may be seen
almost as plainly as if the family record were at hand.

The will was admitted to probate and record at Newport
November 2, 1713, and is also of record at Perth Amboy, New
Jersey.

"The last days." then, are all that are now to be noticed. It
was the 6th of May, 1707, when the Captain retired from public
life. His will had been made. Two sons, Obadiah and Jona-
than, were in Monmouth County, for Jonathan had soon gone
back from Rhode Island and lived and died in East Jersey.
Born there ; sixteen when the family left the Colony, it is sympa-
thetic human nature to suppose that ties had formed which were
not easily broken, and which had some influence, as well as
property considerations, in drawing him back to Monmouth
County.

The daughter Catharine Whiteman had passed away when the
will was made and her two children were made beneficiaries in
the will in her room and stead.

98 American History

The others were married and living about the home of the
father and mother except Lydia, who with Joseph, seems to
have been the homekeeper in their old age.

The mother went away in 1708 ( ?) and at the head of a grave
near the wall on the eastern side of the Holmes Burying Ground,
at Newport, stands a marble slab, the inscription on which is in
these words :

'Tn Memory of

Sarah

Wife of Mr Jonathan Holmes."

Five vears w^ent by — thev w'ere doubtless lonelv vears, as not
even children and children's children could supply the lost com-
panionship^and then — in October, 1713 — close beside the wife's
grave, another w^as made and on the marble slab, which stands
by its head, are engraved the words :

"In

Memory

Mr Jonathan

Holmes

Son of the

Rev. Obadiah Holmes"

-]. S."

Following is an abstract of Captain Jonathan's will as recorded
in Rhode Island and in New Jersey :

"1705, Will made; proved Nov. 2, 1713; Son Joseph executor;
Overseers, his brother John and Wm Weeden. He leaves to
his wife Sarah best feather bed. all the plate and ten pounds
yearly for life ; Son Obadiah east half of farm in Middletown
in Plain dealing. Fast Jersey, with all housing «&:c. Half salt
and half fresh meadow, and all stock, to his son Samuel; A house
and lot at Newport, R. I., and five pounds ; to his son Jonathan
the other half of farm in Middletown, New Jersey, half of salt
and fresh meadow, young mare and five pounds ; to his sons
Obadiah and Jonathan certain other lands in New Jersey equally ;
to his' daughter Sarah Slade fifteen pounds; to his daughter

.r\

\\ \^ ^x^

Holmes Family 99

Mary Easton £15; to two children of his daughter Catherine
Whitman, deceased, fifteen pounds equally at the age of
eighteen, daughter Martha Tillinghast, fifteen pounds ; daughter
Lydia, twenty pounds ; Son Joseph Holmes, house and lot at
Newport, R. I."

When "the documents," which were connected with these two
men — father and son — after the long search, finally came to
hand, they called forth a review and comments of twenty pages,
of which the following is the conclusion. Copying it literally
carries the apology for the use of the first person.

These instruments tend to vitalize the people, who were named
in, and parties to, them. One sees so much of the movements
connected with them, necessarily connected with their prepara-
tion and descriptions and execution, that the actors themselves
and their surroundings and movements and thoughts and
feelings ana purposes and their very conversations seem to
come down to us ; their spirits fill the air about us and their
stories, in a way, are lived over again within our comprehension
and knowledge.

Say it is iniagiuation, wholly, on my part, I dissent, because
of the hundreds of the blood with whom I have been personally
acquainted, during my life, running from Gr. Uncle Isaac, b.
1764, to my youngest grandson, b. 1910, and with my consequent
formation of, and familiarity with, the type, and say I can almost
see Obadiah Hullme and his son Captain Jonathan Holmes, in
the days to which, for example, the Memoirs of 1675 and the
will and deed of 1681 relate.

Rev. Obadiah Holmes was about five feet ten inches, in height,
compactly and firmly built, weighing then one hundred and forty
five to one hundred and fifty pounds against his one hundred and
sixty in his prime, at the age of forty-eight to fifty ; erect in
carriage until about 1670, when age and the strenuous life he
had lived began to give him a slight "desk stoop," which grew
more noticeable down to the last, but was never pronounced
into a "bow" or a bent condition of body ; a dark complexion, in
early life, showing the strength of his blood and the blood still
giving character to the color of his cheek when the fading eflfects

682314

100 American History

of old age came to him ; dark eyes of mild but firm expression ;
his mouth was firm, his teeth were good, he was always clean
shaven ; a benignant countenance ; an active, earnest manner, an
active, earnest man ; agreeable socially, with no hard words for
any person ; a zealous servant of his divine blaster, in season
and out of season, regarding all times as in the former class ;
the voice was even tenored, clear and musical, the pronunciation
was distinct ; the gesticulation was what in oratory is called
moderate, reserved, but appropriate to the sentiment ; the hands
and feet were comparatively small ; the dress was in keeping
with the times and with his ministerial office ; his hair was iron
gray, full and long, trimmed and thinned at the ends, after the
Puritan style.

Doubtless in his later years he carried a straight black cane
with a silvered knob at the top.

The son. Captain Jonathan Holmes, in many physical and
mental and moral characteristics, strongly resembled his father.

He was full six feet tall, straight as an Indian, even down to
old age. His experience as a soldier contributed to the gift of
nature in this respect. His movements were energetic and more
aggressive in their nature than the father's, which were mild and
smooth and gentle in character, though no less decisive. He
was slender, well built and carried a uniform weight, through
mature life, of about one hundred and fifty five pounds. The
complexion inclined to be dark, and he had a dark gray eye, the
modification, in each case, coming from his mother's side. His
hair was not all white when he died at eighty years of age. He
was a stirring business man, whether looking after his private
affairs and interests, or in charge of the business of the public,
in any capacity. He was prompt, even punctilious in the keeping
of appointments, or engagements, or the doing of things, under
anv circumstances.

■J

He was forty three years old when his father wrote the Mem-
oirs and almost fifty years old when his father died. I doubt
his having a gray hair in his head when he was fifty. He
dressed well, in good taste. Though not a University student,
as his father had been, he was well educated and that education

Holmes Family 101

had been obtained in such schools as Salem, Rehoboth and New-
port furnished, in those days, public and private ; and it is to
be remembered that he was reared in the home of educated
parents, into which came, in regular course, eight brothers and
sisters after him and among and of whom he was, under those
parents, a leader, guide and monitor. The rearing under such
tutelage and in such a family was in and of itself an education,
and it is clear that he was a student of men and books and prin-
ciples, a thinker, until he had passed his seventy-fourth year, at
least. It was then that his good wife died and he seems to
have retired from public employment and the active duties of
life. He died in October, 1713, leaving large property to his
children.

There are no known paintings or sketches of the persons of
these two men from which we may learn the finer points of
personal appearance, or infer the more definite characteristics ;
but in these dozen years of work and study over the few and
scattered memorials of them, jointly and severally, the person-
ality of each, as of many of their descendents, has grown up in
my mind and is, in a measure, as fixed as though I had met the
one on the streets of Newport and the other on the streets of
Middletown.

These are not studied or revised sketches, but written right
on as the impulse came when the preceding matter was finished.

Some day, I may revise and polish them so as to express, with
ultimate precision, my mental pictures of the men.

Each was a power and each w^as honored in his day and gen-
eration.

Ill

SHERIFF OBADIAH HOLMES

Obadiah Holmes, the first child of Jonathan and Sarah Borden
Holmes, was born at Gravesend, Long Island, Colony of New
York, on the 17th day of July, 1666.

That his father built a residence at Middletown, East Jersey,
and moved into it in 1667, seems very clear from the movements
and acts recorded in the first town book of that village, which
covers the period from 1667 to 1695.

A sort of nucleus or retaining point of settlers appear* to have
been started there in the year 1666, but the organized condition
of Middletown dates from 1667. The original has been pre-
served.

When Captain Jonathan Holmes removed his family from East
Jersey to Rhode Island in the early part of 1684, it would seem
that his eldest son, then nearly eighteen years old, remained at
Middletown in the active care of his father's East Jersey property
and interests, but he was still under age and so disqualified to
exercise full power as his father's agent or attorney in fact in
the transaction of, at least, some branches of the business. This
condition is both disclosed and solved by a power of attorney from
Jonathan Holmes to Richard Hartshorne, "my well beloved
friend," bearing date, October 27, 1684, and of record in Deed
Book B. at page Z7 , of the Monmouth County^ records, in which
he constitutes and appoints the latter his attorney in fact and
empowers him to collect rents and debts due the principal. Jona-
than Holmes, in the instrument, described himself as '*of
Newport in Rhode Island and Providence Plantation, in New
England, and also Middletown in the Province of East Jersey."

A copy of that instrument is as follows :

"Jonathan Holmes Sett. Atto. to Rich. Hartshorne
"Know all men by these presents that I Jonathan Hohnes of Newport
on Rhoad Island in the collony of Rhoad Island and Providence Planta-

103

104 American History

tions in New England and also of Aliddletown in the Province of East
Jersey or New Caesarici in America Have Assigned, Ordained and made
and in my Stead & place by these presents putt & constitute my trusty and
well beloved friend Richard Hartshorne of Aliddletown afores'd to be my
true & Lawfull Attorney for me and in my name and to my use to aske
sue for Demand Recover and Receive and Receipt for all

& every such debt, Rents & Arrearages of Rents, Sum & Sums of money
as now are due unto me from any person or persons of East Jarsey or
New C?esarici, Giveing and granting unto my said Attorney by these
present my full and whole power Strength & Authority in and about the
premises, And upon the receipt of any such debts Rents and Arrearages
of Rents Sum or Sums of money as aforcs Acquittances or other dis-
charges for me and in my name to make Seale & deliver and all & every
other Act and Acts, thing and things. Device & devices in the Law what-
soever Needful & Necessary to be done in or about the premises for the
recovry of all or any such Debts, Rents or Arrearages of Rents Sum or
Sums of money as aforcs for me and in my name to doe Execute & per-
forme as fully Largely and Amply in Every respect to all intents con-
structions and purposes as I myself might or could doe if I were per-
sonally present and did Act and performe the same and one or more
attorneys under him to make & substitute and the same at pleasure to
revoake all which and whatsoever as my said Attorney or his substitutes
shall Lawfully Doe or cause to be done in or about the Execution of the
premises by Virtue of these presents, I doe shall and will
allow and confirm by these presents : Allso Eurther hereby giveing &
granting unto my said Attorney full power & Authority for me and in
my name to appear himselfe or by his attorney to plead to for and in
defence of my right title and interest in or unto all and singulor my lands
and tenements or any part thereof Lying and being within the Province
Of East Jarsey or New Caesarici in all and singulor the Courts of Justice
haveing Jurisdiction of or plea concerning same singly by himself or
jointly with others the Proprict as the nature of the case shall require

In Witness whereof I have hereunto sett my hand and seale this twenty
seventh day of Octob. in the year One Thousand Six hundred Eighty Four

Signed Sealed & Joxatiiax Hulmes (Seale)

delivered in the

present of

Aron Davis

Thomas Ware

The 18th day of Eeabruary 1685 there came before me Jonathan Holmes

and acknowledged this Sett, of Attorney to be his Act and deed

John Throckmorton

Justice
Copia Veras

Att. R. Gardiner."

Holmes Family 105

From the First Town Book, page 85^, this record is copied :

"September the 11: 1689.

"It was Mutually agreed betweene Obadiah Holmes the
younger and John Lemon that the marke formerly recorded for
Jonathan Holmes the Elder Should Stand his Sons Obadiahs
soe that John Lemons marke is now as followeth

"A crope one the right Fare" &c.

The next entry provides that the brand "O. H." shall "marke"
the horses of Obadiah — it is dated, "January ye 28: 1695-6?"

At the term of the Court of Sessions for Monmouth County,
held at Middletown, commencing September 26, 1693, Obadiah
Holmes was a member of the grand jury. He was then twenty
six years old. On the same grand jury was his cousin Obadiah
Bowne, just one day his junior.

In 1696 he married Alice Ashton, born in 1671. The Ashtons
were perhaps the first or among the very first settlers in the
Monmouth country. j^

Obadiah Holmes was the Sheriff of Monmouth County in 1698
when their second child, named Joseph Holmes, was born at
Middletown, and he was in that ofiice, as shown by the court
records, during a portion of the embroilment of the community
in the controversy with Governor Hamilton and his leading
supporter, Col. Lewis Morris. These two and two other jus-
tices were attempting to hold court at Middletown where, on
the 26th of March, 1701, about one hundred good citizens, -of
whom Obadiah Holmes was one, entered the Court House,
released the man on trial for alleged piracy, tore up the papers
and record in his case and arrested the Governor and his justices
and held them prisoners four days.

In the episode, two of the Bordens, Richard and Benjamin,
of the party of citizens, w^ere wounded.

It was the claim and contention of the people that Hamilton
was disqualified under the law to hold and administer the ofiice
of Governor of the colony by reason of his nationality — he was
a Scotchman — and that his commission as Governor was defect-
ive in at least two vital respects, (1), it did not have the requisite

106 American History

number of signatures of Proprietors, having ten only when
sixteen were required, and, (2), it did not bear the provincial
seal.

The disorder was one of the echoes — and there were still
echoes an hundred years later — of the struggle which began
when the Proprietors, nearly forty years before, sought to ignore
all rights of the people of Monmouth under the patent of April
8, 1665, even those of the bona fide occupying claimants for the
cabins, which they had innocently and honestly built and the
laborious improvements, which they had made, not to mention
the abandonment of one home and the making of a new one in
the face of savages, wild beasts, the dangers of a wilderness,
under the covenants and guaranties of the patent, without notice
of any claim of defect of title.

"The breaking up of the Court" — says Judge Beekman in his Early
Dutch Settlers, page 63 — "at Aliddletown held by a usurping governor and
his bogus justices was the right thing to do, at the right time." Those
engaged in it, he further says, "deserve the praise and gratitude of pos-
terity for their stern and persistent resistance. It destroyed the govern-
ment of these wrangling and contending factions and relieved the people
from much injustice and wrong. Is it any wonder that the pioneer settlers
of Middletown issued the 'first Declaration of Independence' and recorded
it in their township book against the unfair and monstrous government by
the Proprietors?"

Obadiah Holmes was one of the signers of the petition to the
King, July 17, 1701, asking that East Jersey be taken under the
government of the crown and that the King appoint a governor
of the province.

The controversy between Proprietors and their schemes and
instruments of government, on the one hand, and the people and
their active representatives, on the other, went on with vigor and
energy before the King and Council and in the Jerseys, both
East and West Jersey being involved.

It resulted in the surrender of government by the Proprietors
of both provinces to her Majesty, Queen Anne, on the 17th of

Holmes Family 1*07

April, 1702. Under date of "Whitehall 4th Augt 1702," the
Earl of Nottingham, then "his Majesties Principall Secretary
of State," nominated to the Lords of Commerce and Trade as
proper persons to be members of the Council of New Jersey,
among others, Capt. Andrew Bowne, Capt. John Bowne, John
Holmes and Obadiah Holmes.

In 1712, May 31, there were four sheets cut out of the Church
book of the Middletown Baptist Church by order of the church,
because, perhaps, of differences, which had arisen in the congre-
gation and been, at least, partially recorded therein, and which
by agreement of the parties thereto had been settled by a refer-
ence to "friends from Philadelphia" on the 24th of that month.

The entries in the book are very meagre and imperfect down
to 1731-2.

In 1713, under the will of his father, Obadiah Holmes was
given title to half of his father's Jersey property ; his brother
Jonathan receiving the other half. It was located in Monmouth
County, in the vicinity of Middletown, and in Middlesex County
near Perth Amboy, and thenceforward Obadiah Holmes seems
to have devoted himself to his growing family and his private
interests and duties, abjuring the search for office or public
employment. He had witnessed stormy periods in government
from his childhood and in his prime had been an active participant
in resistance of tyrants until he saw them surrender their power
and with that power the opportunity to abuse it to the detriment
of the rights of the people. He had earned a rest and his
remaining time was less disturbed. The surrender by the Pro-
prietors of the right to govern left control in the crown and so
ended the clashes, contentions and lawlessness, which accom-
panied and followed the divided responsibility in the proprietary
government.

As evidence of the more peaceful flow of his later life nota-
tion may be made that on the 28th of February, 1720, he appeared

108 American History

as a member of the grand jury at a session of the General Quar-
ter Sessions held at Freehold, Monmouth County. Freehold is
sixteen miles southwest of ]\liddleto\vn.

On the 18th of March, 1723, a public highway was laid out
between the lands of the brothers, Obadiah and Jonathan, in
Middletown township, the lands which had come to them under
their father's will.

"March ye 1st 1731-2," a list of the members of the Middle-
town Baptist Church was made in which is found the name of
Obadiah Holmes. This was still nearly forty years before
Methodism appeared in the new world. That was in 1768, in
the "old John Street" mission, New^ York City.

The name and date were not evidence of his uniting with the
church then, but of a listing at that date of the active members.
He was then in his sixty-sixth year and had long been a member
of the church.

His will was made December 4, 1744. His wife Alice had
died in 1716. Their eight children, Jonathan, 1697, Joseph,
1698, Deliverance, 1700, James, 1702, Samuel, April 17, 1704,.
Mary, 1706, John, 1708 and Obadiah 1710, ranged in ages, at
her death, from nineteen years down to six.

Here is a plain factor in the quiet life led by the father during
a portion of the time after the extinction of the proprietary
government. In the loss of the wife, with such a family, his
responsibilities were, shall we say ? more than doubled. She
was forty five years of age, in the prime of life and wisdom foi
the guidance of such a flock when she died.

Obadiah Holmes died April 3, 1745, and his wmII was probated
on the 16th day of the same month. It is now of record in the
office of the Secretary of State at Trenton, New Jersey, Book D,
page 265. His children are each named in it. The estate was
large.

Holmes Family 109

Captain Jonathan's son Jonathan, who settled with his oldei
brother Obadiah, at Middletown, East Jersey, was known as
Jonathan Holmes, Senior ; this son of Sheriff Obadiah was
known as Jonathan, Junior, and a cousin of the latter — a son
of Jonathan, Senior — was known- as Jonathan, Minor, to avoid
confusion.

In passing, it may be noted that Samuel, the fifth child of
Obadiah and Alice Ashton Holmes, married Huldah, a daughtei
of Gershom and Sarah Clayton Mott. One of their children, born
February 16, 1740, was afterw^ard known as Colonel Asher
Holmes, who commanded a New Jersey regiment in the battles
of Germantown, Princeton and Monmouth and who was promi-
nent in the Revolutionary movements affecting that state, and,
perhaps, above all the counties in the confederacy, affecting the
people of Monmouth County. For years during that period it
was a veritable hell in which to live for men, women and children.
What with regular army movements and battles upon its soil, it
had, in addition, Royalists, Pine Robbers, murderous Hessians,
civil and internecine war. No honor accorded to the memories of
the patriotic men and women of Monmouth County, who suffered
or suffered and died in the cause can exceed their deserts or the
justice due them or their memories.

Barber and Howe, in their History of New Jersey, say that,
"In the war of the revolution it suffered severely. Its
easy access from New York, and the safe anchorage for vessels
within Sandv Hook, rendered it a favorite resort of the royalists
for forage and plunder. Some of its inhabitants were awed into
submission to the crown, and took up arms against their former
neisrhbors. between whom occurred manv sanguinary conflicts.
Within its borders occurred one of the severest battles of the
war."

At last, the inhabitants of the county were driven in self
defense into an association which pledged retaliation against

110 American History

royalists. The document signed by 436 Monmouth men is his-
torically famou^. After the preamble, reciting conditions and
justihcation. it puts three points with great clearness.

1, P^or every associate patriot captured and imprisoned or
paroled while not in arms one of the leading and most influential
loyalists shall be imprisoned and treated with "British rigor''
until the patriot is liberated.

2, For every house of a good subject that shall be destroyed
there shall be full retaliation out of the property of the disaf-
fected.

3, For every article of personal property so taken from good
subjects reprisals shall be made from the loyalists.

Col. Asher Holmes headed the list of signers.

He was one of a committee of two that waited on Gen.
Washington with an address of the ^Monmouth people touching
the murder of Captain Joshua Huddy, their hero martyr of the
Revolution. Lots were drawn and Capt. Asgill of the British
service, then a prisoner, an innocent man, was chosen for execu-
tion in retaliation for the murder of Huddy and the refusal of the
British authorities to surrender his murderer, one Lippencott,
though the latter was less responsible than some of the cowards
behind him. The near approach of the end of the war and the
eloquent letters of his talented mother saved young Asgill's life.

Judge Beekman in his letter to the author of date June 1,.
1903, says,

*'I send you as a present a letter written bv Col. Asher Holmes
of Revolutionary fame in New^ Jersey to Col. John Smock, whO'
was a Lieut. Col. in one of our Xew Jersey Regiments and after
the war a Justice of the Peace when it was an honor to hold this
office. It is his own writing and T hoj^e you will take good care
of it as his writing is now very scarce. He was a brave and
faithful officer, an honest man and a thorough patriot, whose name
now stands among the first of our Revolutionary officers in New
Jersey."

While his back is turned, this is a good time and place to break
the rule again and say that Judge George Crawford Beekman:

Holmes Family 113

of Red Bank, New Jersey, of distinguished derivation, life and
service, in his profession, judicially, historically and socially has
greatly honored himself and his kinsfolk of many names and in
many states. He is a descendant of Captain Jonathan Holmes,
son of Rev. Obadiah.

The wife of Col. Asher Holmes, to whom he wrote from the
field the first account of the battle of Germantown, which letter
is still preserved, Sarah Watson, was born five days after
his birth. They were married Feby. 21, 1771. He was the
first sheriff of Monmouth County under the Republic and died
June 20, 1808, at the age of 68 years, 4 mos. and 4 days. His
widow died Sept. 11, 1830, at the age of 90 years, 5 mos. and 20
days.

This Samuel Holmes died Feby. 23, 1760. By occupation he
had been a merchant. He and his wife are buried in the Holmdel
Baptist Church Yard.

At some time between the death of his father — Sheriff Oba-
diah— which occurred, as stated, April 3, 1745, and his own
death, he made an entry in one of his account books, which may
appropriately be here copied. It has probably never been printed,
unless it may be found in the excessively rare volume, Judge
Beekman's "Old Times in Monmouth."

The writer probably had no thought of its preservation through
more than one hundred and fifty years, and its perpetuation
through still other centuries.

He wrote,

"Memento.

'T find that my grand father, Jonathan Holmes, late of Rhode
Island, deceased. His will was proved 22nd day of Nov. 1713,
so that tis likely he departed this life, sometime that year, and
perhaps in October 1713, and not long after my said grand-
father's decease, 1 heard my father say, that if his father at
lived until such a time, which I now forget his father would be

114 American History

four score years old, so that he was nigh eighty years old when
he departed this life. He was born in Lancastshire, County, Old
England. My iather, Obadiah Holmes, departed this life on
Third of April, 1745, aged seventy eight years three months and
a few days. My father told me not long before he w'as sick
with that last sickness of which he died, that he thought his
father, was nigh thirty years old, before he married, although
he could not remember certain that his father had told him so.
My father told me that he w-as born at Gravesend, L. I., called
Nassau Island, in New York Colony."

It is written of Samuel that "he bought lands in 1729 of Gcr-
shom Cottrell near Hop Brook. His Plantation was called Scots
Chester. In 1753 the account of his estate given in to the
assessor was 1620 acres of land, 55 cattle at 2 years old and
upward, 75 horses and mares. 92 sheep, 3 wdiite servants, 2 negro
men.

The following is a memorandum in his own writing :
"In 1752 In the poor rate tax I paid about ye 23d of the Tax
of the Township of Freehold and there is about 255 house hold-
ers in Freehold."

Of his subscription money to Rev. Abel Alorgan he writes :

"Note I did subscribe to pay to said Morgan at his first settling
in Middletown the sum of twenty shillings proc every year and
I have paid yearly."

It has been seen that there were eight children of the Sheriff
all of wdiom are named as beneficiaries under his last will and
testament. The foUowdng letter shows the spirit that seemed to
pervade the family when among the sons Samuel had need of
$2000 or $2500 cash in an emergency. Obadiah very naturally

^^i'lui

/»

'.J

Holmes Family 117

came to a knowledge of the fact and appealed to the brother
Joseph in the "difficulty," as he styled it.

The aid was given and the difficulty avoided.

"March ye 5th 1754
My brother

This to Inform you that I am In great necessity of four or five hundred
pounds or more and am Indebted about so much unto brother Samuel,
which sum If Samuel cannot get by the fifth of may, he is threatened to
be arrested and certainly will, which must discredit and greatly hurt us.
If I cannot get the money; and he be arrested I might take the blame to
myself; therefore my request is that you would be so good as to consider
the difficulty of our circumstances, and try in burlington or else where, If
you cannot get the above mentioned sum, Samuel Smith of burlington son
to great Richard Smith ; did expect that sum or rent, to be paid In about
this time ; I have written to brother James to ask Mr Coward If he would
not be bound with you for the money. In case the cash is to be had, and
only myself to be bound with you would answer. I should much choose
it; but If it would otherwise answer. I am very unwell and ailing in
several respects; that I dare not undertake a journey to burlington. So if
the money is to be had and you can get Mr Coward or some other man
that will answer to be bound with you and bring the money to me I will
give you a Counter bond or Mortgage land as you shal choose so that you
both be made secure, and bear your expense and pay you for your trouble,
as brother James at present stands in that publick station and other Incum-
berances I don't choose to ask him to be bound unless there be absolute
necessity. I would have you bear in mind that one writ may bring half
a dozen more — which may in this scarce time of money and doubtless will
have a terrible effect upon us all. If Coward fails I would have you try
some other man. with my respects to your self and family from your
Indisposed brother. Obadiah Holmes.

March ye 5th, 1754

Joseph Holmes, living
In upper Freehold."

118 American History

Following is a copy of the will of Sheriff Obadiah Holmes,
recorded in Book D. at page 265 of the Secretary's Office at
Trenton, New Jersey : —

"hi the name of God Amen. I Obadiah Holmes of Ahddletown in the
County of Alonmouth in the Eastern Division of the Province of Xew
Jersey Yeoman, the twenty fourth day of December in the year of Our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and forty tive, being of a sound mind
and disposing memory, thanks be to God for the same, and calling to mind
the uncertainty of this present life, knowing that it is appointed for all men
to die Do make and ordain and declare this to be my last will and testa-
ment as following viz — First and principally I recommend my soul to
Almighty God, that gave it and my body to the earth from whence it was
taken to be buried at the direction of my Executors herein after men-
tioned and named and as touching such worldly goods and Estate as it hath
pleased God to bestow upon me (which T have not already given) I give
and Devise and Dispose of the same in manner and form following, — that
is to say — First of all I give unto my daughter Deliverance Smith the sum
of Ten pounds money at eight shillings the ounce to be raised and levyed
out of my Estate. In like manner I give unto my son Jonathan Holmes
the sum of Five pounds of like money. In like manner I give unto my
son Obadiah Flolmes the sum of ten shillings. In like manner I give unto
my son James Holmes ten shillings. In like manner I give unto my
daughter Mary Mott the sum of ten pounds in like money as above men-
tioned. And whereas I have given unto my son Joseph a deed of gift
bearing date the tenth of February 1721 for that land which I purchased
of David Stout and have also conveyed by a deed of Sale unto my said son
Joseph — part of that tract of land which I purchased of my father Jonathan
Helmes dec'd. S^^ land lying and being in Crosswicks as by Deed of Sale
for the same may appear bearing date the 23^ day of September 1704 and
also for part of a tract of land which lays between the two said tracts of
Land to witt, that which I purchased of my father Jonathan Holmes and
that from David Stout. And now I do hereby give and bequeath (the
remainder of those two tracts of Land and all the land which I have at
Crosswicks in Upper Freehold Township) unto my said son Joseph Holmes
his heirs and assigns forever. Beginning at a stake in the south side of
Burlington Path, John Smiths west corner, thence running along Burling-
ton Path to the north eastward corner of my said son Josephs land, which
I purchased of the aforesaid David Stout thence southwardly along said
line to a corner of the other tract of land belonging to my S. son Joseph
•which I conveyed to him as above said, thence eastwardly along the line
of the last mentioned Tract of land of late belonging to John Smith, thence
northwardly along Smiths line to the beginning. Together with all and
all manners of woods trees, orchards paster, improvements, benefits and

Holmes Family 119

advantages, whatsoever unto him my said son Joseph Holmes his heirs
and assigns forever. To have and to hold the said land with all and
singular, these rights members and appurtenances unto the said land be-
longing or in any manner of ways appertaining. I give and bequeath unto
my son John Holmes his heirs and assigns forever the Plantation whereon
I now Do Dwell. Beginning at the northwestward corner of my said
Land or Plantation Ramonoson Brook commonly called Hop Brook to the
northward of a small run of water in the corner of the Land of late Major
James Hubbard Deceased thence westwardly along the line of land which
was of late James Hubbards to my Bro. Jonathan Holmes Land, thence
southward along said Jona. Holmes line to my Son Samuel Holmes land,
which he purchased of Nicolas Cottrell, thence eastward along said
Samuel Holmes line to a corner of Land which I conveyed unto my sd
son John Holmes as by deed of sale for the same may appear bearing date
the 15th day of October 1735, thence northwardly along said John Holmes's
line to another corner of John Holmes's land thence eastwardly along
said John Holmes's line about ten chains be it more or less to a swamp,
thence northwardly along said swamp to a Ditch and small run of water
which runs down from the northward of my now Dwelling House — thence
eastward down the run of water and said John Holmes's line to Ramonoson
brook, thence northwardly up said Ramonoson brook to beginning. Bounded
northwardly by land of late Major James Hubbard and eastward by said
Ramonoson brook and in part eastward and in part southward by said John
Holmes's Land and in part southward by said Samuel Holmes Land and
west by said Jonathan Holmes Land, together with all manner of Housings,
Buildings, Pastor's Woods Trees water springs brooks with all the Rights
members and appurtenances to the said Land, belonging or in any manner
of ways whatsoever thereunto appertaining unto him the said John Holmes
his heirs and assigns forever and after my son John Holmes has paid all the
several sums of money as above mentioned to the several of my children
herein named and pay all my just and lawful debts if any should be; that
then I give unto my said son John Holmes all my personal Estate and I
do name and appoint my son James Holmes my son Samuel Holmes and
my son John Holmes Executors of this my last Will and Testament to see
the same executed, in testimony whereof I hereunto set my hand and seal
the day and year first above written.

Signed sealed & published as my ]
last will and Testament in the
Presence of

Jonathan Holmes — !» Obadiah Holmes

John Bowne Junior

Elias Coven hoven

George Reid Junior''

HON. JOSEPH HOLMES

Joseph Holmes, the second child of Obadiah and AHce Ashton
Hohnes, was born at Middletown, Monmouth County, Colony of
East Jersey, in 1698. ^Middletown was the home of his father
through all the years of his life except the first, or a part of it,
spent at Gravesend. No public mention or record of his name
is found while he was growing to manhood.

The village was thirty four years old when his career began
and it was fifty seven years old when, early in 1722, he married
Elizabeth Ashton. They settled in what was then and is still
called Upper Freehold, one of the seven townships of Monmouth
County.

Joseph Holmes was one of the founders there of what was
known at first as the Crosswicks Baptist Church, later and still
known as The Yellow IMeeting House.

In 1731, April 1, Joseph Holmes was assessed on one hundred
and fifty acres of land in Upper Freehold township for the pur-
pose of "Building A Cort house in ye County of Monmouth,"
the one built in 1715 having been destroyed by fire in December.
1727. At the same time John Ashton was assessed on seven
hundred and sixty acres and Joseph Ashton on four hundred
acres of land.

In the month of October, 1758, the tax list for the township
showed John Ashton assessed for two hundred acres, and no
assessment on Joseph Ashton or any other of the name. Joseph
Holmes was assessed on nine hundred and forty five acres and
James Holmes on seven hundred acres. John Coward, the only
man having more land in the township than Joseph Holmes, was
assessed on twelve hundred acres.

Elizabeth Ashton Holmes was the daughter of John Ashton
and while the John Ashton of 1727 was her father the John

121

122 American History

Ashton of 1758 was most likely her brother and the inheritances
and prosperous business of Joseph Holmes, in these twenty-seven
years of vigorous, driving manhood, had increased that one hun-
dred and fifty acres in 1731 to nine hundred and forty five acres
in 1758.

Tlie children of Joseph and Elizabeth Ashton Holmes were:
1, John, born January 29, 1724, died young; 2, Alice, born June
10, 1726, married John Polhemus, and died April 1, 1788, with-
out children, wife and husband buried in the Yellow Meeting
House graveyard — the husband survived the wife five years ;
3, Obadiah, born October 13, 1728; 4, James, born March 6,
1732, died young; 5, Mary, born September 17, 1733, married
Peter Imlay ; 6, Joseph, born December 31, 1736, married Phoebe
Wardell and died August 31, 1809 — she had died February 25,
1786; 7, Jonathan, born December 24, 1738, married Lydia
Throckmorton, 1767; 8, John — the youngest child — born March
29, 1744, married Deborah Leonard 1774, died August 10, 1783—
she died May 6, 1811 — both buried in the yard of the Yellow
Meeting House. The record as it appears in the old Bible will
be given later.

With reference to some of these children, the following obser-
vations may be made, at this point: Obadiah will be the subject
of the next chapter. As to Mary ^lolmes Imlay the only answer
now available is in the words of one of the ^Monmouth County
relatives recently: "I do not know where she died, or where
buried, or where they lived.''

Joseph was active, prominent and influential in the patriot
cause and councils during the Revolution. They seem to have
left no children. Jonathan died August 4, 1777: his wife died
February 14, 1783; they are buried at the Yellow Meeting House.
They left five children: 1, Elizabeth, born 1768, married Samuel
Wyckoff, died 1834: 2. Joseph, born 1772. married Mary Bruere
and died July 16, 1815. * His widow died June 28, 1833,' aged 59
years, 3 mos. and 25 days — they are buried at the Yellow Meeting
House; 3, John, born 1773, died young; 4, Sarah, born 1775,

c
o

Lower Hall and Staircase

Corner of Back Room

Holmes Family 129

married Clayton Erie, died in 1800 and, 5, Alice, born 1776, died
March 16, 1790, aged 14 years, 3 months and 2 days.

John and Deborah Leonard Holmes had hve children : 1, Eliza-
beth, born January, 1775, married Rowland Ellis, a merchant of
Philadelphia, died May 9, 1795; 2, Mary, born 1777, died 1778;
3, Joseph, born 1778, married Ann Lowrie ; 4, Alice, born 1780,
died 1802; 5, John L., married Rachel, daughter of Solomon
Coombs.

John Holmes died August 10, 1783, and his widow Deborah
died May 6, 1811. Their graves are at the Yellow Meeting
House.

It will be observed that as in the family of his great grand
parents, Obadiah and Katherine Hyde Holmes, so in the family
of Joseph and Elizabeth Ashton Holmes, there were two sons
named John.

These details are given, as will be others of like kind, for
reasons that will become obvious as the story unfolds. One of
them may as well be stated now. The repetition of the names
Obadiah, Jonathan. John and Samuel — not to mention others —
in the family, generation after generation, in the multiplying
l)ranches, through three hundred years, produced a confusion,
which baffled the most skilful historian and genealogist, unaided,
outside of the record, to trace lineages in some branches with
certainty.

These children and grand children of the couple under con-
sideration viewed in the light of the times and of their occupa-
tions and property, shed a light on the lives of the patriot and
his wife. The last child — the second John — was born in 1744.
When he was twenty-one years of age, the Stamp Act was passed
by the British Parliament and the issue of taxation without
representation was squarely made between the Mother country
and her American colonies.

Looking back along the narrow line, which even these four
lives present, commencing with the dominance, intolerance and
persecutions of the established church in England, Old and New ;
remembering the efforts to stifle and pervert the terms and guar-
anties of charters and patents to the prejudice of the rights and

130 American History

liberties of the subjects; recalling the oppressions of the repre-
sentatives of the crown, proprietary or official, the grasping after
quit rents and taxes and land titles by such representatives or
usurpers of the offices, taxation without representation, the logic
of events, shaped by Great Britain, led irresistibly to the Revolu-
tion.

Something in the very air, the atmosphere of the new world,
inspired and bred a love of freedom and justice. Government,
the ruling classes, might hang and burn and whip, the sense of
tHe people — the masses — was in favor of righteousness and
against the wrongs and in the end the people had their way.

The Ellis history of Monmouth County credits the formal or-
ganization of the Baptist Church in Upper Freehold to Joseph
Holmes — first named in the list — and forty-six others, who had
asked and received letters of dismission for that purpose from
the Aliddletown Baptist Church, and fixes the date of such or-
ganization "on the 10th day of May, A. D. 1766." It was known
for seven years as the Crosswicks Baptist Church — now the
Yellow Meeting House.

There was a Jonathan Holmes among these founders, but no
Obadiah.

The church privileges of the Upper Freehold Baptists down
to 1766 seem to have been of a desultory character, locally, with
their membership in a church eighteen or twenty miles away at
]\Iiddletown.

The name of Joseph Holmes appears for the first time in its
very imperfect church book as a member of the Middletown
Church under the date 1733. Samuel Holmes and Elizabeth
Holmes appear under the date 1734 and Deliverance Holmes
under date 1735.

Gershom Mott, a member, died Alarch 3, 1733-4. He and his
wife Sarah Clayton Mott were grand parents of Col. Asher
Holmes.

Corner Cupboard Back Room, Downstairs

Corner of Back Room, Upstairs

Old Beams in South Room

Old Glass of Capt. Jonathan and Lydia

Holmes Family 135

"May 5, 1735, Joseph Ashton & Joseph Holmes have agreed that ye
church shall appoint men to decide their difference & settle the bounds of
their land. Church appoints Samuel Ogborne, Jarot Wall & Rich<i
Mount."

James Mott, who was born April 5, 1707, kept a journal ''Re-
lating To Church Di siplin" in the Baptist Church at Middletown
from September, 1748, to October, 1777.

The opening paragraph, expressed in the quaint form and
language of that day, shows, among other things, a striking case
of hearsay.

"In September 1748 At A Church Meeting In Middletown William
taylor Told Me that his Daugftur told him That Arthur Rowlin told her
that he Would Come down to Middletown at Said Meeting and Would
Prevent the admitting of John Williams Wife to Church Preuelig But
told hur not to Tel hur fathur"

The matter was earnestly heard and considered at the Decem-
ber meeting and this was the entry :

"January 7^1748 at a Church meeting at Middletown Complants
Being Brought Aganst Arther Rowlin for drinking to Excess Wilful Lying
and Soing Discord in the Church:= tho Not appearing Was Suspended"

Time went on and "Arthur" was in evidence again,

"August 3=1751 At a Church Meeting By John Brays : Arthur Rowlin
he had Bin Under Sensur For Sum time : Made application to the Church
For admition to his Place agane. acknowledged himself Gilty of the
Charge laid Against him With Some Sines of Repentance : But the
Church Though (t) fit to haue a longer time to Euedence the Truth of his
Repentance."

To finish this one church story, suffer another extract from

the Journal.

"December 3 Day 1752 At a Publick Meeting In Middletown Arthur
Rowlin Was ExcominiCated the Crimes Prued against him Ware Drinking
to Excess and a luse and Extrauagant life"

136 American History

On the 5th dav of Se])teniber, 1768. Joseph Hohnes headed a
committee of eight church members which met at "Crossweacks"
to hear an important slander case. The accused was suspended.

In the latter part of 1750, Elizabeth Ashton Holmes died.
Reading between the lines, one of his married sons, for the most
part, thenceforward, occupied the Upper Freehold homestead,
though it remained the property of the father, and his home so
long as he lived, except for the operation of the deed presently
mentioned. When his wife went away the times that were to try
the souls of men and women in the Colonies, and not least in
New Jersey, were coming on swdftly. The events that fore-
shadowed the clash of arms were following each other in kindling
succession.

Joseph Holmes measured his years practically by those of the
century in which he lived and when the storm broke in 1775 he
was seventy-six years old. A man of large means for his colony
and his times, though the days of the sere and yellow leaf had
come to him, he heard the call to public duty and obeyed it.

On Tuesday, July 19, 1774, under what are known as the
Monmouth Resolutions, he was chosen one of the delegates to
the Provincial Congress to be held at the City of New Bruns-
wick, on Thursday, July 21, two days later. The Congress sat
three days.

He was a delegate in the session of the Provincial Congress,
held at Trenton in the months of October and November, 1775,
and also in that held at New Brunswick, from January 31, to
March 2, 1776, as well as in the sessions held at Burlington, June
10, 1776, adjourned to Trenton and then to New Brunswick from
August 21, next following.

The work also embraced his service as a member of the Com-
mittee of Safety, a most important and responsible position and
charge in those times.

Holmes Family 137

A letter is at hand from Col. Forman to him, officially, which is
in these words :

9 "November 21st 1776.

Dear Sir; — There is a task laid upon me that I don't like.

Col. Taylor refuses taking the oath required : in consequence thereof the
officers refuse acting under him. They request me to take the command
next month, which begins tomorrow. 'Tis quite likely Col. Taylor has
orders from the General, and also money for to supply the regiment with
provisions. Before I can go I must have orders and money to supply a
commissary. You see the immediate necessity for orders being sent, or our
guards on the shore may be suffering for provisions, and in the greatest
confusion.

I am,

S. Forman.
To Joseph Holmes Esq.,
At Burlington."

By the way, his son Joseph, as "Joseph Holmes Jr," was a
member of the New Jersey General Assembly under the consti-
tution adopted July 3, 1776.

The father's home was plundered — one account says burned,
but that is inaccurate — by Pine Robbers during the Revolution
That portion of the country was peculiarly exposed to their depra-
dations by reason of its proximity to what were known as the
Pine Barrens where the Robbers harbored and whence they
derived their title.

The final record of public service shows him chosen as one of
two commissioners of New Jersey to attend, and his attendance
upon, a convention at York Town in Pennsylvania, where the
States of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and
Virginia were also represented "for the purpose of considering
and forming a system adapted to these states to regulate the price
of labor, of manufacturies and of internal produce within these
states and of goods imported from foreign parts, except military
stores, to be laid before the respective legislatures of each state
for their approbation."

138 American History

The session lasted from March 26, 1777, until the record closed
with these words :

"and that this meeting be dissolved.
A true copy

Lewis Bur well, Chairman.
Signed Thursday Eveng

By candle-light, April 3. 1777."

Two days later, he was at his home, for on the 5th day of
April, 1777, he made his will in which he characterized himself as
"of sound and disposing mind and memory." His wife is not
mentioned in it. The first son John- — the first born— is not
referred to. The daughter Mary is not mentioned, though his
granddaughter Elizabeth Imlay is given land at Middletown
Point. The son Obadiah is not referred to for reasons suggested
in the next chapter. After special bequests and devises and pro-
viding for payment of debts, the residue of the estate is distrib-
uted among Joseph, Jonathan and John — the youngest.

The end was approaching. Two days later, April 7, he made
a deed to Jonathan for his homestead, which was also devised
to him in the will. This deed was not recorded until long after-
ward— February 11, 1784.

'On the 25th day of July, 1777, at 8 o'clock a. m., he passed
away in his seventy-ninth year. His funeral occurred on the
day that Jane McCrea was murdered by Indians at Fort Edward,
New York, July 27, 1777, styled in the history of the Revolution
*'the year of the three bloody sevens."

The wills of Joseph and his son. Captain Jonathan, were
admitted to probate on the same day, to wit: the 11th of August,
1777, and they are of record in the oftice of the Secretary of
State at Trenton, both in Liber 19, the son's beginning on page 3
and the father's, next, beginning on page 7.

For a considerable time after these researches into family
history were begun there appeared no slaveholder in the old
connections, but "the brickwork" was not then all disclosed. In
this single family of Joseph Holmes the wills show that the
father and, at least, two of the sons were slaveholders ; even the

Holmes Family 139

names of the slaves, in part, are preserved ; those of the father
are provided for by bequests and devises of property to them.

Two of the sons, Jonathan and John, were officers of the New
Jersey troops during the Revolution. Captain Jonathan Holmes
died as the direct result of the hardships and exposures of the
service during the campaigns in New Jersey in the first half of
the year 1777. The date of his death, already stated, was August
4, 1777. His brother Lieut. John Holmes died August 10, 1783,
in his fortieth year, barely living to see the successful end of the
Revolution.

Living in times of peace and plenty, an hundred and thirty
years after these officers closed their careers, it may not be an
easy task for those who have never seen actual war, with its
dangers, anxieties, and merciless exhaustion, wounds and death,
or confronted its starvation and rags, with or without the loath-
some prison, to appreciate what they went through, or what
discounted their lives.

The foot-loose, care-free young soldier — dare-devil, may be — ■
whose house is shingled when his hat is on, in camp or field or
battle, is one proposition — there are no cares or responsibilities
behind him. On the other hand, the soldier with doubled years
and wife and little ones and home behind, carries a wearing
spirit-burden each day, even though the ''dear ones" may be safe.
Now add to that as merely illustrating hundreds of cases not in
New Jersey alone, the perils, some of them worse than death,
from dissolute British or Hessian soldiers, malignant tories,
heartless Pine Robbers, murderers, within easy reach of their
homes and little families, as they were in Upper Freehold, while
these two brothers marched and starved and fought and endured,
no wonder that each died before his prime.

The traditions of their parentage, services in the army, suffer-
ings and deaths have been identical in the family east and west
of the mountains and from their nature could scarcely have a

140 American History

parallel, which could confuse identity in the line of descent, if
that line were not otherwise confirmed by many facts as well as
traditions. Those traditions were no clearer one hundred years
after the Revolution east of the mountains, in New Jersey, than
they were west of the mountains, in Pennsylvania, Mrginia and
in the Ohio country, among the descendants of the Holmes blood.

The homestead of Joseph Holmes and his wife Elizabeth Ashton
Holmes erected in 1720-1722 is still standing and has been con-
tinuously owned and occupied by their direct descendants, as the
law phrase is, "from thence hitherto." We know that the homes
of their children, Joseph, Jr. and Jonathan and John, were on
the 945 acres and, in military parlance, "within supporting dis-
tance" of each other.

Captain Jonathan made this memorandum in his brief diary,

which was found after his death and has been preserved :

■'Monday 9 Dec. 1776. Left home and all. which I understand ^ * " —
a Pine Robber — "soon took possession of and plundered, 1 gun wagon
horses and negro man — leaving my wife destitute of help on the place."

The Pine Robber was a neighbor whose name was well known.
But for his innocent and irresponsible descendants, that name
and his history w^ould be published even now.

The father had been gone almost three years and so had Cap-
tain Jonathan ; Lieut. John's family was then occupying the
homestead. Very clearly he was away from home in the public
service and some time in the spring a descent was planned, the
tradition of which was thus recorded and is kept under the old
roof tree.

"In 1780 About the last of April the Refugees attacked the house of John
Holmes in Upper Freehold and robbed him of a large amount of Conti-
nental money a silver watch, gold ring, silver buckle, clothing &c."

Holmes Family 141

After many years, lost and almost forgotten, the old Bible

was found and restored to the old homestead. Its record is
worthy of preservation by the "art preservative."

'The Ages of Joseph & Elizabeth

Hohiiess Children : Written by me

William Baker : Master In Stead

of a Better April ye 8th 1732.

John Holmes was Born; January

ye 29^/' ; 172S

Allis Holmes was Born ; Jmie

ye 30^/J Anno Domini 1726

Obadiah Holmes was Born

October ye 13^/' ; 1728

James Holmes, was Born ; March

ye 6^/^ Anno Domino 1731

Mary Holmes was Born September

ye 17, 1733

Joseph Holmes was Born ye 31 of

December 1736

Jonathan Holmes was Born ye

2 of December 1738

Died 4 Aug 1777 about 1/2 past twelve

in the morning
John Holmes was Born ; March ye

29th Anno Domini; 1744
Deceased the 13 of August 10 o'clock
at night 1783"

"From the old Bible in possession of Mary H. Rue in the old
home where the children were born."

a
<u

•-»

c
o

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0

C
53
u

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J=
o

(/I

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Holmes Family 147

"The Ages of John Holmes & Debo-
rah Holmes's Children

Elizabeth Holmes was Born Janu-
ary the 2. about 5 Oclock in the af-
ternoon 1775

Mary Holmes was Born October
29 about 8 OClock in the afternoon
1776. Died 30. July 1777 about
5 OClock in the morning
Joseph Holmes was Born August
21 about 1 oclock in the morning
1778
Alliss Holmes was Born June 18^^

about 4 OClock in the afternoon 1780.
John Holmes was Born on Wed-
nesday 10 July about 8 OClock
at night 1782

Mary Ann Ellis was born August 20th
1793 on Friday morning.
Died February 19th 1795 on Thurs
day evening"

"From same old Bible."

In the handwriting of one of the sons — John — interlined in the

caption of the first page of the record, is this entry :

"My Father Died 25, July 1777
about 8 oclock in ye morning"

Following the name of Allis Holmes is this interlineation,
"Died April 1st 1788"

Joseph and Elizabeth Ashton Hohnes are buried in what is
known as the Ashton Burying Ground in Upper Freehold Town-
ship, Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Following is a copy of the will of Hon. Joseph Holmes,
L 1108—57:

"I Joseph Holmes of Upper Freehold of the county of Monmouth and
State of New Jersey, being of sound and disposing mind and memory do
make and ordain this my last will and testament in manner and form fol-
lowing.

148 American History

"Imprimis. I will that all my debts and funeral charges be paid and
Discharged by my Executors hereinafter named, out of my outstanding
debts.

"Item — I give and bequeath unto my son Jonathan Holmes all that tract
or plantation whereon he now lives, and to his heirs and assigns forever.
Beginning at a stone standing on a bank of a ditch on the south of the
meadow that lies southward of the house wherein I the said Joseph
Holmes now lives also being the northeastwardly corner of a Tract of
land in the possession of Joseph Holmes Jr and from thence running
along said ditch north seventy degrees and ten min. East one chain and
twenty four links, thence seventy seven Degrees and thirty minutes. East
one chain and tifty seven links &c — to land patented by John Smith
deceased and now in possession of Moses Ivens

"Item. I give and bequeath unto my son John Holmes all the remainder
of my lands in Upper Freehold except a small lott in the Barrons whereon
is a stone hill, with all the buildings and appertenances thereto belonging
unto him his heirs and assigns forever. Also all my household goods
stock and farming utensils.

'Ttem — I give and bequeath unto my granddaughter Elizabeth Imlay
and to her heirs and assigns forever, a lott of land at Middletown Point
on the east side of the main street before John Burrows Door also a sum
of two hundred and thirty pounds to be paid out of my outstanding debts.

"Item. I give and bequeath unto my daughter Alice the wife of John
Polhemus, the sum of three hundred pounds to be paid out of my out-
standing debts.

"Item. I give and bequeath unto the Baptist Church or Congregation
in Upper Freehold whereof Thomas Farr and Thomas Cox are Deacons
the sum of seventy pounds to be paid by my Executors out of my out-
standing debts to said persons as the said congregation shall appoint, but
they are not to make use of the principal on any pretence wdiatever.

"Item. I give and bequeath unto my old negro man Jack the sum of
six pounds a year as long as he lives, to be paid out of my outstanding
debts and order and direct that my Executors pay him the sum annually
and the use of the upland south of Labway Creek which I give to my
son John where Benjamin Beers now lives, during his life, if he chooses
to live on said land.

"Item. I give and bequeath the above excepted lot of land or stone hill
to be equally divided amongst my three sons Joseph Holmes Jonathan
Holmes and John Holmes and to each of their heirs and assigns forever.

"Also my negro man George and all the money I have in hand and all
outstanding debts to be equally divided amongst my three above named
sons.

"If anything there shall be after paying my debts funeral expenses and
legacies above bequeathed, and I do hereby constitute and appoint my

Holmes Family 149

three sons Joseph Hohnes, Jonathan Hohiies and John Hohnes Executors
of this my last will and testament.

"In witness whereof I hereunto set my hand and seal the fifth day of
April. In the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy
seven.

Joseph Holmes.
In the presence of Jacob Hendrickson

James Mott Jr
Sworn at Burlington IVh August 1777

Probate was granted by Gov. Livingstone unto Joseph Holmes and
John Holmes as Executors."

The accounting for the administration of the estate at Burling-
ton was delayed through the troublous times of the Revolution
and as the following copy of the exhibit and record shows. It
will be remembered that the son Jonathan died ten days after his
father ; that the son John, who evidently had the active manage-
ment of the estate, died August 10, 1783, and the final accounting
devolved on Deborah Leonard Holmes, the widow and adminis-
tratrix of John Holmes, the son and executor of the testator,
Joseph Holmes.

"The account of John Holmes one of the Executors of the Estate of
his father Joseph Holmes Late of the Township of Upper Freehold, In
the County of Monmouth & State of New Jersey as well of & for so much
of the Goods & Chattels of the Personal Estate of the Said Deceased as
have Come to his hands To be administered as of & for his payment and
Disbursements out of the Same, and also the account of Deborah Holmes
administratrix To the Estate of the above Said John Holmes Deceased So
far as concerns the administration of the above Said John Holmes In and
about the Business aforesaid.

Dr These accountants Charge Themselves

341

7
12

1777
August To Cash in hand as pr appraisement

August 14. 1777 To Cash Received

ye 15th To Cash 12/
Sep ye 2d To Cash from Daniel Holmes adminis^r

to William Holmes 140 19 8

ye 12th To Cash from Joseph Vandike

£12:13:9 pr Table Depretiation 12 4 10

ye 16th To Cash from Joseph Stillwell

£38:12:6 pr Do— 36 17 6%

150 American History

Octbi' ye 10 To Cash from Samuel Forman

£12:8:6 pr Do— 11

21st To Cash from Edward Taylor

£13:0:2 pr Do 11

ye 27th To Cash from James Mott £75:19:9

pr Do — 63

Novembr ye 3d To Cash from Jacob Still £1:0:0 pr

Do—
17th To Cash from William Compton

£312:2:6 pr Do— 245

March ye l

1778 To Cash from John Hornor wheelkite

£1:19:9 pr Do 1

April ye 17th To Cash from Hugh Hiitchin £1:1:7

pr Do —
May ye 15th To Cash from Daniel Holmes

£169:1:7>^ pr Do 68

July ye 14th To Cash from John Ashton £2:2:0>4

pr Do
Janry 1779 To Cash from Joseph Stilhvell

£36 :16 :5 pr Do 4

19th To Cash from Hugh Hutchin

£19:1:2 pr Do 2

August ye 1st To Cash from John Ashton 16/6 pr

Do
To Cash 18 dollars In Bills on

France 4

June To Cash not appraised £15: 15

To 1 Rideing Chair Taken at the ap-
praisement 16 :
To 1 Negro Man Named George

Taken at the appraisement 100.

To one half of wearing apperal, the

Whole appraised at £l8 9

43/4

9/2

13/4

101^

£1140 :18 : 9^

Pj" Contra they Pray Allowance. Cr —

July ye 25^^' N— 1

1777 for Cash for a Coffin 5 0 0

for Liquor & Service at the Burial 2 5

Holmes Family 151

August y« 1 for Expense at the appraisement 8 9

for one Days going with waggon &

Horses To prove the will 15

2
14th for Cash to Allice Polhemus for her

Legacy as pr Receipt 300 :

Septemb^' 13 for Cash to Thomas Cox as pr Receipt 70 :
ye 19th for Cash put In the Continental Treas-
ury £87 :15 pr Table 82 7 3
January y©

22^1778 for Cash paid Joseph Holmes

£268:1:6 pr Table 172 5 8^

ye 24th for Cash put In the Treasury for

Betse Enilay £112:10 112 10

Decembr 17—

1779 for Cash 360 Dollars put In Loan for

Betse Emlay being the amount
of 18 Dollars, In Bills On
France at 1 for 20 4 16 6

April ye 19

1784 for Cash from Deborah Holmes to

Joseph Holmes 103 1 19

March 3ist

1787 for Cash from Deborah Holmes to

Joseph Holmes 156 6 4

£1009 16 3%

The above Credit of £82-7-3 being money put into the public treasury
appears to me to belong to the State and ought not to be deducted on
account of disbursements £82-7-3 And that the sum of £4-16-6 being
the Amt of bills on France is interest which was due on E. Emleys Certifi-
cates and ought not to be credited or deducted on acc^ of disburse-
ments . 4:16-6 £87 : 3: 9

(on outside)

"Amt. Stated by Joseph

Throckmorton

of John Holmes ExC

and Deborah Holmes Admr-i'

found by Doctor Henderson

to be Erroneously Stated.''

The following memorandum was found a few month.s ago by
Joseph Holmes of Cream Ridge, New Jersey, in the Secretary's

152 American History

Office at Trenton. Its proper location in time is January 15,

1777:

"Gov. Livingston

John Cooper

Andrew Sinickson

Joseph Hohries

Robert Morris

Peter Tallman

Abraham Van Nest

Silas Condit and
William Churchill Houston
during recess of the Legislature on 15^/' of January requested the Treasurer
to pay into the hands of Enos Kelsy, commissioner for the purchase of
clothing, the sum of 7000 £ engaging to replace the same in the treasury,
provided the Legislature at next sitting should not direct it to be credited in
the accounts of the Treasurer."

This matter connects itself with the accounting of the personal
representatives of the Patriot, above shown, as the liability seems
plainly to have turned up against his estate, at least, to some
extent.

From Secretary's Office, Trenton :

"Be it remembered that on the Eighth day of November One thousand
Seven hundred and fifty — letters of Administration were granted by His
Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq. Governor of the Province of New
Jersey, unto Joseph Holmes of all and Singular All goods chattels &
effects of Elizabeth Holmes, Deceased Late of the County of ]\Ionmouth ;
being duly sworn well and truly to Administer the said Deceaser's Estate
to Exhibit as true & Perfect Inventory & Render as just and true account
thereof. Given under the Prerogatives Seal of the Said Province at
Burlington this day & year above said —

Charles Read Regr.''

No inventory or account of the administration of the estate of
Elizabeth Ashton Holmes has been found, either at Trenton or
Burlington, New Jersey, in each of wdiich searches have been
made in the proper offices for such inventory or account.

The public services, officially rendered, under the Colonial
governments of East Jersey and Rhode Island by Captain Jona-
than Holmes, in both civil and military capacities, entitle his
descendants to membership in The Colonial Dames ; and the

Holmes Family 153

public services officially rendered by his grandson, Hon. Joseph
Holmes, during the Revolutionary War, entitle his descendants to
membership in the S. A. R. and the D. A. R., respectively.
Some of the particulars of the latter's service may be found in
the "Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Committee of
Safety of Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1775-1776, pp. 23,
197, 199, 201, 254, 325, 445, 450, 455-457, 471, 472, 478, 489,
502, 504, 512, 535, and in New Jersey Rev. Corr. 1776-1786,
pp. VI, 19 and 3Sr

The Minister's services, also, qualify his descendants for mem-
bership in the Colonial Dames.

Note : Joseph Holmes of Cream Ridge, New Jersey, and his
sister, Mrs. Mary Holmes Rue, have been very helpful in matters
of the history of the old plantation of Hon. Joseph Holmes and
its people.

Their ancestry from Captain Jonathan and Lydia Throckmor-
ton Holmes — whose residence was built before the Revolution on
the 945 acres and is still standing and called "The Red House" —
is briefly as follows: Joseph, born in 1772, and Joseph, born in
1810. The birth year of the present Joseph was 1849. The
Mother, Mrs. Martha A. Holmes, widow of Joseph of 1810, was
ninety years of age October 23, last. Mrs. Rue owns and occu-
pies the ancestral home built in 1720-1722.

Joseph Holmes, at a meeting of the Sons of the American
Revolution, recently, conversed with a direct descendant of
Ananias Conklin, one of the partners in the original glassworks
at Salem, Mass.

December 1, 1914.

'd?^'

^ Mrs. Mary Holmes Rue

Mrs. Martha A. Holmes

X
bi

♦3
O,
C3

PIONEER OBADIAH HOLMES

Obadiah Holmes, the third child of Joseph and Ehzabeth
Ashton Hohiies, was born in Upper Freehold, Monmouth County,
New Jersey, on the 13th day of October, 1728. He was mani-
festly named for his grandfather, the Sheriff, and in honor of
the still earlier ancestor, the Sheriff's grandfather, the Boston
Martyr. He was in his eighteenth year, when his grandfather,
the Sheriff, died. His oldest brother, the first John, having died
young, he was the oldest of the living sons of the family. Alice
was two years his senior, the next surviving child was Mary,
five years younger, and then came Joseph, more than eight years
his junior, Jonathan more than ten years and John well on to
sixteen years his juniors. He was twenty-one years of age in the
fall of 1749. At the holidays of 1755, in the village of Lamber-
ton, now absorbed in the southern end of the city of Trenton,
New Jersey, he married Mary Clunn, two of whose brothers
were New York merchants thirty-five years later, another being
a merchant in the city of Philadelphia as late as the '90s of that
century. Tradition says the father, John Clunn, was a New
York merchant. One of her uncles, Joseph Clunn, was a Captain
in a New Jersey regiment and for many years after the close of
the Revolutionary war kept a hotel, called in those days a tavern
or an inn, which bore the sign of Alexander the Great, at Trenton
in that state. After the war Alexander was painted out of the
sign and Washington on horseback w^as painted in.

Of the years between his majority and his marriage, about
six in all, no special account can be given. Very naturally
from all that is known of the family, conditions, occupations,
property and connections, he remained on the homestead until

161

162 American History

about the time of his marriage, most Hkely for a short time
afterward.

Before October, 1756, he had settled on Staten Island where
he was engaged in boat-building. It was on Staten Island that
Judge Obadiah had settled in 1668 and resided until 1690, when
he moved to Cohansey, West or South Jersey. Several of his
children had remained or returned there and some of the descend-
ants of Samuel of Gravesend, whose wife was Alice Stillwell.
had married and lived on the Island and from Upper Freehold
to the Island was a matter of twenty miles, only. His grand-
father and great uncle Jonathan had owned lands at Perth
Amboy, separated by a narrow stretch of water from the Island.
Settling on Staten Island to make an independent start in life
was not a peculiar, but, in the light of the facts, a very natural
thing.

Four sons were born there: John, October 9, 1756, AMlliam,
September 8, 1758, Obadiah, September 8, 1760, Abraham, August
10, 1762. Soon after the latter's birth, the family removed from
Staten Island to Trenton, New Jersey, and the father was engaged
in merchandizing there until the spring of 1767.

This move seems to have some clear reasons in its support.
Lamberton was the Clunn home, at least, at the time of the mar-
riage ; the Clunns were in trade in the two considerable towns of
New York and Philadelphia on the direct highway between which
Trenton was and is located, and it was within a dozen miles of
the Upper Freehold homestead.

AMiile this residence and business continued, Isaac was born,
April 29, 1764, and on the anniversary of \\^ashington's birth-
day, February 22, 1766, they named the first girl, born in the
family, Elizabeth, for her grandmother Holmes.

That grandmother had died about the first of Novem1)er, 1750,
and by the early portion of 1767 the Upper Freehold children
of this family were all married except John, the youngest, who
was of full age and it has already been read between the lines that
Jonathan and his wife became the homekeepers for his father,
at least, for a time. A retired country gentleman, approaching

Holmes Family 163

the end of his life lease, having only his family and his public
interests to concern him, he one day learned that his son Obadiah
was "going west."

The French and Indian war, which began with the afifair at
Great Meadows on the old mountain road from Fort Cumberland
to Fort DuQuesne, July 4, 1754, witnessed the appalling defeat
of Braddock's columns on the north bank of the Allegheny River,
a dozen miles above Fort DuQuesne, July 5, 1755, and reached
the climax of victory for the British and Continentals, under
General Forbes, when his head of column looked down the hills
on that fortification and the French abandoned it forever and
pushed off down the Ohio, November 25, 1758, was fought to
settle among others, the question as to whether or not the ( )hio
River should be the southern boundary of Canada.

The actual and the diplomatic end of that long contest was not
reached until the treaty of Paris, signed February 10. 1763.
Then the western wilderness had peace, after its kind, for a few
years. The next break was between the Colonies and the
Mother Country and its active menace began with the Boston
Tea Party over the Stamp Act, on the evening of December 16,
1773.

That was a prelude, but to the Colonists not the promise, of
war.

The Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770, had been a dangerous
irritant, but the tocsin was not really sounded, so that all the
people heard, until Major Pitcairn shouted, near the meeting-
house lawn at Lexington, "disperse, disperse, ye rebels." and then
ordered his troops to fire, on the morning of April 19. 1775.

Then and there was "fired the shot heard round the world."

The close of the French and Indian war was the signal for the
commencement of a migratory movement, which has never had
a parallel on this continent. The soldiers of the western cam-
paigns, hunters, traders, adventurers, explorers, surveyors and
others carried back to the people along the coast such accounts of

164 American History

the fertility of the soil, the beauty of the country, its forests and
streams, its hills and mountains and valleys, that the western
fever was like a disease ; thousands were affected by it. The tide
gradually set in and down to the commencement of the Revolu-
tion the primitive roads to the southwest and to the west were
worn out by travellers. In general phrase, the invitation was
acted upon to scale the Appalachian range and explore and settle
the new world beyond from the St. Lawrence River to the south-
ern terminus, where the mountains spread out and sink into the
plains of southern Tennessee and northern Georgia and Alabama.
The published journals of W^ashington's touring and campaigning
west of the mountains were a decided factor in producing and
fostering the movement.

Affected by this fever, caught in this tide, was Obadiah
Holmes, then of Trenton, New Jersey.

The accurate or specific details are lost in the lapse of time
apparently beyond recovery, but when Joseph Holmes learned
that his oldest living son was determined to try his fortune
beyond the mountains, or in them, he added to the savings of the
shipwright and the merchant such advancements in goods and
chattels and equipments and funds as would equal that son's
fair patrimony and with his Godspeed, said good-by to that
branch of his family. It was in the spring or earlv summer of
1767 — so far no nearer date can be fixed; Elizabeth was one
year old.

It does not require a vivid imagination to enable ''the mind's
eye" to see the little family on its winding way from Trenton to
Philadelphia and from Philadelphia, by the old wood road, in a
steady general direction, through southeastern Pennsvlvania and
through northwestern 3*Iaryland, to the mouth of the Shenan-
doah River, for that was the actual route traversed. Crossing
the Potomac, at that point, the valley of the Shenadoah was
followed upward one hundred miles, when a settlement was made
within the bounds of what is now Rockingham County, Virginia.
In what company, if an}', the pioneer's family travelled on this
journey, or any part of it, cannot now be stated from record or

Holmes Family 165

tradition. What special influences operated to determine this
settlement are apparently in the same category. Some facts are
fixed by the evidence, record and traditional.

Mordecai Lincoln and his wife Hannah Salter, who migrated
from East Jersey into southeastern Pennsylvania, still retaining
title tO' a portion, at least, of the Jersey lands, had a son born
May 3, 1711, who is known in history and genealogy as ''Virginia"
John Lincoln to distinguish him from a cousin of the same name
and about the same age.

Virginia John Lincoln and Obadiah Holmes were the grand-
children of full cousins. The common ancestor was Rev. Oba-
diah Holmes, The direct line downward from him to Obadiah —
western pioneer — was Jonathan, Obadiah, Joseph. The direct
line from him downward to \^irginia John Lincoln was Lydia
Holmes, Sarah Bowne and Hannah Salter. The relationship of
the two men in question was doubtless known to each ; the char-
acter and extent of their intimacy or association, whatever it
may have been, can hardly ever be known. These two lines of
facts are known :

In 1767, Obadiah Holmes moved his family from Trenton,
New Jersey, by the route indicated, and settled in Rockingham
County, Virginia.

Before August 16, 1768, John Lincoln moved from Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania, into what is now Rockingham County,
Virginia, whence he derived the title "Virginia John." A glance
at the map will show that Lancaster County lies in the general
line of travel of those days from such points as Philadelphia and
Trenton to the Potomac valley region from Fort Cumberland
down stream a long way beyond the mouth of the Shenandoah.

Did these families, so related, travel together toward the great
west? Did one influence the other and how and to what extent
as to the venture and the settlement? The only answers to such
questions now available are in the class of facts just suggested.
Most of the records made by men and women in those regions
in those days were not on parchment or paper, with pen and ink,
but with wagon wheels and footsteps, of man and beast along

166 American History

the wilderness roads and on the wild lands of mountain and
plain, which like the Master's writing with his hnger in the sand
perished in a night, or wnth the ax and the gun and the few and
rude implements of the husbandman resulting in the cabin and the
clearing and subsistence, the marks and the memory whereof
perished long ago. They had little time to tell us the details
of their thoughts and doings and so as to many things in their
history inference and conjecture and silence alone are left us.

This generation — the mass of it — has little conception of the
break in the great majority of the family chains made by the
passage of some portion of the family over the Allegheny moun-
tains. One striking illustration must suffice — Abraham Lincoln,
a President of the United States, had no knowledge whatever
of his ancestral line east of those mountains. That towering
barrier betw^een the east and the west of those days had broken
it and inhabitants both sides of the great wall had their hands
and minds too full and too busy with other things to turn to the
preservation, tracing or restoration of lineages.

Jacob Holmes, the sixth son of Obadiah and Mary Clunn
Holmes, was born in what is now Rockingham County, Virginia,
on the 8th day of December, 1768. About two years thereafter,
perhaps in the summer of 1770, the family moved down the
Shenandoah and up the Potomac and settled at Mecklenburg —
now Shepherdstown — Virginia, twelve miles above Harper's
Ferry. Here, on the 27th day of January, 1771, w^ere born the
eighth and ninth children of the family, Joseph, the seventh son,
and Margaret, the second daughter.

Using her needle, with which tradition says she w^as an expert,
too soon after the coming of the twins, the mother lost her sight
and for more than forty years lived in total blindness. She died
in 1812.

What considerations or influences turned the family back from
the Kentucky line of migration, or what considerations influenced
the next removal, may not now be described.

In the summer of 1775 — one account says it w^as 1773 — the
family — moving up the Potomac — crossed the mountains from

Holmes Family 167

Fort Cumberland, Maryland, to Catfish Camp, now Washington,
Pennsylvania. The point of settlement at the end of this move
was two and a half miles below what had been the old Indian's
Camp. Catfish had gone west about the time Obadiah Holmes
left Trenton and settled and later died somewhere in the Scioto
valley, not far from the present site of the City of Columbus.

The first western Holmes farm lies on the south side of Char-
tiers Creek and bathes its feet in that stream. The township in
which it lies was first named Strabane. It is in what is now
known as South Strabane Township, \\'ashington County, Penn-
sylvania. In those days Virginia claimed the territory.

Two or three other pioneer families bore them company as
they traversed the mountains by Necamolin's path, later but still
twenty years before the crossing, known as Braddock's Road.

In 1775, it was in a practical wilderness. The migration
mentioned had brought pioneers over the mountains, but they were
settling in the vast forests and on the Indian border.

When the pioneer settled down on the western watershed of
the mountains, he and his wife had with them seven sons and
two daughters. The sons w^re aged respectively, nineteen, sev-
enteen, fifteen, thirteen, eleven, seven and five years. The
daughters were nine and fi.ve, respectively. There was an appro-
priateness in the stalwart promise of these sons to the environ-
ment into which the father had brought them. The life before
them, for the next twenty years, was to be most aptly defined
as one of border warfare, full of labors, dangers, hardships,
mingled with the alarms of war and deaths and sorrows.

On the 26th of March, 1776, there came to the Chartiers home
Samuel, the youngest son of these pioneers. His gentle mother
never saw him.

Late in the year, perhaps in August, or September, the oldest
son, John, enlisted in a western Pennsylvania regiment and crossed
the mountains to participate in the campaigns of eastern Penn-
sylvania and western New Jersey for the protection of Phila-
delphia. The final battle, at the Brandywine bridges, in which
the patriots were worsted, really out-generalled, resulted in their

168 American History

loss of that capital. Tradition says that John Holmes was cap-
tured at Brandywine. Whether it was then or in some other
movement close to it in time and place, he was made prisoner
and his later known history may he written in few words. He
was transported to England and later died of a fever on board a
British prison ship in an English harbor.

It would, perhaps, not be much, but it would certainly add
something to the traditions about him, if the author could now
have one hour's conversation with the soldier's brother. Col.
Joseph Holmes, whose memorial sketch follows. Regrets are
useless. The opportunity, which, unappreciated, existed more
than twenty years, has been gone more than forty years.

Diligent search and research for more than ten years have
failed to elicit a single additional item throwing light on that
prison life, his death or burial. Xo wonder ; when along the
shore of A\'allabout Bay in the sand and in the water, and about
the fateful sugar house prisons on this side of the ocean, at the
Metropolis of the western world, lie the bones and the dust of
thousands of such patriots, the closing chapters of whose lives
and whose epitaphs may be written in one word — "unknown."
Those houses and ships were like tombs, only not so kindly.

The life and warfare of the Ohio border will never be fully
described, though there are vivid pictures of some portions of
them. In the very nature of the times and circumstances of the
country and people and of the conflicts, which savagery — and the
cousins across the sea — forced upon those pioneers, very much
of the truth and facts as they were must be lost forever. The
bloody line of conflict in the west was the Beautiful River from its
sources to its mouth. Eorays, massacres, murders, skirmishes
and battles occurred along its banks and in the interiors on both
sides. Some of the larger of these transactions stand out in
strong colors on the rough canvas of those years. So well
known are they that any description of them can scarcely be
justified in such a story as this: Point Pleasant, 1774; the first
siege of Fort Henry — AA'heeling — 1777; Gnadenhutten, 1782;

Holmes Family 169

Crawford's defeat, Sandusky Plains, 1782; Fort Henry again,
1782; Harmar's Campaign, 1790; St. Clair's defeat, 1791; Fallen
Timbers, August 20, 1794.

The Revolution touched these people not only by taking their
sons into the ranks to march and tight and suffer or die ; it
invited or incurred retaliation at the hands of the British Cabinet.
The latter pushed their troops and governors and emissaries up
the St. Lawrence and through the great lakes to Detroit and
beyond, in the northwest ; they armed and inspired savages
against the long frontier, with its defenseless women and children,
and the torch and the tomahawk and the murders, captivities and
outrages unutterable, were viewed with complacency, or indiffer-
ence, or approval, on the other side, except when a Burke or a
Fox or a Barrie or a Sheridan, in the Parliament, painted in
lurid colors, from time to time, the accountability to which men
and nations and Almighty God would, in ages to come, hold
King George III and his ministers and Parliaments.

In what is known as the Moravian campaign of March, 1782,
the third son, Obadiah, Jr., was a soldier; it resulted in Gnaden-
hutten. That expedition will not be discussed here, but out of the
material in hand may some day have full treatment to the end
that the closest possible approximation to the truth may be
attained.

The picture was dark enough without being shaded and fur-
ther darkened by reckless and indiscriminate, and sometimes
absolutely ignorant, denunciation of many men the equals, if not
the superiors, of the authors, in all that make sturdy and honora-
ble manhood, pervaded by a Christianity and morality without
spot or blemish, humanly speaking.

Obadiah Holmes, Jr., on that fatal ground, voted with the
sixteen against the massacre and rescued at the risk of personal
danger to himself from the high passions aroused in others and
took home with him and reared and cared for him ten years, an
Indian boy of seven years of age.

170 American History

He was in the Crawford campaign and in the heat of each day's
battle there. When it came to the retreat, and as he was leaving
the held, he found a comrade shot through the thigh unable to
walk, whose horse had been lost or killed in the melee. Dis-
mounting, he placed his comrade in the saddle, held him on and,
guiding his horse, escaped the fate that overtook their near
neighbor, at home, and their beloved commander, in the field.
Col. Crawford. It was heroic work and had but one melancholy
satisfaction, at last; though that was beyond price to the relatives
and friends of the wounded man. AMthout medical or surgical
aid on the long hard retreat, the wound was beyond a cure when
they reached their homes and the comrade died within a week
after the return.

One of the retaliatory moves of British and Indians after these
two campaigns was the final siege of Fort Henry in August — ■
September, 1782, the one wdiich gave it greatest fame, out of
which grew the Betty Zane powder story, where the defense of
the Fort was successful and which is claimed to have been the
last engagement of the Revolution. Peace came with the treaty
of Paris signed September 3, 1783, and the borderers had a sort
of surcease from warfare and bloodshed until 1787, when a seven
years conflict began, which ended only with Wayne's victory
at Fallen Timbers on the 20th of August, 1794.

In 1785, Obadiah Holmes made his final move from Chartiers
Creek to his farm in the Pan Handle of Virginia, two and a half
miles southeast of what was then Charlestown, now W^llsburg,
on the Ohio. The farm is in sight of the river from Beech
Bottom looking up Buffalo Creek about one mile in a direct line.
Here he died at the beginning of April, 1794, having made his
will which is of record at Wheeling, in Ohio County, on the 18th
day of February next preceding. He was buried on his own
land.

A copy of his will is as follows :

"In the name of God, Amen. I Obadiah Hohiies of Ohio County,
Virginia, farmer, being through the abundant mercy and goodness of God,

Holmes Family 171

though weak in body yet of a sound mind and perfect understanding and
memory, do constitute this my last will and testament and desire it may be
received by all as such.

"First : I most humbly bequeath my soul to God who gave it and my
body to the earth from whence it came, with full assurance of its resurrec-
tion from thence at the last day. As for my burial I desire that it may
be decent at the discretion of my dear wife and my executors hereinafter
named, who, I doubt not, will manage it with all required prudence.

"As to my worldly estate, I will and positively order that all my debts
be paid; first, that my dear and beloved wife, Mary Holmes, shall have
one third part of all my worldly estate, real and personal ; Secondly, my
beloved son William Holmes to whom I give also one shilling; Thirdly; —
my beloved son Obadiah Holmes to whom I give also one shilling;
Fourthly, my beloved son Abraham Holmes to whom I give also one
shilling; Fifthly, my beloved son Isaac Holmes to whom I give also one
shilling, Sixthly, I give and bequeath the remainder to my beloved chil-
dren, namely, Jacob Holmes, Joseph Holmes and Samuel Holmes, to whom
I give all my estate both real and personal to be equally divided between
the last three named. And as for the execution part of my estate, I do
hereby constitute and appoint my two beloved sons Jacob Holmes and
Joseph Holmes in whom I fully repose that trust.

"In witness whereof I hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day of
February, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and
Ninet}' four.

Present,

Nathan Griffith, 1 ^ tt /in

' I Obadiah Holmes (seal)

William Hamar^ \

"N. B. I, Obadiah Holmes awarding to my above wife in presence of the
annexed witnesses, namely, Nathan Griffith and William Hamar, do give to
my beloved daughter Elizabeth Pumphrey the sum of one shilling ; also, I
give to my beloved daughter Margaret Hays the sum of five pounds."
"A copy.
Teste,

Moses Chaplin,
C. O. C."

In 1797, the farm was sold, the Virginia home passed to others
and the gentle Christian mother found a home with her son
Jacob, to whom the General Government had given six htmdred
and forty acres of land one mile below the forks of Indian Short-
creek — now Adena, Jefiferson County, Ohio — on which that son
had settled soon after the battle of Fallen Timbers. The land

172 American History

was given to him as compensation for his services for three years
and four months as a spy along the frontier from Pittsburgh
to Marietta mostly spent on the north side of the river and
inland far enough to detect signs of Indian incursions so as to
warn the dwellers in the settlements south of the river in time
for them to gather their children, pack their belongings, herd
their stock and make for the nearest fort, there to remain until
the danger had passed. The service began with September, 1790,
and ended after Fallen Timbers,

It may not be out of place to interrupt the story long enough
to say that recent inquiry of the Department at Washington ar
to any possible record of the service of this soldier elicited this
answer :

"The War Department has no record of the names and services
of spies." Reasons are obvious.

On this section of land have stood three Methodist Episcopal
church buildings, one after the other, each known as the "Holmes
Meeting House." The original structure — there was not a nail
or a piece of iron in it — was erected and dedicated in 1802. It
was close to the creek, on the south side, opposite the present
Meeting House, and in 1810 a flood ruined the building and the
little cemetery about it. The people then built their house and
provided a cemetery on the high ground, still occupied, north
of the creek. The waters will hardly ever reach them ; but one
church building there has been destroyed and another damaged
by lightning.

In this churchyard, the blind mother has rested since 1812,

when she died in her eightieth year. It was once written of her

and that must close the inadequate tribute to her character and

long life of effective usefulness, even bearing, as she did, one of

the greatest of human afflictions, the total loss of sight :

"Gentle, patient, loving and beloved, in life, saintl}- in character, down to
the end, this pioneer woman, though residing among them so long, never
saw the sunlight on the magnificent forests and fields and rivers of this
western country."

Concerning the pioneer children a few words may be justified.
John, the first born, was lost in the whirl and storm of the

Holmes Family 173

Revolution and sleeps in English soil or at the bottom of an
English harbor. Tradition imputes to him a part in the Dunmore
war of 1774 and says that he was at Camp Charlotte on the
Scioto River a few miles below the site of what is now Ohio's
Capital City, when that Campaign closed.

William's wife was Mary Johnson. He owned a Pan Handle,
Virginia, farm adjoining that of his father and died there in
1802. His widow and children, at once, crossed the river and
settled among the relatives near the Holmes Meeting House, with
one exception, a young daughter, who entered the family of her
Uncle Obadiah and lived there several years.

Obadiah married Jane Richardson and remained in Washington
County, Pennsylvania. He owned a large farm in the vicinity of
Woodville in Allegheny County, that State, and their home was
crowded at last with ten daughters and two sons ; both of the
latter became Pittsburgh physicians and surgeons. Dr. Shepley
Ross Holmes being, perhaps, the most prosperous and distin-
guished member of his profession in that city while in the prime
of his powers. The daughters became wives of leading Pitts-
burghers and their descendants permeate Pittsburgh society.

Jane Richardson Holmes died on their farm some time in the
'20s. Obadiah Holmes, from whom his descendants derive title
to enter the Sons or Daughters of the American Revolution, died
at the home of his son Shepley Ross in Pittsburgh in June, 1834.
Husband and wife are buried at A\^oodville. He was a Lieuten-
ant at the close of the Revolution.

Abraham's first wife was Elizabeth Johnson Rollins, a young
widow, whose first husband had been killed by Indians on his
farm in western Pennsylvania. She was a sister of his brother
William's wife. They settled first, at the beginning of the cen-
tury, on Indian Shortcreek near the new home of his younger
brother Joseph. In the summer of 1817, the latter and his wife,
stopping on the way home from church, were one Sunday dining
with them when the hostess fell dead from her chair. She is
buried at the Dickerson Church, near Cadiz, Ohio.

In the same year, two of their sons, John, then thirty-four
years old, having a wife and four or five children, and Samuel,

174 A:\iERicAN History

twentv-foiir and still unmarried, accompanied by a neighbor, a
man of family, named Windsor, about thirty years of age, started
from the home neighborhood with a drove of horses for the
markets "over the mountains." They never returned. The
widest possible search and inquiry, with all the time that has
since elapsed, brought this single item concerning them or their
stock and nothing more:

The three men, with the horses, were seen late one afternoon
crossing a bridge over the Schuylkill, leading into Philadelphia,
w^hich did not then extend west to that river.

There were many conjectures as to their fate, but they shed
no light. The field is still open and this is put on record : They
w'ere murdered and their bodies hidden that night. Their horses
were stolen and marketed by the murderers.

Abraham's second wife was ]\Iary ?^Iarshall. a widow, the
daughter of an Irish refugee Captain in the Irish Revolution of
1798. They were married January 20, 1820. Shortly afterward
— in 1821 — they settled four miles north of Alansfield in Richland
County, Ohio, and died there on his farm along in the thirties.
There are numerous descendants of his children by each wife.

Isaac married Elizabeth ]\IcNabb, the eldest child of George
and Martha Shepherd McNabb, born at Mecklenburg, A'irginia,
July 24, 1772. The wedding occurred October 28, 1794, on the
farm of her father, which adjoined the farm of Obadiah Holmes,
near W^ellsburg, and was celebrated by Rev. Dr. Joseph Dodd-
ridge, then a young ]\Iethodist minister, later the author of Dodd-
ridge's Notes, one of the best known of border books. He had
been reared an Episcopalian and as soon as his church people
penetrated the western country in sufficient strength for organiza-
tion, he returned to the Episcopal church and was active and
influential in its establishment and councils and promotion, on
both sides of the river, for more than thirty years, until his death,
at \\>llsburg, in 1826, November 9th.

It is reliable and illustrative tradition that the bride and groom
''celebrated their wedding by stripping flax that afternoon."

Holmes Family 175

The records of the Pan Handle, all of it then Ohio County,
Virginia, show various transfers of land in which Isaac Holmes
was concerned before the end of that century.

In 1796, they settled on the section where Harrisville, Eastern
Ohio, now stands. In 1805, they moved to a farm in what is
now Green Township, Harrison County, and in 1814, finally
settled near Leesville, in what is now Carroll County, Ohio, and
the title to the hne old homestead is still in his family. He was
many years a successful merchant in the village and from 1794
made visits to the east — buying goods — and saw more of the
New Jersey and New York Holmeses and Clunns than all his
brothers and sisters combined.*

One of their sons, who died in 1821, was named Clunn Holmes
and others of his descendants have borne that as a Christian
name.

One of these eastern trips has this description, in tradition :

At the opening of navigation in the spring of 1794, a man
named John Mitchell and Isaac Holmes started from Pittsburgh —
Fort Pitt, the old settlers called it — with a boatload of flour for
New Orleans. After they had been out two or three days,
Mitchell contided to Holmes the information that he was carrying
a letter from Pittsburgh to New Orleans of such importance that
for its safe delivery he was to receive the sum of $1500. It w-as
"steep postage," but the contents no doubt had to do wath the
secret scheme, then pending, to sever the western country from
the east by a mountain boundary line and establish an independent
government for it, and the messenger's neck was in grave danger
if he were captured with the letter, or proved to have been its
bearer. Aaron Burr possibly caught an idea from the scheme
and tried to put it into some sort of execution soon after the
incoming of the next century. Both failed.

* During the Harmar campaign of 1790, while a portion of his troops on
the way to Fort Washington — Cincinnati — lay at Steubenville, one of the
New Jersey cousins, with the column, visited over night with his Uncle
Obadiah's family, six or seven miles down the river and on the Virginia
side, went on with the troops and was never heard of by any of them after-
ward. That was a disastrous campaign.

176 American History

The letter was delivered and the postage paid. From New
Orleans Isaac llohnes sailed for New York and the vessel was
twent}-one days making the tri]). Tliis was his hrst visit to the
relatives in New Jersey and New York. He came home through
the mountains. His father died during this a])sence. Isaac
Holmes died June 9. 1S51 ; his widow died Xovemher 15, 1857,
at the Leesville home.

The children of Isaac and Elizabeth McNabb Holmes, born
between 1795 and 1818, were Martha, Clunn, Sarah, Alary,
Susannah, Nancy, George, Samuel, Elizabeth and John McNabb.
The last survivor of them, Samuel, owner of the homestead, at
Leesville, died there May 17, 1901. more than eight\-nine years
of age.

To Samuel on the 20th of February, 1901, hfty questions,
touching family history and traditions, were submitted and his
answers were taken stenographically. His answer to the 50th
interrogatory, as to the personal characteristics of the Holmes
men of the generations he had known, is in these words :

"They were all dark complexioned and had black eyes. There
was none of them less than five feet ten inches up to six feet.
They were tall, slender and straight, and they were considered
good figures. They were smart and active and were great men
with guns."

He died May 17th, next following, and counting from the birth
of his uncle Obadiah, September 8, 1760, and he personally knew
all his uncles and aunts, except John, the Revolutionary soldier,
and William, who died in the Pan Handle in 1802, his knowledge
of this Holmes famil\-, in a way, covered one hundred and fifty
years.

Many of the men among them had been very athletic. For
examples, Obadiah, son of William, 1738-1802, could stand beside
a horse sixteen hands high and, placing one hand on the animal's
withers, leap over it. His uncle Jacob, 1768-1841, was never

%^,

"'"lla

Samuel Holmes of Isaac

•o

■•^
09
9)

a
6
o

cs
c/5

Holmes Family 181

outrun by white man or Indian, and was noted, in that respect,
in his earher days, from Fort Pitt — Pittsburgh — to Fort Harmar
— Marietta — along the border.

Col. Joseph Holmes, when he was nearly ninety years of age
and the athletic feats of his brother William's son Obadiah, were
mentioned, in his presence, was heard to say that he had never
known a greater athlete among the pioneers than this nephew
Obadiah, except the latter's uncle Jacob.

Elizabeth, who so early in life started on her travels westward,
married William Pumphrey after the removal to the Pan Handle
farm ; crossed the river with the return of peace on the border,
settled near what became and still is Hopewell Church in Jefferson
County, Ohio, and left a family whose descendants there and
elsewhere are numerous and prosperous. She was a woman of
excellent spirit and presence. "She did what she could." Wife
and husband are buried in the Hopewell churchyard. Their
tombstones show that she "died Sept. 26, 1838, in the 73rd year
of her age," and that he "died Dec. 1, 1842, in the 78th year of his
age."

Jacob has been partly traced. He was' essentially a hunter
and a soldier.

The Draper manuscript in the Wisconsin Historical Library
with reference to Jacob Holmes, his wife and border associates
and experiences is interesting. He enlisted seventeen days after
his marriage and was gone on the Gallipolis expedition six
months; this brought him home in April, 1791. His appointment
and service as an Indian Spy, as stated, covered three years and
four months, ending with the return of peace to the Ohio border,
so that he saw substantially four years of regular service during
that war.

A house stands by the same spring from which he drank and
near which he built his cabin, on his land below Adena, as early
as 1795. It is now the "Wilkin farm." The first winter after
he settled there — it must have been a very favorable one for the
hunt — he killed one hundred and one deer. There was little

182 • American History

market for the meat ; the market was good for the hides and
tallow.

A quarter of a century went by. Game was disappearing; the
wander-lust grew upon him ; he must go west. His brother
Isaac prevailed on him to stop near his own Leesville home.
Jacob bought a farm there and settled on it in 1829. Soon the
game and the land there were found unsatisfactory and in the
fall of 1833 he sold and packed and moved to the southwest, to
Highland County. Presently, in the spring of 1839, he found
a wilder country and there stands, two miles north of Kenton
in Hardin County, Ohio, a fine old brick residence surrounded
by a fertile and beautiful farm where he spent his last days.
Gentle reader, do not mistake this man from the apparently
restless character which this description may give. Wait, please.

Born in the wilderness, reared in the wilderness and on the
Indian border where eternal vigilance was the price of life and
liberty, in the midst of adventure and danger, which often gave
a species of exaltation to the spirit ; with a wife who was the
incarnation of hatred of the savage, capable as any man in cour-
age and with her rifle, with one or two or three little ones on the
cabin floor behind her, standing ofl: from that cabin with her
rifle and ax, in the absence of her spying husband, one or two
or three sneaking, crawling, treacherous Indians — no help within
a mile — as she did again and again, who can not appreciate, in
some sort, the longing of Jacob Holmes for the wild freedom
and beauty and danger of the forest with its hunt and game and
wild beast, long after the savage had disappeared from his range?

A striking example of the spirit and habit is found in the life
of Boone. His beloved Kentucky became civilized and commer-
cialized and the forests lost their lure for him. He went again
to the west, away beyond the Mississippi, and in the evening of
his days, when he could no longer because of age and weakness
tramp the woods, or cross the streams, it is written that he sat
by his door, at times, with his rifle across his knees and gazed
at the hunting grounds about him in gratification of the sentiment,
which his whole life had ingrained with him. "the ruling passion
strong in death."

Holmes Family 183

When Jacob Holmes finally settled in Hardin County, Ohio, old
age was coming on, yet, after he was three score and ten, within
the hunting range about his farm with his rifle he brought down
deer, and on one well remembered occasion came home and had
one of his younger sons and some of his farm help hitch the
horses to the sled — no snow on the ground- — and bring in from
the woods the conquest of his rifle. A little grand-daughter six
or seven years old who was at the home when the sled returned
told the story to the writer, and the nervous tension and sup-
pressed excitement of the old hunter, as his game was brought
upon the lawn, were so vividly, though quietly, depicted that the
fire of his eye, the quiver of his lips and the deep labored breath-
ing of the veteran woodsman, described by her, seemed almost
present to the senses of the listener.

In Methodism the Rigging Loft was occupied in 1767; it was
to the infant church "the upper room in Jerusalem." In 1768,
Philip Embury, Barbara Heck and Captain Webb, with their
associates, attained the stamp of immortality in a great Christian
denomination by founding, promoting and building the first
Methodist Church in America on John Street, New York City,
since then afifectionately styled by its children "the mother of us
all."

In no long time the Circuit Rider and his religious enthusiasm
penetrated the wilderness and permeated its dwellers. It was
a religious movement unique in some of its features, adapted to
the needs and sentiments and character of the borderers, aggres-
sive, enterprising, vital, going to the people, not waiting for them
to come to it, without a rival in the early stages of western
migration, settlement, warfare and struggle.

The family of the pioneer Obadiah Holmes naturally, so to
speak, became Methodists, and they had staying qualities. Jacob
Holmes, on whose land the first Methodist Church in the North-
west Territory — the Holmes Meeting House — was founded,
became a local preacher of the denomination and through all
remained a zealous, faithful Christian.

It is impossible to write his life in these sketches. His sons

184 American History

and grandsons have been among the most effective ministers and
pulpit orators of the denomination in their fields.

One more picture and the scene must shift.

On that beautiful lawn of the Kenton homestead, under the
trees, one day in July, 1841. was spread a banquet to which all
his living descendants and their immediate connections had been
invited, and most of them had loyally come, some of them riding
horseback more than one hundred and fifty miles to do him
honor. Children, children-in-law, grandchildren, great grandchil-
dren, among them, ministers, lawyers and physicians, crowded
that lawn and the festal boards on that occasion. The day there
must be left to imagination now, except that when the "cloth was
removed," he rose in his place and addressing them publicly for
the last time, in simple language, preached a sermon, which welled
to his lips, from his own life; which applied its teachings for
whatever was good in it to the conduct and guidance of the lives
of his beloved and closed by bidding them farewell, wishing each
a safe journey home, a prosperous, useful and happy life and
earnestly hoping that he might, in God's good time, meet them all
in heaven.

Find the true measure of his life in this scant outline of his
last sermon. It rises above the wildness, the conflicts, the jour-
neyings and the unrest of all those years and shows his rest on
the eternal principles of good and truth and righteousness.

He is buried in the Grove Cemetery at Kenton.

His wife w^as Elizabeth Huff, born October 22, 1772, a sister
of the famous Indian fighting Huff' family of the Ohio A^alley,
related to the Doddridges. John Huff", a younger brother, had
been killed by Indians, and the latter never were forgiven by the
Huff family. The wedding occurred on the last day of Septem-
ber in the year 1790, in a boat in the middle of the Ohio River,
below \\'ellsburg, near their Pan Handle homes. She was, in
every w^ay, an ideal pioneer woman and her life deserves an inde-
pendent sketch, if this age had any leisure for it. Her fearless-
ness and prudence in danger equalled those of her brothers along

Holmes Family 185

the Indian border and she capably filled every station assigned
her in life.

She survived her husband and sleeps beside him.

These are the inscriptions on their tombstones :

"Jacob Holmes

Died October 14th 1841, aged 72 years

10 months and six days.

'All is well ; all is well.' "

"Elizabeth Holmes

Died January 27th 1857 aged

84 years, 9 months and 5 days."

"All is well ; all is well" were his last audible words.

Joseph Holmes, the seventh son, the eighth child of the pioneer
family in the plan of this work will be the subject of the next
chapter.

Margaret Holmes, his twin sister, became the wife of Jeremiah
Hays prior to her father's death and, in the general movement of
the family into the Northwest Territory, they settled on what
was known as Warren's Ridge in Jefferson County, where in
1816, the husband was killed by a falling tree, leaving his widow
with five children. Two years later she became the second wife
of Elias Pegg, a Revolutionary soldier, whose first wife, in the
Eastern Ohio region, not far from Wheeling, had been Elizabeth
Nonsettler. There were no children of this second marriage.
The descendants of Elias Pegg — one of them bearing his name
today — are among the best citizens of Ohio's capital county.
Four of the Hays children grew to manhood and womanhood
in the home of their step-father, married and within the ten
years between '20 and '30 removed to the vicinity of Peoria,
Illinois ; the oldest Hays child remained in Jefferson County.

Elias Pegg and his wife Margaret are buried in what is known
as the Franklinton graveyard now in the western edge of the

186 American History

city of Columbus. They died in 1835, the husband surviving the
wife a short time.

A claim agent, name unknown, late in the old soldier's life,
procured his discharge — he had seen seven }-ears of service in
the Mrginia line during the Revolutionary war — and other mili-
tary documents for the purpose, as he pretended, of prosecuting
for him a claim against the government. Neither agent nor
papers were ever heard of afterward.

Samuel, the youngest of the pioneer family, performed no
military service ; the Revolution had begun before his birth ; he
was only three months old when independence was declared.
In 1795. he married ]\Iary McNabb, the sister of his brother
Isaac's wife, born at Shepherdstown, Mrginia, January 2, 1779.
In 1797, they crossed the Ohio and settled in Jefferson County,
four miles north of the new home of his brother Jacob. The
transfers of land in which he was concerned until 1816, shown
by the records, are numerous. In the year just mentioned he
moved to Coshocton County. Ohio, and a few years later ex-
changed his Coshocton lands for a farm adjoining that of his
brother Abraham four miles north of ^Mansfield in Richland
County. Ohio.

They had thirteen daughters and one son born to them between
1796 and 1823, inclusive. It was often said by those who knew
them that "they were the most beautiful girls of all the country
sides where they lived." One of them died young; twelve of
them married and reared families. Three of them were still liv-
ing in Ohio in 1903. They were Sarah Ashton, Charlotte \\'ard
and Rebecca King. The son. Obadiah, never married, was a
contractor and builder, a man of fine presence and captivating
manners, an officer of the 3d Ohio Infantry in the ^Mexican A\^ar,
where he contracted from exposure the disease which ended his
life April 2, 1849. He died at the Richland home.

Several of the daughters settled in Hardin County, and while
the parents were visiting them in the latter part of 1855, the
father sickened and died. The mother remained with her chil-
dren in that county and, a little over two years later, passed

Holmes Family 187

away. They rest on the same lot with Jacob and EHzabeth Huff
Hohiies in the Kenton cemetery.

The inscriptions on their tombstones are in these words and
figures :

"Samuel Holmes

Died January 1st 1856 aged

79 years 11 months and 6 days

'All is well; all is well.'"

"Mary Holmes

Died February 26th 1858 aged 78 years

11 months and 28 days

'Blessed are the dead that die in the

Lord.' "

The names of their children in the order of their births were
Nackey, Elizabeth, Obadiah, Martha, Mary, Huldah, Margaret,
Phebe, Sarah, Susannah, Nancy, Charlotte, Sally, Rebecca.

Here is another instance of the repetition of a name in the
family. Sarah was born in 1813 and died at the age of about
seven years; the child born in 1821 was named Sally.

Note. — The graves of the sisters, Abraham's tirst wife, who died in 1817,
and William's wife, who died in 1824, are side by side in the Dickerson
graveyard, and those two graves only, in that yard, were made with the
heads to the north.

COLONEL JOSEPH HOLMES

Joseph Holmes, the seventh son, the eighth child of Obadiah
and Mary Chum Hohiies, was born at Mecklenburg, Virginia,
on the 27th day of January, 1771, and was named for his grand-
father Holmes. He was in his fifth year when the family took
part in the "great crossing." When the removal was made from
Chartiers Creek to the Pan Handle, he was in his fourteenth year,
and when he made the permanent crossing of the Ohio, after the
sale of the Virginia homestead in 1797, he was on the eve of some
important events in his own life.

It may be worth while to glance, in a little detail, at the years
between 1785 and his final settlement on the Ohio side of the
river.

The Indians fought for the Ohio as their southern boundar}/
until their crushing defeat on the Miami of the Lakes in August,
1794, and they contended in argument and Indian diplomacy,
until the treaty of Greenville, in August, a year later, and on
down to the very time of the signature of the. treaty, that their
southern line should be that river. They were defeated on this
claim as they had been in battle the year before and by the same
man — General Anthony Wayne. The Indian line was pushed so
far west by the terms of the treaty that the Ohio country was
forever safe from their claims or inroads ; but with British back-
ing, they had made border life miserable for more than seven
years before that final battle. The British policy still strove to
make good, at least, a portion of the purpose of the French from
1754 to 1758, to make the Ohio River the southern boundary of
Canada. That was the meaning of the British fort on the Mau-
mee, built within the territory of the United States, under whose
sullen, silent guns Fallen Timbers was fought. It was the moral

189

190 American History

and physical support of the Indian claim to the Ohio country ;
but the policy of so many years, transferred by force from France
to Great Britain, was shot to death in the course of the brisk
charge of A\'ayne's veterans through the brush that August day
on the north bank of the river and the Indian became a hopeless,
paralyzed representative of the policy, argue as he might down to
the next August day at Greenville, where only three years before
the tribes had slaughtered St. Clair's column.

The birth-day of Joseph Holmes has been stated ; that will
furnish his age wdien he was interviewed by Dr. Lyman C. Draper,
at the old homestead in Eastern Ohio, in March, 1863, and again,
October 6th of the same year. The reports of the interviews
are in the Draper Manuscripts of the W^isconsin Historical
Library, at Madison.

No better idea of the life and career of Joseph Holmes, his
brothers Obadiah and Jacob and others on the Ohio border,
through those hnal Indian years, can be given than is found in
these sketchy notes of the interviews by Dr. Draper, whose long
work on western Indian history, still largely unprinted, was the
foundation of the greatest historical collection west of the Alle-
gheny Mountains. The first interview, by question and answer,
is thrown into narrative form to avoid repetition.

"I was born in Berkeley Co., Va, in Jany, 1771; came to Washington Co.,
P'a, 1775 — moved to Brooke Co., Va, 1785 — one mile from the Ohio. My
first service was in 1790 ; I served four months with Lt. Mitchell — saw a
man shot and scalped and was still living, and I believe got well.

"Baldwin Parsons raised a company of volunteers and went up the Big
Beaver, and I think killed some Indians — this was in 1790 or '91. I was at
it. I was offered a very fine horse and saddle if I would marry his
daughter.

"I think he died about 1810 * — not positive. Can't tell where his children
went.

* It was 1811.

Col. Joseph Holmes aet. 92 years

Holmes Family 193

"I was out with Capt. McMahon in Nov. 1791, to the mouth of Owl
Creek/ Ohio, and there killed three Indians and could give the names of
all out on this Expedition. Neither Baldwin Parsons, nor Capt. Brady,
nor either of the Wetzels was on the expedition.

"Jacob Holmes was appointed an Indian Spy in 1792 and served in that
capacity until 1795, 'till peace was made.

"I was out on a scouting party in 1790, crossing over and into Ohio as
far as Owl Creek, under Capt. McMahon, afterward Major under Gen,
Wayne at Fort Pitt — some 70 or 80 were on this expedition and among
them my brother Jacob Holmes."

The second interview^ is reported by Dr. Draper in the follow^-
ing form :

Dr. Draper visited Col. Joseph Holmes October 6, 1863. The
latter's recollections of men and events follow :

"From Col. Joseph Holmes, born near Shepherdstown, Berkley Co. Va.,
January 27th 1771 — son of Obadiah Holmes : In fall of 1775, moved out
to Chartiers Creek, two & a half miles from Washington, Washington
Co. Pa.,

Can tell nothing about the attack on the Walker family.

Of Brady's expedition in fall of 1794, has no special recollection.

About 1790, Capt. Saml. Brady & ten or a dozen men — Jacob Holmes, on
a scout, at the Tuscarawas, just below the mouth of Stillwater, near
Gnadenhutten, they espied an Indian in a canoe, Capt. Brady recognized
him & calld him by name — John — & he came promptly — stood & talked a
long time together — Brady told the men this Indian had been a great
friend of his, & he should not be hurt — finally got in his canoe & departed :
Having told Brady that three hostile Indians had gone down to the mouth
of Tonnika : But didn't think it worth while to go in search of them — too
much time had elapsed.

Brady's Leap. — Had no knowledge of such leap — never heard it men-
tioned till since his death : But has heard him speak of his having been
a prisoner — don't remember that they threatened to burn him — made him
run the gauntlet — Brady said he did not get hurt much, that he ran over
one squaw who was ready to whip him ; that John — mentioned on the pre-
ceding page, befriended him while a prisoner. Supposes Brady ran away
from the Indians, & then made the leap over the Cuyahoga — that he was
very active, tall, slim, well-made, & could have made the leap described.

^A matter of sixty-five to seventy miles into the Indian country. Owl
Creek is in Coshocton County.

194 American History

twenty-two feet, that m}- informant has known a man John Stewart jump
twenty-one feet on level ground near the mouth of Short Creek, at Carpen-
ter's block-house about 1791.

Wm Huff & Baldwin Parsons were scouting on Bill Creek of Little
Beaver — saw an Indian sitting on a log fishing — & Huff shot him, & he
fell into the stream — about 1793 : Ind"^ had stolen horses — & Huff &
party recovered three.

Francis Rile}-. — Riley lived in the block-house — called Waxler's block-
house, on the western bank of the Ohio, about two miles below the mouth
of Buffalo Creek — & in winter he moved up to his cabin on the river hill :
A warm day in February, IM^^s Riley went out to gather up some sugar
water : Five Indians caught her, tied her to a sapling & left her — & went
to the house : their son W^^^ Riley, about 20 years old, caught up a little
brother and ran — but was soon overtaken & killed : Then they caught
two Riley girls, one about thirteen, & the other about eleven — & made
them prisoners : One boy, John, about fifteen, ran down the hollow &
made his escape, while the Indians were killing the others. Then they
killed John Schemmerhorn, about half wa}' between Riley's & the block-
house : Then discovering a suckling child in the cabin in a sap-trough,
for a cradle — took it out to where the mother had been left, who during
the Indians absence had managed to loosen the rawhide with which she
was fastened, & got away ; finding her gone, the Indians dashed out the
child's brains. The Riley girls never returned — went after them after
Wa3-ne's treaty — found the Indians had sold them to the Canadian French,
& both married Frenchmen, & declined to leave their families.

Beaver Block House Expedition, 1791. — Jos. Williams, W"^ Williams,
Baldwin Parsons, Jos. & Jacob Holmes, Frs McQuire, Wm Huff & others :
On foot — with blanket hoppused on his back, some bread & flour & meat —
took up round the heads of Yellow Creek, Little Beaver, — no signs till
they got on towards Beaver. — Jim Williams and another shot one Indian — -
can't remember particulars : Got three or four horses — not certain about
it. Don't remember about the traders there : Indians made headquarters
there — traded at Pitt. — & would go & do mischief, steal horses, &c, & they
determined to rout them out.

On return Baldwin Parsons, who then lived in what is now Brooke
County, on the ridge, some six miles back from the Ohio river, gave a large
party — plenty of roast wild turkies & bread, & whiskey for supper — & a
night frolic of dancing — fifty or sixty gathered — & the affair closed up next
forenoon with a fight. Brady was not there — Frank ]\F'Guire was there.
Parsons had previously been against Indians — on Crawford's campaign :
He moved over the Ohio to Short Creek — built a mill & died there. He
was a very large man — six feet & two inches, with heavy frame — got to
weigh over 250 lbs.

Francis ]\IcGuire was a very large man — over six feet, & larger frame
than Parsons.

Holmes Family 195

McMahoii's Owl Creek Exped^ 1792. Thinks Brady was not along.
Ki. Bukey was one of the spies — Tho^ Edgington & Tho^ Harper were
also spies. No Wetzels along as remembered. Started from Old Mingo
Bottom — out Little Stillwater, stopped there a day or two to get a supply
of meat ; then went on over the Tuscarawas, camped below Gnadenhutten :
there divided the men — McMahon took 8 men — Lt Biggs 8, & Tho^
Edgington, an old spy, 8 — & started. McMahon aimed for Whitewoman
creek — Biggs up Tonnika, & Edgington up Sugar creek; but on top of
river hill of Whitewoman, McMahon sent out two spies, who at the bottom
of the hill discovered an Indian camp, with fire still, where Indians had
had a fall hunting camp, & had only left that day : Reporting this, Mc-
Mahon & Biggs' parties united & went up the Whitewoman & camped that
n.ght close by — next day went up the river, all day : Could hear the
Indians once in a while in the afternoon shoot — heavy storm just before
sun down, after the rain was over, very dark, & probably striking fire :
Men kept up hunting — very wet grass &c & some drizzling — & abt nine
o'clock discovered the Indian fire — then went within some twenty rods — &
McMahon told his men, that Wayne had promised that if they w^ catch
an Indian and bring him in to Wayne alive, he would give $300, reward —
& McMahon said if the men wd take a prisoner, the reward would be
divided amongst them. Then picked out six of the largest & strongest to
go ahead & jump on the Indians & hold them while the others were to
creep up & assist : — crawled up to within two rods of the camp, & when
Indians in first sound sleep, then jump on them: Indians — four in num-
ber— had been singing & laughing till quite late before they laid down — &
one seemed to be grunting as though somewhat ill : This latter Indian
got up about midnight & stirred up the fire — & orders from McMahon
whispered around to fall back, & crawled back some forty or fifty steps : &
gave up the idea of catching them, await till day break & fire on the camp :
Still drizzled — As day was breaking, whites began to surround, & take
their places — Bukey & Jos Holmes under the bank of Owl Creek just at
its mouth on Northern side behind a large fallen tree — with orders for
none to fire till McMahon did so : The sick Indian came out outside &
squatted near where W^i Morrison was posted behind a sugar tree — he
had had a sister killed a year or two before on Short Creek, & he felt a
spirit of revenge, got on his knee & took aim — & Indian heard something &
turned & exclaimed 'Swannock' ! 'white-men,' when Morrison's ball
passed through his body, & he pitched forward dead : The other three
Indians jumped & ran for the creek, within a few feet of Bukey &
Holmes — Bukey shot one as he reached the edge of the water — Holmes &
several others shot another in the creek, as he plunged in one direction &
then another to prevent being shot at, but he was killed, & sank in water
about three feet deep — while the fourth, George Girty, a son of old white
George Girty, made out to get through losing his gun in the creek— with

196 American History

nothing on but his breech clout (Nov. 19th) — & as he got over & emerged,
slapped his posteriors in derision & escaped. Got out the Indian sunk — took
three scalps — three tine horses, two of them reclaimed which had been stolen
the week or so before, — twenty deer skins, three other skins — three guns : It
was a very foggy morning after the night's rain, & it was thought it turned
out as well that Morrison brought on the fight as he did — no one blamed him
for it. Staid at Indian camp & got breakfast— & started for home before the
streams sh^ rise : The rain turned to snow by noon. — & it was a tedious
day, many were benumbed, as had Whitewoman to wade five times that
day — the wading & wet snow : Did not stop till night when got beyond
Whitewoman — & made up a large fire at the mouth of a run on East side
of Whitewoman. Ensign W™ Wells had been left with some fifteen men
on East side of Tuscarawas, nearly opposite Gnaddenhutten — uniting with
these, all returned : Swam the horses over — river Tuscarawas high — Solo-
mon Hedges rode over one horse & the others followed : Made rafts
large enough to carry three or four men — & hurried on home : Took
scalps, strung them on a pole raised the scalp halloo as they crossed the
Ohio & marched through Charlestown (Mi" Saml Hedges adds, that Ki.
Bukey was scalp carrier.) now Wellsburg, & the entire population turned
out to give them a welcome reception. — Th^ Edgington & party made a
faithful scout, but made no discoveries, & returned the next day after
McMahon's. One horse, furs, & guns were sold at auction, & divided
aniiong the eighteen — the deer skins were divided. Took 20 days pro-
visions, & were gone 19 days.

Wii"' Morrison lived many years around Short Creek, & finally removed
down the Ohio.

In 1785, spring Obadiah Holmes moved into Brooks Co V^, within a
mile of Buffalo Creek — two and a half miles from the mouth.

Don't recollect about Tiltons taken prisoners.

Nor abt Israel Osborn killed in 1787.

Nor about Castleman girls taken — 1790.

1790— Mrs Van Buskirk killed.— Her father Saml Linder, a German-
she had been up to see her father & Alother on horseback, & returning home
Indians ran up & caught the horse — & she got off and horse got scared
& ran home : This gave the alarm — & six men went down below the mouth
of Buffalo at the Narrows where it was thought they would attempt to
cross In the night, whites heard the Indians coming down the hill, hearing
their chargers tick against their powder horns : The men fled ingloriously —
&the Indians decamped up the hill — & descending the rivor hill into a ravine,
in getting over a log, she evidently put her ankle out of joint, when she
was tomahawked. Five or six Indians l)y the sign. Indians had sunk their
canoe at the Narrows below mouth of Buffalo — & scared off — went high
above — Crossed & escaped.

In 1781, a party went to the Moravian Indian towns, & expected to have

>
O

■41

3
O

Holmes Family 199

found & brought in a large number — found only seven, brought them in,
& after awhile liberated them.

In March, 1782, Williamson went out again — found a large number —
& in towns found some clothing of persons murdered — one Nathan Rollins
& brother had had a father & uncle killed took the lead in murdering the
Indians, & Williamson was opposed to it ; & Nathan Rollins had toma-
hawked nineteen of the poor Moravians, & after it was over he sat down &
cried, & said it was no satisfaction for the loss of his father & uncle
after all. — So related Holmes J^' who was there — who was out on both
Moravian campaigns, & Crawford's.

After treaty of '85 at Beaver — many persons went west of the Ohio
hoping to secure settlement rights : thus — McCoy & wife & family, &
David Pusley making his home there. In 1787, Indians came to McCoy's —
door was shut — Pusley jumped out of a back window, & was caught by
four or five Indians who rose up — then went in & killed Mrs M^Coy — •
McCoy & son had gone over or east of the Ohio for provisions. Indians
threw out the feathers from the bed, & took away the tick & other articles —
did not burn the house : Took Pusley away about a quarter of a mile —
wdien W"^ Spencer & son James had been out after & got their horses &
returning — Indians heard the bell, & squatted by a tree, & directed Pusley
to squat, who would not — & seeing him, Spencer & son suspected the true
state of the case, put whip to their horses & escaped. Incensed at Pusley,
the Indians tomahawked him on the spot. M^Coy lived a little west of
where Mount Pleasant, Ohio, now is.

No recollection of Brady's Muskingum & Hocking expedition in 1792 :
Nor of the Sandy defeat in 1793.

Lewis Whetzel — in spring of 1797, Capt. Holmes went down to New
Orleans with a boat load of flour, at Walnut Hills, now Vicksburg, Wetzel
joined them — & went down to New Orleans: He said he had undertaken
to go with Ellicott as a pilot & woodsman: Said he had been imprisoned
several months on his back for giving a little girl a pewter quarter :
Released, & went up to Wheeling region — then went down with Ellicott
to Walnut Hills — & joined Capt. Holmes. Lewis loved whiskey — never
heard of him, after they parted at New Orleans. Holmes & Wetzel had
a few times been out scouting, but met no Indians — Wetzel only a volunteer
scout. No knowledge of Wetzel being employed as a scout. In 1782,
Mills wanted Wetzel to go with him to get his horse — W. sd it wd be
dangerous, but if Mills wished it, he wd go with him. Mills thought not.
Wetzel sd he almost thought he felt the Indians seizeing his belt — when he
wheeled & shot him — & then another — & the other two trying to flank him,
but decamped.

Once went out from Wheeling & killed an Indian gobbling like a turkey-
heard him relate it: Ind" just across the creek was a big rock, behind
which he ensconced himself. Lewis went near there a little before day,
& watched till he got a shot.

200 American History

Indians took a woman prisoner — & several wanted to go — he said no,
if they did the woman would be killed : They yielded — Lewis & another he
permitted to go went near night — found their canoe srnk at mouth of V^
Short Creek ; watched — Indians came — got up canoe, & all in — both shot — •
& both Indians fell, & Wetzel swam in & drew canoe to shore, & saved her.
Often heard it related along the river.

In fall 1791, Geo. Carpenter & John Van Arsdall, two spies, eating
their meal on one of heads of Ohio Short Creek, when a party of Indians
chased them — but both escaped. Ja^ Holmes was not of the party. (This
shd be 1793— see Phila Advertiser. L. C. D.)

Jacob Holmes commenced spying in fall of 1791 — on Beaver blockhouse
expedition — but was in no fight : He & Geo. Carpenter slept many a night
under shelving rocks on Indian Short Creek. Jos. Washburn was a spy
with Jacl^ Holmes : after the war Washburn went down the Ohio—
married a daughter of Jos. Edgington : Holmes & Edgington spied in
1792, '93 & '94.

Col. Jos. Holmes was out some spying with Capt. Brady — short trips
between stations, from ]\Iingo Bottom down.

Vachel Dickerson — Capt. McMahon engaged for several months to
supply the people of Gallipolis with meat — the first year the French
went there, having been about two months at mouth of Buffalo — Capt.
AIc]Mahon employed hunters — they to have the skins, & a stipulated amount
per month : Vachel Dickerson was one — Jac. Holmes after only a month
married, were among the fifteen hunters : Once Dickerson was hotly
chased — ran through a creek nearly up to his arm pits — once over, treed,
& saw an Indian on the other bank peering for him, when D. shot. »& he
fell. Dickerson got to camp, wet, water in his shot pouch — had a severe
chase before getting to the creek.

Capt. Jos. Holmes was out with a company in 1812 & helped build Fort
Meigs — for six months — a cold snowy winter — & rem^ till last of March,
1813, & marched home : Out in tents all winter. Afterwards chosen
Colonel of a regiment : Five feet, 10 inches — spare — & active : Fond in
early life of athletic excises — running foot races — wrestling &c. Repre-
sented Harrison county in the Legislature — settled in Harrison in ISOl.

Octi' eth 1863.

The Virginia home was broken up in the spring of 1797, when
the farm was sold and the last of the brothers and sisters to make
such removal — seven in all — finally crossed into the Northwest
Territory — Obadiah, with his family, remaining in Western
Pennsylvania, and William, with his famly, remaining in the Pan
Handle. All were then married except Joseph. Two of his
brothers, Isaac and Samuel, had married two of the ]\IcXabb

Holmes Family 201

girls, Elizabeth and Mary, respectively. The McNabb farm
adjoined the Holmes farm in Virginia along the northeast
boundary of the latter and so remembering that the McNabb
family had followed the Holmes family and a part of the Shep-
herd family across the mountains from Shepherdstown in 1784.
it was not strange that they were well acquainted. It was in
1798, if not the preceding year, that George McNabb disposed of
his lands in the Pan Handle and settled in Jefferson County — now
Belmont County — about four miles southwest of the present site
of St. Clairsville, the county seat. Before the holidays of 1798
Joseph Holmes had taken steps to secure the title to the section —
six hundred and forty acres — of land, which lies between the
little village of Emerson and the western edge of Mount Pleasant,
Ohio, and immediately south of the public highway running along
a ridge from one village to the other, a distance of one mile.
There was no village there then. By the holidays of 1798, he
had cleared a spot in the forest and built a cabin in it, say forty-
five rods south of the present roadway, near a spring.

February 26, 1799, there was another w^edding at the new
home of George and Martha Shepherd McNabb, in which the
contracting parties were Joseph Holmes and Sarah McNabb, the
third sister marrying the third brother.

Martha Shepherd was the daughter of Capt. Thomas Shepherd ,'
and Elizabeth Van Meter Shepherd. Captain Shepherd was the
founder of Mecklenburg — Shepherdstown — and owner under
grants of the Governor of Virginia of more than 2000 acres of
land at that point, on the Potomac, after 1733, the date of his
settlement there. His wife was Elizabeth Van Meter, a daughter
of John and Margaret Van Meter, whose domain in the Shenan-
doah Valley embraced some 40,000 acres. Capt. Abraham Shep-
herd, the oldest son of the original settler, was an executor of his
father's will at the beginning of the Revolution and then changed
the name of the village to Shepherdstown in honor of his father's
memory. He marched a battalion of Virginians from Shepherds-
town to Boston and joined General Washington's command at
the time of the siege of the latter place and it was at his home
in 1792 that Thomas Worthington, later governor of Ohio and

202 American History

United States senator, married Eleanor Swearingen, the niece
and ward of Captain Shepherd's wife.

Col. David Shepherd, for many years the most prominent man,
in civil and military capacities, in the Pan Handle, the whole of
w^hich was then called Ohio County, was another brother of ]\Irs.
McNabb. He commanded Fort Henry — Wheeling — when it was
besieged by Indians in the fall of 1777. During the siege — Sep-
tember 1st — his oldest son, William, was killed before his eyes,
in a sortie, where the market house now stands, and his son-in-
law, Francis Duke, coming down the river from Beech Bottom
block-house, with his men, to the relief of the Fort, was killed
just before he himself succeeded in entering it. The successful
defense of the Fort was one of the marked displays of heroism
of both men and women during the Revolution.

The bride at the February, 1799, wedding was born August 26,
1783, and was just one year old when she w^as carried in her
Mother's arms "over the mountains." On her wedding day she
was, therefore, exactly sixteen years and six months of age.
She tipped the scale that day at one hundred and seventy pounds
— a healthy lass.

By the end of the month, they were settled in the new cabin
at Mount Pleasant.

Late one afternoon in the spring of 1800 a man — never mind
the name — rode up to the bars in front of the cabin, which then
stood in the edge of ten acres of cleared and fenced and culti-
vated land, representing more than a year of hard labor and
expense.

The visitor ordered the occupant to "move off this land" and
when the occupant inquired why he made such demand, the
visitor answered, "because thee has no right here," and rode
away. Next morning, the settler, somewhat concerned, rode
early to the temporary land office at Steubenville and upon having
his entry revised found that the clerk had made an error, confused
numbers of sections and had actually assigned him on the record,
one that was miles away, rocky, inferior and undesirable. His
"friend" had found the defect of his title, made a perfect entry
over him and then ordered him off. Recognizing the technical

Holmes Family 203

and indisputable legal right of the party of the other part, the
occupier went to him to make such terms as he might. That
other would not sell, he would not consent to the occupancy of the
cabin until a new^ one could be founded and built elsewhere and
when the final appeal was made, that, in good morals and con-
science, he ought to allow and pay something for the improve-
ments which more than a year's hard labor had made on the land,
the answer was, "no, no, thee had no business on the land."

There was no alternative, except to transport the wife and
babe back to her father and mother and with gun and hatchet
and haversack, start through the w^oods on a new exploration.
It was July.

In 1797, in the course of explorations, he had traveled all over
a section — 640 acres — on the north side of Indian Shortcreek,
near its headwaters, and in sight of the ridge dividing the waters
which flow east into the Ohio at Warrenton and those which
enter it at Marietta, many miles below. He had scored some
of the trees that the section might be easily recognized again
and had, in mind, balanced it against the Mount Pleasant section,
eleven miles below. The advantages of each section were differ-
ent, but Mt. Pleasant won first choice, because of the topography ;
the land sloped from every direction, except one, downward
toward the spring by which he had built his cabin ; the farmer's
eye saw that the crops would need less labor to handle and house
them.

The search for a new location, although considerable tramping
and examination took place, did not last very long. No error
was permitted in securing thisi second title and by the holidays
of 1800 another cabin was built by the great Spring in the wilder-
ness on the second choice, which was ever afterward satisfactory
to him though he never forgot what he deemed his mistreatment,
morally, touching the first.

In February, 1801, they moved into the new structure which
was the cabin home until 1806; then they moved into the new
two story four room log house with its wide northern and south-

204 American History

ern post and rail covered porches, each the full length of the
house. In 1834-5 this was superseded by the brick residence,
which, well preserved, stands close to the original sites of its
predecessors. The spring still sings the old song.

There have been thousands of Ohio homes of the same type-
not Ohio alone — but these suffice to obviate any long description
for those who read the history of the times.

The conquest of "the black forest," in a sense, consumed two
generations of men and women. From the cabin the life and
labors and conquest moved on steadily. The Indians were gone,
but the people were still frontiersmen and frontier women ; the
larger wild game stayed about them, including deer, as late as
1816.

In 1802, about eight months after the settlement of Joseph
Holmes, the pioneer Thomas Dickerson, with his wife Mary
Curry from Dickerson Run. Fayette County, Pennsylvania,
settled on the section of land where the Dickerson Church now
stands. The Dickerson section by its southeast corner touched
the northwest corner of the Holmes section.

These two pioneers, as early as 1802, were leading in nourishing
the germ and fostering the growth of what has been known for
more than one hundred years as the Dickerson M. E. Church.
The third church building stands on the exact site of its predeces-
sors and that site was originally and is today ideal. The pioneers
and their descendants, many of them, are silent witnesses of that
beauty and of the vast progress made since wilderness and wild
beast howled about them, where they now calmly await the
resurrection morn.

Though the rule excludes the introduction or discussion of the
living in this work, a gray-haired grandson of each of these
pioneers is among the leaders of the church society, bearing the
family name, and they — and their children and grandchildren
when the latter visit their "old homes" — live in sight of the
tabernacle, day by day.

The following paragraphs are copied from the historical address
of Joseph Holmes, one of the trustees, at the dedication of the
third Dickerson church, on Sunday, October 7, 1888. This

Holmes Family 205

Joseph Holmes — 1825-1889 — was a grandson of the pioneer for
whom he was named, a son of George and Tacy Thompson
Holmes, presently mentioned. He said,

"Among the first members of the society were Thomas Dickerson and
wife, Joseph Holmes and wife, William Walraven and wife, William
Scoles and wife, James Worley and wife, Abraham Hohiies and wife,
Eli Dickerson and wife, William Welling and wife and James Jones and
wife. Preaching was held like the prayer meetings, from house to house.
In those days sermons were like angels' visits, 'few and far between.'
The first quarterly meeting was held on the farm of Joseph Holmes — not
far from where the barn now stands — in the summer of 1805. This
meeting was conducted by the Rev. Asa Shinn — Asa Holmes was named
for him. The Methodists and others from beyond and about Wellsburg,
on the Ohio River and from the Holmes Church, on Shortcreek, came
to the meeting, not only to renew the friendship of other years, but to
aid in pushing forward the cause of Christ.

"It may seem strange to those of modern times when we describe the
arrangements for holding this first quarterly meeting. The meeting was
held in the grove ; the seats were made of rails, logs and puncheons. A
few puncheons were used for a platform. In two trees standing about
six feet apart a notch was cut in each tree, and in those notches was
placed a puncheon about 16 inches wide, and on this the preacher laid the
Bible, and this was the make-up of the preacher's pulpit. The meeting
was one of great spiritual power, and several persons united with the
church.

"Tlie second quarterly meeting was held on the farm of Thomas Dick-
erson in 1807, with the same arrangements and like results."

The British cousins were never altogether satisfied with the
results of 1783, the close of the Revolution, or 1795, the close
of that Indian war, and once more, in hope of some sort of
redemption, or recoupment, opposition to the doctrine of free
trade and sailors' rights forced the declaration of war and the
sons of the Revolutionary fathers and many of those fathers
themselves, were drawn into the field and out on the high seas to
settle the question of independence anew by the gage of battle.

The war of 1812 had been going on but a short time when in
August of that year, Gen. Hull surrendered Detroit to the British
and Indians.

The call came to Captain Holmes while he was in the harvest
field to marshal and march his company to Steubenville. The

206 American History

regiment was the 3d Ohio Infantry commanded by Lieut. Col.
John Andrews. No time was lost; the help and the small sons
were left among the oats shocks on the western slope of "the
Knob-field," while he went to his house and started horseback,
with the good wife to instruct his orderly sergeant, to notify
his men of the call and then procure from Mount Pleasant the
necessary personal supplies for the campaign. Next day and
next the Captain's home was crowded with neighbor women
putting into shape the clothing and personal equipment for hus-
bands, sons and fathers and then from that local rendezvous,
by way of Cadiz, they marched away to the regimental head-
quarters and thence by a very direct line through Ohio to the
Maumee, where, immediately opposite Wayne's battle-ground of
August, 1794, through that fall and winter, they soldiered and
helped build Fort Meigs and reached their homes at the beginning
of April, 1813.

The winter had been a hard one, not only for the soldiers in
the northwest, but for the wives and children and stock, which
they had left at their homes. The wife of Captain Holmes was
often heard to comment on the burdens which she carried
through that winter and, in the earlier years after it was past,
she hoped no wives would ever have to go through such trials
and labors again in her day. Abroad over the wide farm was
scattered the stock of all sorts, horses, cattle, sheep and so on,
to be cared for, fed and sheltered, as best might be, through
deep snows and storms and frosts and hail and rain, with the
help of one son, thirteen years old, while in the home were six
other children ranging in ages from eleven down to one — "and
no help."

Building Fort Meigs and scouting and campaigning from that
point through the fall and winter and spring was not child's
play for those engaged in them. An illustrative story from the
lips of the veteran challenged the childish interest and sticks in
memory still. As the result of excessive rainfall on melting
snow and ice, the Captain awoke one morning to find that the

Holmes Family 209

Maumee had overflowed its banks in the night and his bed,
bottomed of poles and brush and leaves, was floating about his
tent ! To the soldier, of course, this means a good deal more
than the disturbance of the "bunk."

The strategic importance of Fort Meigs was recognized by
the British and they undertook its capture^ but the defense under
General Harrison, April 28 — May 9, 1813, was successful.

A muster roll of the company of Captain Holmes made at
Steubenville, at the close of that campaign, in his hand-writing,
lies open on this table. No name of a living man of all the
eighty-two appears in it ; yet there are many names that are
familiar. There are written and printed copies of the roll in
existence and the original may be in the War Department.

Ohio troops were held in constant organization and readiness
down to the close of that war. The young state along its
northern and northwestern border was peculiarly exposed to
British aggression.

Following is a literal copy of the final commission in the War
of 1812; the first one — the Captain's — seems to be irretrievably
lost:

"In the Name and By the Authority of the State of Ohio.+

"Othniel Looker, Speaker of the Senate, Acting as Governor and Com-
mander in Chief of the said State. +

"To Joseph Holmes Esq. Greeting. +

"It is certified to me that you are duly elected Lieutenant Colonel of the
third regimen-f in the first brigade and fourth division of the Militia of
this state +

"Now, Know You, that by virtue of the powers vested in me by the
constitution and +laws of the State; and reposing Special trust and con-
fidence in your courage, activity, fidelity + and good conduct, I do, by
these presents, commission you as Lieutenant + Colonel of Said Regiment
hereby authorizing and requiring you, to discharge, all and singular, the
duties and services appertaining to your said office agreeably to + law
and such instructions as you shall, from time to time, receive from your
superior officer. +

"In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my name, and caused the
Great Seal of the State of Ohio to be affixed + at Chillicothe, the seven-
teenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight

210 American History

hundred and + fourteen, and in the thirty ninth year of the independence
of the United States of America.

Jer. AIcLene Othniel Looker

Secretary of State."

Indorsed :

'"State of Ohio
Harrison County

SS On the 18th of

November A. D. 1814
Joseph Hohnes

(Seal)

Esquir + the with in Named Colonel of third
Ridgment First Brigade forth + Divitian of the Ohio Malitia personly
appeared Befour me + Charles Chapman one of the justics of the peas
for said county + and took the oath to suport the Constitution of the
United States and the Constitution of the State of Oh :

Given under my hand and seal this 18 of November A. D. 1814

Charles Chapman"
Folded and further indorsed :

' Commission
J. Holmes Lt Colonel
3d Regt 1st Brig. 4 Div"

These documents came by presentation to the author from two
of his sons, George and Abraham, executors of his last will and
testament, not long after the close of the Civil War.

The veteran was to take no further active part in warfare,
though he was to see his country engaged in three other wars
before he passed away, Seminole, Mexican and Civil.

The contest in the reduction of the forest and the improve-
ment and cultivation of the soil did not abate one jot or tittle
with him for fifty years. These were fundamentals. \\ ith them,
however, neither public nor private duties were neglected and in
a new country they were numerous.

In the early '20s he was one of the Commissioners of Harrison
County. The County had been erected out of the original
Jefiferson County, January 2, 1813.

In 1832 he was elected to the Senate of Ohio for the counties
of Jefiferson and Harrison. He served in the position two years,
the first session of that body extending frotn December 3, 1832

Holmes Family 211

to February 25, 1833, and the second session from December 2,
1833 to March 3, 1834. He was a member o^ the Standing
Committee of three on Colleges and Universities.

The election occurred on the second Tuesday of October, 1832,

and following is a copy of one of the tickets used by electors :

"Governor
Robert Lncas

Congress
Samuel Stokely

Senator
Joseph Holmes

Representative
Joseph Rea

Commissioner
Daniel Hardsock

Auditor
John M. Lacey

Recorder
John C. Huston."

One of his firmest friends during that service — also a member
of the Senate — was Hon. Peter Hitchcock of Geauga County,
later one of the ablest and most distinguished Supreme Justices
the State has ever chosen.

It was not long after the return from that service until he
passed the ordinary span of life and then in 1844, he called his
four sons to the "old home" for consultation as to the ultimate
division of his property and the intermediate care of himself
and his aging wife. He was the eighth child of his father's
family, seven of the ten had then passed on and, as he told the
sons, he "could not, reasonably, expect to be here much longer."

The business was settled in a day and early in 1845, he retired
from the active cares of life. Thenceforward he enjoyed his
"ease with dignity." By 1856, his brothers and sisters were all
gone. On the 5th of March, 1862, his closest companion for
sixty-three years and one month left him much alone in the;
world.

212 American History

The will of Col. Joseph Holmes, made August 4, 1854, proved
^lay 1, 1868, is recorded in Book C, at pages 114 and 115, Harri-
son County, Ohio, Record of \\'ills.

He mentions as equal legatees five of his daughters, ''Alary
Glasner. wife of John Glasner, Elizabeth Thomas, deceased, wife
of Isaac Thomas, Cynthia Stiers, deceased, wife of John Stiers,
Sarah Haverheld, wife of James Haverfield, and Susan Webb,
wife of Joseph \\'ebb. deceased — Sarah Elliott and Susannah
Thomas taking the share of their mother share and share alike
subject to an advancement of SlOO made Nov. 21, 1849, and the
daughters of Cynthia taking their mother's full share in like
manner ;

"Except that which is specifically disposed of in a certain Bond
executed to me by my son Asa Holmes bearing date the Twenty
Ninth day of July 1854."

He nominates his sons George and Abrahani as executors and
enjoins upon them the old fashioned duty of overseers.

The witnesses of the will were the sons of the first named
executor, Joseph, Jr. and Rezin Holmes.

The bond required of the executors was $5,000.
The estate was duly and fully settled.

His lands had been disposed of by deeds prior to the beginning
of 1845, when he was seventy-four years of age. He lived more
than twenty-three years afterward.

A great war was on ; his interest in it was intense, for his
whole life, civil, military, as a pioneer and builder from wilder-
ness and territorial days, with personal memories east of the
mountains and of Kingly times, the progress through the dark-
ness of Revolution and the darkness of savagery ; through labors
and services and sacrifices, through wars and rumors of war, he
had come out in the clear light of a great country to find it at his
sunset torn by dissensions and indulging in bloodshed, of which,
in one view, none might have a keener appreciation. It was a
proposition to destroy the government, which, in their way, he
and his had helped to build. "What is the danger?" was with

Holmes Family 213

him a burning question. The depth of its interest, at such an
age, was a sort of marvel. There was an ahiiost unwonted
restlessness to know each day's developments of the struggle.
He lived to hear the answer — "Great as it has been, the danger
is past," and when his eyes at last closed on the 20th day of
April, 1868, it was with the assurance that the doctrine of dis-
union was dead. Those three last years were as clear intellectually
as though the years, had been in the seventies and not away down
at the close of the nineties. There is still a vivid memory of his
abiding interest in word pictures drawn for him by two of his
grandsons from the fields of the Rebellion and in his own com-
parisons and contrasts with those of camp and field in T2-T5,
or, back of that, in '90-'94, recalled and reviewed.

The graves of himself and wife are fitly marked at the Dick-
erson Methodist Episcopal Church, which church they helped
to found in the wilderness days of eighteen hundred and two.

The children of Joseph and Sarah McNabb Holmes were
George, 1799-1886, who married, 1st, Hannah Lynn, 2d, Tacy
Thompson, and 3d, Hannah Mansfield; Mary, 1801-1882, mar-
ried John Glasener; Elizabeth, 1803-1851, married, 1st, A\^illiam
Dickerson, 2d, Isaac Thomas; Cynthia, 1805-1844, married John
Stiers ; Asa S., 1806-1891, married Mary McCoy; Abraham,
1808-1880, married, 1st, Rachel Mansfield, 2d, Phebe Ekey ;
Martha, 1811-1893, married John Webb; Joseph, 1815-1891,
married, 1st, Mary Heberling, 2d, Sarah I. Moore; Sarah, 1815-
187+, married James Haverfield ; Susannah, 1820-1878, married,
1st, Joseph Webb, 2d, Joseph Dunlap; John, 1821-1829.

Nine of these children reared families and their descendants
are numerous and widely scattered. There is a marked tendency,
however, toward the extinction of the name among them as the
Holmes sons are outnumbered by the daughters and seem to be
growing ''few and far between."

The graves of George, Asa S., Abraham, Susannah and John
are at the Dickerson Church, that of Mary in Eastern Illinois,
that of Elizabeth in Southeastern Iowa, that of Cynthia, at the

214 American History

Stiers Meeting House, Harrison County, Ohio, that of Alartha
at New Athens, Ohio, and that of Joseph at Hopedale, Ohio.

The following" sentences are extracted from a sketch of
Col. Joseph Holmes, written for Caldwell's Harrison County
History in 1875. The author of the sketch is now unknown.
His lines are copied literally.

"Mr. Holmes lived on the same farm until his death April 20th, 1868;
he was a farmer and a man of very exemplary habits, using no tobacco or
whisky and never had a doctor in his life, and would not in his last
illness. He knew his time had come, and at the good old age of 97 years
and two months, he retained a good memory and knew all that was going
on until his last moments. His family still live in the township and own
near twelve hundred acres of the finest land in the township. Abraham" —
his home is illustrated in the work — "still owns a part of the old Home-
stead, with such beautiful scenery and such fine homes, rich and deep soil,
the best spring water in almost every field, and instead of wild beasts, we
find sheep on every hill top, that raises the finest wool the world pro-
duces."

XoTE. — The last survivor of the wives, or widows, Sarah Moore Holmes,
died January 2, 1914.

u
u

VII

ASA SHINN HOLMES

Asa S. Holmes, the fifth child of Joseph and Sarah McNabb
Hohiies, was born on Indian Shortcreek in what was then Jeffer-
son County, Ohio, on the 4th day of December, 1806. He died
there January 3, 1891.

His generation is all gone, but his is the last of that class in
the family. It is a sort of immediate link between the dead and
the living. The substance of the sketch, which will be more
of the character than of the life, was written more than ten
years ago, but not then for publication.

He grew to manhood on the homestead, receiving there a
common school education only.

The years 1828-1831 were spent with his cousin Obadiah
Holmes in contracting and building in Richland County, Ohio,
during which his home was in the family of his uncle Samuel.
During the years 1833-1835 he was engaged in building at and
about the old home in the County of Harrison. The house
which is the residence of the present owner was built by him — •
the brick in 1834-5 and the frame portion in 1849. In 1836,
he made a flat boat run, with flour, from Pittsburgh to New
Orleans. Coming home, at Vicksburg he and his traveling
companion, Wm. Mansfield, found the ice running in the Missis-
sippi so as to stop navigation and they walked through the wilds
of middle and northern Mississippi, western Tennessee and
Kentucky to Louisville and thence followed the course of the
Ohio River to their homes, arriving about the third of December.

February 2, 1837, he married Mary McCoy— b. May 3, 1814,
d. March 18, 1901 — and settled on a portion of the homestead.
April 1, 1839, he moved to the village of Georgetown, Harrison
County, becoming, in turn, the owner of its flouring mill and

217

218 American History

machine shops, until February 22, 1845, when he became owner
of the homestead, where he resided the remainder of his life.
His justice's docket, while resident of the village, bears evidence
that the law is ever in favor with some persons as a resort for
redress or defense, real or imagined.
The Latin poet said,

Ex lino discc omncs.

This sketch and partial, disconnected, estimate of one, may
give some idea of the strength and fiber of all of his brothers
and sisters where separate history, estimates and details, accord-
ing to the plan, are impossible.

He was more than the ordinary man in many ways. With full
opportunities and proper training in the schools, he would have
shown an intellect of great strength ; he would have illustrated
the stretch and compass of the human understanding. No words
can now help or harm him and what is said comes from long
knowledge and a judgment of the man, which has gone on matur-
ing to this day.

It was his perennial regret that a college education had been
denied him. After he was twenty-five years of age and even
beyond his marriage, he continued to purchase and study books
belonging to higher education. Some of them are at hand now,
and have been in the author's library for many years.

The schooling in the backwoods, in his school days, was some-
what irregular, unsystematic, often imperfect, three months in
wdnter and subordinate, at all times, to the demands of manual
labor of which there was great abundance, summer and winter,
for young and old, male and female, and the heads of the house
had no use for laggards.

It would seem to be enough to suggest such an ambition and
hint at its limitations.

He had the instinctsi and, by nature, the heart and soul, of a
gentle man. He was tender, considerate and just to all others,
always. He sought with earnest solicitude what was right and
from fixed and intelligent principle adhered to it tenaciously.

Indian Shortcreek Homestead

Holmes Family 221

His integrity of purpose and life was as steady as the light of
the sun and as pure. He doubtless erred, as who, among men,
■ has not done so? But he committed no errors that were touched
with any element of wrong in the intent. He suffered wrongs,
most of them patiently, quietly, and the disposition to do so
increased with the increase of years. He was a proud-spirited,
high-tempered man. The proud spirit was veiled by his gentle-
ness and his pervading sense of justice to all men, and his high
temper was uniformly held in check by a self control, which he
had studied and exercised from youth onward.

*|C ^ ^ ^

When he was perhaps forty-two years of age, he attended, as
often happened, a public meeting one evening in the home village
two miles away. The leading and considerable men of the village
were there as speakers. The building was crowded. He spoke
near the close of the meeting. He had not been quite well for a
week. Keeping close to the subject, he presently touched one of
its branches, human sympathy, and drew an illustration from the
life of Napoleon. After one of his great battles, the Emperor
was traversing the held, walking among the slain — no sound, no
life — when suddenly he came upon a faithful dog affectionately
licking the hand of its dead master. Napoleon stopped ; grasping
the scene in an instant, he burst into tears. No words were
needed to make the application. When the speaker reached the
climax, his eyes filled, his voice choked and he stood for a moment
speechless, overcome by emotion from the force of his illustration
and its rushing, unexpressed application. The writer never saw
an audience more deeply moved for a little time than that one
was. It Sieemed not to breathe. A new light shone around the
speaker ; he had disclosed a strange power over men and women,
yet it was simplicity itself. It was the touch of true eloquence,
an index of the innate strength and force that were in him.

He was deeply imbued with the wisdom of a temperate life —
a pronounced temperance man. In another such meeting along
in the same years. Dr. Samuel Thompson narrated his personal
experience in breaking the habit of drinking whiskey in the

222 American History

harvest field. It had heen the "fad" of those early days to furnish
the reapers with strong drink — everybody drank in the harvest
held. Dr. Thompson claimed, no doubt, honestly and truthfully,
that he was the first young man of the country side to pass the
bottle or the jug and refuse the accustomed dram. He was about
nineteen years of age when he made his resolve, in this respect,
and began to carry it into execution. By that time he had acquired
a strong liking for liquor and his picture of his struggle, which
was a long and hard one, and his final triumph over the dangerous
habit, delivered in short, clear, pithy sentences, w'as very graphic.

When the Doctor sat down Asa Holmes rose to his feet and
began speaking. He turned his thoughts and words especially to
the young men and the boys. He and Doctor Thompson had been
lifelong friends and they knew each other well in that early life
in forest and field. He referred to the example of his friend
and commended it in appropriate terms, and then he did what
showed the aptitude, the natural talent and the wisdom of the
speaker, his capacity for seizing and improving opportunities.
Dr. Thompson w^as three years his senior and they had quit the
drink in the same year, but it had required much less effort on
the part of the speaker to master the appetite than his friend had
described in his own case.

Then he drove home his leading thought that the difference in
their ages and the lighter, easier, struggle by the younger man, or
boy, to "break off" was a striking argument in favor of quitting
early in life — the earlier, the better, and best of all was never to
begin.

He was a good listener, an agreeable companion. He was fair
and open in debate, ever aiming at the development of the truth
of a matter. He was a mathematician of much strength and
skill, a native logician. Admit his premises, and, as a rule, his
conclusion prevailed.

His philosophy was of the soundest character ; its maxims and
sayings were broad and deep in doctrine. What could excel his
constant teaching that tended to contentment? "Enough is as
good as a feast." "Whatever be thy lot, learn therewith to be

Holmes Family 223

content." In heathen phrase, "accept the goods the gods provide."
"Once I was young, but now I am old, yet have I not seen the
righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread." "Materia mcdica
has no cure for old age."

He was full of such wisdom and imparted it freely and effect-
ively. He was a theologian, a Biblical scholar, in the sense of
familiarity with the Divine Word, penetration into the Divine
meaning and ability to express his ideas clearly, with few equals
in all that country.

His patriotism had no discount and his faith and trust in the
ultimate judgment of the people was abiding, immovable.

After he had passed four score he was one day walking through
his lawn with one of his sons, then starting on the return to his
own home from a visit to the parents, when, in a sort of retro-
spection, he quietly said, "I feel as though the world had gone ofif
and left me." It was in 1890. Every child of their ten, save
one, was out of the home and away in homes of their own. Every
brother and sister, save one, Joseph, had passed away. As he
looked out over the hills and valleys and forests, near and farther
away, with which and with whose inhabitants he had been familiar
from childhood, his father's comrades, associates and neighbors
were all gone, his own companions through life had nearly all
entered the tent whose doors swing inward only and the loneli-
ness of old age, which stands next to that of the grave, had, in
the course of nature, come to him. He saw it all in that retro-
spect and in its true perspective.

Ten years before his death he made an elaborate will disposing
of his estate, his chief concern all through its preparation being
that his wife, if she should survive him, should be abundantly and
assuredly provided and cared for while she lived, but at the be-
ginning of December, 1890, in a series of conferences with most
of their children he cancelled his will and administered and dis-
tributed his own estate, retaining and providing for the legal hold
upon it, which should secure the support and comfort of himself
and his wife for the remainder of their days, and a month later.

224 American History

January 3, 1891, at 10 a. m. he died. His wife survived until the
18th day of March, 1901, at 8 a. m. They are buried in the
Dickerson Church yard.

An extract from her memorial — March 23, 1901 — will appro-
priately close this sketch and, at the same time, end the work on
"a line of ancestors."

5}* SJC ^ 5ji

"She did her duty well. No child, no neighbor, no friend, no enemy —
if she ever had one — can justly lay to her charge a single teaching, or doc-
trine, inculcated in the mind of a single child not in accord with the teach-
ings and doctrines of the Word, or not on the highest plane of morals.
I am oldest, knew her longest, if not best, and I never heard a syllable, or
witnessed an act, on her part, that tended, in the smallest degree, to evil.

"She was quick to perceive the wrong, if any there were, in conduct or
sentiment and prompt to rebuke, or check, or correct it, as occasion might
require. She had an instinctive appreciation of the finer shades of right
and wrong and resolved all doubts touching them on the safe side. She
neither went in the waj' with what was not clearly right, nor would she
permit her children to do so.

* sK * *

"In January 1891, father went away. They had lived and walked together
as husband and wife nearly fifty-four years. They had seen their fathers
and mothers pass into the unknown and this was the first member of their
family circle of twelve to join the silent majority.

"More than ten years have gone by since and now the second one of the
charmed circle has stepped beyond, after a long, strong life.

"How many of the blood and their friends are "over there' !

"She was given a vision by the Master of Life vouchsafed to few mothers
in this world and as she la}" in her casket in the church her face had in it
a glorified look such as I never saw there before, as though the spirit in the
rapture of this last view of earth and the first view of heaven were trans-
forming the features again into the bloom and smoothness of perfect youth
and health.

"I recall my tall, young, dark-haired mother while the roses which had
blushed on her bridal day still mantled her cheeks. I remember her as
she appeared in the old house by the mill before the year 1840 came in.
There are others still living, who remember her many years longer ; among

The Last Survivor of the "Line'

Holmes Family 227

them, her sister Susannah, who must have known her since 1823, nearly
eighty years, having herself been born October 20, 1821.

''Within fifty-three days of her 87th birthday, she saw her ten children
all alive — five sons and five daughters — ranging in ages from sixty-four
down to forty-five years, in respect and honor wherever known; scattered,
it is true, but each loyal to her as the retaining point of the old home —
itself over an hundred years old.

"Eight of them attended the funeral service and four of the sons slowly
lowered her body to its last resting place.

"The eight represented almost as many residences : Columbus, Cadiz,
New Philadelphia, Shortcreek, Chicago, Athens, Steubenville. The two
daughters absent are residents, respectively, of Miami, Indian Territory,
and Lorain, Ohio.

"It is not at all likely that a parallel can be found in the Northwest
Territory : the father and mother, each, beyond four score years at death,
and ten children, so evenly divided, all living. It was an exceptional
vision — to her, a very great mercy."

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Ernest Axon 9

Cathedral Church^ Manchester 13

Location of Whipping Post 23

Site of Whipping Post 27

Deed of 1657 33

Holmes Farm — Plat 35

The Clock 39

Page of Memorial 45

The Will 59

Judge John C. Burke 63

Holmes Burying Ground Views 67, 69, 73

Plat of Graves 75

Modern Plat, Including Holmes Farm 81

Tracing and Photograph — Names of Father and Son 91

Col. Asher Holmes' Letter Ill

Judge Geo. C. Beekm an 115

The Old Home, 1720-1722, Front View 123

The Old Home, 1720-1722, Rear View 125

The Old Home, 1720-1722, Interior Views 127, 131, 133

Home of Joseph Holmes, Jr 143

Home of Joseph L. Holmes 145

Joseph Holmes 155

Mrs. Mary Holmes Rue and Mrs. Martha A. Holmes 157

Cross wicks Baptist Church — Yellow Meeting House 159

Samuel Holmes, of Isaac 177

Samuel Holmes Homestead 179

Col. Joseph Holmes 191

Mouth of Owl Creek 197

Scene of Quarterly Meeting, 1805 207

Dickerson Church 215

Indian Shortcreek Homestead 219

Last Survivor of the 'Tine" 225

Colophon 229

231

A Line of Ancesters, 3-4.

Account of Lieut. John Holmes, 1-49.

Adams, Brooks, 21.

Adena, Jefferson County, O.. 171. 181.

Alabama, 164.

Albro, Capt. John, 41.

Alden, John, 18.

Alexander the Great — Tavern, 161.

Allegheny County, Pa., 173.

Allegheny Mountains, 190.

Allegheny River, 163, 166.

America, 55, 79.

Andrews, Lieut. Col. John, 206.

Angher, John, 48.

"Annals of Salem"— Felt, 12.

Appalachian Mountains, 6, 164.

Aquidneck, Island of, 18.

Armitage, Rev. Dr. Thos., 57.

Arnold, Gen. Benedict, 41.

Arnold, Gov. Benedict, 18, 31, 41.

Asgill, Capt. Charles, 110.

Asgill, Mrs., his Mother, 110.

Ashton Burying Ground, 147.

Ashton, James, 86, 87.

Ashton, John, 121.

Ashton, John, 122.

Ashton, John, 150.

Ashton, Joseph, 121, 135.

Ashton, Sarah Holmes, 186, 187.

Athens, O., 227.

Austin's "Rhode Island Diet.," 15.

Axon, Ernest, 7, 9.

B
Backus, Rev. Isaac, 57.
Baker, Avis. 77
Baker, Catherine Matilda, 77.
Baker, John. 77.
Baker, John H., 38.

Baker, John Holmes, 77.

Baker, William, 141.

Baptism, 19.

Baptist Church at Cohansey, 55.

Baptist Church. Middletown — See

under Middletown.
Baptist Church — First — of Newport,

26, 31, 43.
Baptist Church, Upper Freehold, 130,

148.
Baptists, History of — Backus, 57.
Barbadoes, 42.
Barber & Howe, 109.
Bardsley, Chas. \V.. 11.
Barker, James, 41. 61.
Barrie, Col. L-aac, 169.
Bartlett, Hon. Joseph G., 29.
Beautiful River — See Ohio.
Beaver Block House Expedition, 194,

199.
Beech Bottom, 170. 202.
Eeekman, Hon. Geo. C, 8, 106. 110,

113, 115.
Beers, Benj., 148.
Belcher, Gov. Jonathan, 152.
Bellingham, Rich., 19.
Belmont County, O., 201.
Benedict, Rev. David. 57.
Berkeley County, Va., 190.
Berkele}-, Lord. 85.
Berkeley Memorial Chapel, 66.
Bible of Asa S. Holmes, 5.
Bible of Col. Jos. Flolmes, 5.
Bible of Hon. Jos. Holmes, 122, 141,

147.
Bible References, 53, 54.
Big Beaver, 190.
Biggs, Lieut, 195. ■
Bill Creek, 194.
Bliss, ^Ir. — Historian, 16.

232

Index

233

Boone, Daniel, 182.

Borden, Benj., 105.

Borden, Richard', 80, 105.

Boston Harbor, 12.

Boston, Mass., 12, 19, 26, 37, 47, 79,
201.

Boston Massacre, 29, 163.

Boston Tea Party, 163.

Bowne, Capt. Andrew, 107.

Bowne, Ann, 80.

Bowne, Capt. John, 52, 55, 80, 83, 84,

87, 88, 107.
Bowne, John, Junior, 119.
Bowne, Lydia Hohnes, 52, 53, 55, 61,

80, 165.
Bowne, Obadiah, 80, 105.
Bowne, Sarah — .Salter, 55, 165.
Bowne, William, 80.
Braddock's Defeat, 163.
Braddock's Road, 167.
Bradford, Gov. William, 18.
Brady, Capt. Samuel, 193, 194, 195,

199, 200.
Brady's Leap, 193.
Brandywine, Battle of, 167, 168.
Brays, John, 135.
Brazier Bldg. — Boston, 29.
Brentcn, Jahleel, 94.
Bridges, Robert, 19.
British, 62, 110, 163, 168, 170, 189, 205,

209.
British Cabinet, 169.
British Isles, 22.
British Parliament, 129, ]69
Brooke County, Va., 190, 194, 196.
Brown, Rev. Chad,, 56.
Brown, Deborah — dau. of Mary

Holmes Brown, 56.
Brown, James — s. of Mary Holmes

Brown, 56.
Brown, John — husb. of Mary Holmes

Brown, 56.
Brown, John — s. of Mary Holmes

Brown, 56. .

Brown, Martha — dau. of Mary

Holmes Brown, 56, 61.
Brown, Mary Holmes, 53, 55, 56, 61.
Brown, Obadiah — s. of Mary Holmes

Brown, 56.
Brown University, 56, 57.
Brownsville, Pa., 4.
Bufifalo Creek, 170, 194, 196.
Bukey, Ki., 195.
Bull, C. M., 44.
Burke, Edmund, 169.
Burke, Hon. John C, 8, 62, 72.
Burlington, N. J.,. 117, 3 36, 137, 149,

152.
Burlington Path, 118.
Burr, Aaron, 175.
Burrows, John, 111.
Burrows, John, 148.
Burton, Stephen, 37.
Burwell, Lewis, 138.

Cadiz, O., 173, 227.

Caldwell's "History of Harrison

County, O.," 214.
Camp Charlotte, 173.
Canada, 163, 189.
Carlton, Gen., 62.
Carpenter's Block House, 194.
Carpenter, Geo., 200.
Carpenter, William, 41.
Carroll County, O., 175.
Carteret, Sir Geo., 85.
Carteret, Gov. Ph., 85.
"Cassandra Southwick" — Whittier, 42,
Castleman Girls, 196.
Catfish Camp, 167.
Catfish, the Indian, 167.
Cathedral Church, Manchester, Eng.,

11, 12.
Chaplin, Moses, 171.
Chapman, Chas., 210.
Charles II, 31, 51, 84, 85, 86, 87, 106.
Charlestown — Wellsburg — Va., 170,

196.

234

Index

Chartiers Creek, 167, 170, 189, 193.

Cheshire, England, 7.

Chicago, 111., 227.

Chillicothe, O., 209.

Church Book of Middletown Baptist
Church, 107.

Cincinnati, O., 175.

Civil War, 210, 212.

Clark, Weston, 58, 62, 65, 90.

Clarke, Dr. John, 18, 19, 20, 21, 26,

29, 31, 32, 41, 84.
Clarke, Joseph, 61.
Clarke, Gov. William, 89.
Clock of Rev. Obadiah Holmes, 37,

38, 39.
Clunn Bros., 161.
Clunn, John, 161.
Clunn, Capt. Joseph, 161.
Coddington, Gov. William, 18, 89.
Cohansey, West Jersey, 55, 162.
Collegiate Church, Manchester, Eng.,

11, 12.
Colonial Dames, 152, 153.
Colony House, Newport, 95, 96.
Columbus, O., 167, 173, 186, 227..
Commission of Col. Joseph Holmes,

209.
Committee of Safety, X. J., 136, 153.
Compton, William, 150.
Condit, Silas, 152.
Confederate Congress, U. S., 84.
Conklin, Ananias, 43, 153.
Connecticut, 8, 31, 84. 97.
Continental Army, 163.
Continental Treasury, 151.
Coombs, Rachel — Holmes', 129.
Coombs, Solomon, 129.
Cooper, John, 152.
Cory, William, 90.
Coshocton County, O., 186, 193.
Cotton, Dr. John, 20.
Cottrell, Gershom, 114.
Cottrell. Nicolas, 119.
Council of War, 87.

Court of Sessions, Monmouth Co.,

N. J., 105.
Covenhoven, Elias, 119.
Covenhoven, Jacob, 111.
Coward, John, 117, 121.
Cox, Thos., 148, 151.
Crandall, John, 18, 20, 21, 29, 31, 32.
Cranston, Capt. Samuel, 94.
Crawford Campaign, 169, 170, 194, 199.
Crawford, Col. William, 26, 170.
Crawford's Defeat, 169.
Cream Ridge, N. J., 8, 151, 153.
Crosswicks, 118.
Crosswicks Baptist Church — See

Yellow Meeting House.
Cuyahoga River, 193.

D. A. R., 153.

Daniel, Capt. Jos., 90.

Dark Ages, 29.

Davis, Aron, 104.

Declaration of Faith-
Holmes, 43, 47.

Declaration of Independence, 29, 86,
106— first.

Deed of 1657, 33.

Delaware, 137.

Delaware River, 55.

Denison, Iowa, 5.

Detroit, Mich., 169.

Detroit, Surrender of, 205.

Devell, William, 17, 37.

Devell, Mrs. Wm., 17.

Dexter, Gregory, 41.

Dickerson Church Dedication, 204.

Dickerson, Eli, 205.

Dickerson, Mrs. Eli, 205.

Dickerson, Elizabeth Holmes, 213.

Dickerson Graveyard, 187, 224.

Dickerson, Alary Curry, 204, 205.

Dickerson M. E. Church. 173, 204,
213, 215.

Dickerson Run, 204.

Dickerson, Susannah McCoy, 227.

-Rev. Obadiah

Index

235

Dickerson, Thomas — Pioneer, 204,

205.
Dickerson, Vachel, 200.
Dickerson, William, 213.
Dillingham, Capt. Edw., 71, 77.
Dillingham, Sarah Holmes — Tilling-

hast, 71, 77.
Dillingham, William T., 77.
Dcddridge, Rev. Dr. Joseph, 174.
Dcddridges, 184.
Doddridge's Notes, 174.
Drake's "New England Legends," 42.
Draper, Dr. Lyman C, 181, 190, 193-

200.
Draper Mss., 181, 190-200.
Dudley, Tho., 19.
Duke, Francis, 202.
Duke of York, 51, 80, 85, 86, 87.
Dunlap, Joseph, 213.
Dunlap, Susannah Holmes, 213.
Dunmore War, 173.
Dutch, 87, 88.

Ear mark — Capt. Jonathan Holmes,

84.
Earl of Nottingham, 107.
"Early Dutch Settlers" — Beekman,

106.
■'Eariy Dutch Settlers" — Salter, 56.
Easton, Mary Holmes, 97, 99.
Edgington, Jos., 200.
Edgington, Thos., 195, 196.
Egypt, 93.

Elizabethtown, N. J., 84, 85, 88.
Ellicott, Mr., 199.
Elliott, Sarah Thomas, 212.
Ellis, Elizabeth Holmes, 129, 147.
Ellis' "History of Monmouth County,'"

130.
Ellis, Mary Ann, 147.
Ellis, Rowland, 129.
"Emancipation of Mass." — Adams, 21.
Embury, Philip, 183.
Emerson, Jefferson County, O., 201.

Endicott, Gov. John, 19, 22, 42.

Emgland, 7, 41, 87, 88, 94, 95, 129, 163,
168.

English Courts, 84.
English Harbor, 168, 173.

"English Surnames" — Bardsley, 11.

Episcopal Church, 174

Erie, Clayton, 129.
Erie, Mary Holmes, 122, 129.
Essex Antiquarian, 42.
Established Church, 16, 18, 19.

Faith, Declaration of — Rev. Obadiah

Holmes, 43, 47.
Fallen Timbers, Battle of, 169, 170,

171, 172, 189.
Farr, Thomas, 148.
Fayette County, Pa., 204.
Felt's "Annals of Salem," 12.
First Baptist Church in America, 26.
First Church of Salem — See Salem

Church.
First Declaration of Independence, 86.
Flint, Mr., 22.
Fones, Elder John, 72.
Fones, Lydia, 72.
Forbes, Gen. John, 163.
Forman, Col. Samuel, 137.
Forman, Samuel, 150.
Fort Cumberland, 163, 165, 167.
Fort DuQuesne, 163.
Fort Edward, N. Y., 138.
Fort Harmar, 181.
Fort Henry— Wheeling, 168, 169, 170,

202.
Fort Meigs, 200, 206, 209.
Fort Pitt— Pittsburgh, 175, 181, 193,

194.
Fort Washington, 175.
Fox, Charles James, 169.
France, 190.

Franklin County, Ohio, 185,
Franklinton Graveyard, 185.

236

Index

Freehold, Monmouth Co., X. J., 108, Groton, Mass., 38.

114. Grove Cemeter\-, Kenton, O., 184 187.

French and Indian War, 163. , Grover, James, 87.

Gallipolis Expedition, 181.

Gardiner. R.. 104.

Gatchell, John, 15.

Geauga County, Ohio, 211.

General Assembly of New Jersey, 84,

85, 87, 88, 137.
General Assembh- of Rhode Island.

31, 38, 89, 90, 93, 94, 95.
General Court at Boston, 19, 20.
General Court at Providence, 31.
General Court at Warwicke, 30.
General Government, 171.
George, 148, 150.
George III, 169.

Georgetown — Shortcreek — Ohio, 217.
Georgia, 164.

Germantown— Battle of, 109, 113.
Gibbons, Richard, 86.
Girty, George, 195.
Girty, George, s. of above, 195.
Glasener, John, 212, 213.
Glasener, Mary Holmes, 212, 213.
Glass Works of Rev. Obadiah

Holmes, 12, 42, 153.
Gnadenhutten, 168, 169, 3 93, 195, 196.
Gorton Chapel, 48.
Gorton, Samuel, 18.
Graves of Rev. Obadiah Holmes and

Wife, 66, 67, 69, 71.
Gravesend, Long Island, X. Y., 3, 52,

56, 80, 84, 88, 103, 114, 162.
Great Britain 130, 190.
Great Lakes, 169.
Great ^[eadows, 163.
Green Township, Harrison County,

O., 175.
Greene, Capt. John, 41.
Greene, Thos.. 90.
Greenville, Treaty of, 189, 190.
Griffith, Xathan, 171.

Haman — Biblical, 18.

Hamar, X^athan, 171.

Hamilton, Gov., 105.

Hanse, John, 85, 87.

Hardin County, Ohio, 182, 183, 186.

Hardsock, Daniel, 211.

Harmar's Campaign, 169, 175.

Harper Encyclopaedia, 38.

FJarper, Thomas, 195.

Harper's Ferry, Va. 166.

Harrison County. Ohio, 200, 210, 214,

217.
Harrison. Gen. Wm. H., 206.
Harrisville, Ohio. 175.
Hartshorne, Richard, 87, 103, 104.
Haverfield, James, 212, 213.
Haverfield, Sarah Holmes, 212, 213.
Hays, Jeremiah, 185.
Hays, ]\Iargaret Holmes — Pegg, 166,

171, 185, 186.
Hazell, John, 17, 26.
Heath. John, 90.
Heck, Barbara, 183.
Hedges, Samuel, 196.
Hedges, Solomon. 196.
Hell Gate. X. Y., 62.
Henderson, Dr., 151.
Hendrickson, Jacob, 149.
Hessians, 109, 139.
FJibbins, William, 19.
Highland County, Ohio. 182.
Hiscocks, William, 41.
'"History of the Baptists'' — Backus. 57.
"History of Monmouth County" —

Ellis, 130.
'History of X'ew Jersey" — Barber &

Howe, 109.
Hitchcock, Hon. Peter, 211.
Hodgson. Robert, 41.
Holden. Maj. Roger, 90.

Index

237

Holder, Christopher, 41.

Holm, Holme, Hulme &c., 11.

Holmes — See also Houlme, Hulme.

Holmes, Abraham, s. of Pioneer
Obadiah, 162, 171, 186, 187, 205.

Holmes, Abraham, s. of Col. Joseph,
210, 212, 213, 214.

Holmes, Alice Ashton, 3, 105, 108,
109, 121.

Holmes, Alice — Polhemtis, dan. of

Hon. Jos., 122, 141, 148, 151, 161.
Holmes, Alice, dan. of Capt. Jona. &

Lydia T., 129.
Holmes, Alice, dan. of John & De-
borah L., 129, 147
Holmes, Alice Stillwell, 56, 162.
Holmes, Ann Lowrie, 129.
Holmes, Asa S., s. of Col. Jos., 4, 5,

205, 212, 213, 217, 218, 222, 223,

224, 227.
Holmes, Col. Asher, 109, 110, 111, 130.
Holmes Burying Ground, 37, 66, 67,

69, 71, 72, 73, 75, 77, 98.
Holmes, Catherine — Whitman, 97, 99.
Holmes, Charlotte — Ward, dau. of

Samuel of Pioneer, 186. 187.
Holmes, Clunn, s. of Isaac, of

Pioneer, 175, 176.
Holmes, Daniel, 149, 150.
Plolmes, Deborah Leonard, 122, 129,

147, 149, 151.
Holmes, Deliverance — Smith, dau. of

Shf. Obadiah, 108, 118, 130.
Holmes Documents, 44-50, 52, 58, 99.
Holmes, Elizabeth, 130.
Holmes, Elizabeth Ashton, 3, 121, 122,

129, 136, 138, 140, 141, 147, 152,

161, 162.
Holmes, Elizabeth, dau. of Isaac, of

Pioneer, 176.
Holmes, Elizabeth,, dau. of Samuel, of

Pioneer, 187.
Holmes, Elizabeth — Ellis, dau. of

John & Deborah L., 129, 147.

Holmes, Elizabeth Huff, 181, 182, 184,

185, 187.

Holmes, Elizabeth Johnson — Rollins,
173, 187, 205.

Holmes, Elizabeth McNabb, 174, 175,
176, 186, 201.

Holmes, Elizabeth — Pumphrey, dau.
of Pioneer Obadiah, 162, 164, 171,
181.

Holmes, Elizabeths — Wyckoff, dau. of
Capt. Jona. & Lydia T., 122.

Holmes Farm, Newport, R. I., 32, 35,
81.

Holmes, George, s. of Col. Jos., 205,

210, 212, 213.
Holmes, George, s. of Isaac, of

Pioneer, 176.
Holmes, Hannah Lynn, 213.
Holmes, Hannah Mansfield, 213.
Holmes, Huldah, dau. of Samuel, of

Pioneer, 187.
Holmes. Huldah Mott, 109, 113.
Holmes, Isaac, s. of Pioneer Obadiah,

99, 162, 171, 174, 175, 176, 182,

186, 200.

Holmes, Jacob, s. of Pioneer Obadiah,
166, 171, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185,
186, 187, 190, 193, 194, 200.

Holmes, James, s. of Shf. Obadiah,
108, 117, 118, 119.

Holmes, James, s. of Hon. Jos., 122,
141.

Holmes, Jane Richardson, 173.

Holmes, John, bro. of Rev. Obadiah,
12.

Holmes, John, inf. s. of Rev. Oba-
diah, 12, 51, 54, 57, 79^ 129.

Holmes, John, Treas. & Lieut., s. of
Rev. Obadiah, 53, 54, 56, 61, 89,
90, 93, 94, 95, 129.

Holmes, John, s. of John, Treas. &
Lieut., 94.

Holmes, John, s. of Joseph of Capt.
Jonathan, 38.

238

Index

Holmes, John & Mary — Holmes Bury-
ing Ground, 71.

Holmes, John — Holmes Burying

Ground, 72, 77.
Holmes, John, Jr., 95.
Holmes, John, 107.
Holmes, John, s. of Shf. Obadiah,

108, 119.

Holmes, John, inf. s. of Hon. Jos.,

122, 129, 138, 141, 161.
Holmes, John, Lieut., s. of Hon. Jos.,

122, 129, 138, 139, 140, 141, 143,

147, 148, 149, 151, 161, 162.
Holmes, John, s. of Capt. Jonathan &

Lydia T, 122.
Holmes, John L., s. of Lieut. John &

Deborah L., 129, 147.
Holmes, John, s. of Pioneer Obadiah,

162, 167, 168, 172, 176.
Holmes, John, s. of Abraham, of

Pioneer, 173, 174.
Holmes, John McXabb. s. of Isaac,

of Pioneer, 176.
Holmes, Jonathan, Capt. & Speaker,

s. of Rev. Obadiah, 3, 12, 37,

38, 52, 53, 54, 55, 61, 72, 79, 80.

83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93,

95, 96, 97, 98, 99. 100, 103, 104, 105,

107, 108, 109, 113, 114, 118, 152,

165.
Holmes, Jonathan — Holmes Burying

Ground, 72
Holmes. Jonathan — Holmes Burying

Ground, 72.
Holmes, Jonathan, Sr., s. of Capt. &

Speaker Jona., 97, 98. 107, 108,

109, 119, 162.

Holmes, Jonathan, Jr.. s. of Shf.

Obadiah, 108, 109.
Holmes, Jonathan, minor, s. of Jona.,

Sr., ]09, 118.
Holmes, Jonathan, Capt., s. of Hon.

Jos., 122, 133, 138, 139, 140, 141,

148, 349, 153, 161, 162.
Holmes, Jonathan, 130.

Holmes, Joseph, s. of Rev. Obadiah,
53, 54, 56.

Holmes, Joseph, s. of Jonathan — Capt.

& Speaker, 38, 94, 97, 98.
Holmes, Joseph — Holmes Burying

Ground, 7:^
Holmes, Joseph — Holmes Burying

Ground, 72.
Holmes, Joseph — Holmes Burying

Ground, 72.
Holmes, Joseph, Hon., 3, 105, 108,

117, 118, 119, 121, 122, 129, 130,

135, 136, 137, 138, 140, 141, 143,

147, 149, 152, 153, 161, 162, 164,

165, 189.
Holmes, Joseph, Jr., s. of Hon. Jos.,

122, 137, 138, 140, 141, 143, 148,

149, 151, 161.
Holmes, Joseph, s. of Capt. Jonathan

& Lydia T., 122, 153.
Holmes, Joseph— 1810, 153.
Holmes, Joseph, s. of Lieut. John &

Deborah L., 129, 147.
Holmes, Joseph L., 145.
Holmes, Joseph, Col, 4, 5, 166, 168,

171, 173, 181, 183, 189, 190, 191,

193, 194, 195, 200, 201, 203, 204,

205, 206, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213,

214, 217.
Holmes, Joseph, s. of Col. Jos., 213,

223.

Holmes, Joseph, s. of George & Tacy

T., 204, 205, 212.
Holmes, Joseph— 1849, 151, 153, 155.
Holmes, Katherine Hyde, 3, 12, 15, 43,

48, .50, 51, 52, 54, 61, 66. 71, 77, 79,

89, 129.
Holmes, Lydia — Bowne, dan. of Rev.

Obadiah, 52. 53, 55, 61, 80, 165.
Holmes, Lydia — Holmes Burying

Ground. 72.
Holmes, Lydia — Holmes Burying

Ground. 72.

Index

239

Holmes, Lydia, dau. of Jonathan —
Capt. & Speaker, 97, 98.

Holmes, Lydia Throckmorton, 122,

133, 140, 153, 162.
Holmes, Margaret — Holmes Burying

Ground, 72.
Holmes, Margaret Fones — Holmes

Burying Ground, 72.
Holmes, Margaret — Hays-Pegg, 166,

171, 185, 186.
Holmes, Margaret, dau. of Samuel of

Pioneer, 187.
Holmes, Martha — Tillinghast, dau. of

Jonathan — Capt. & Speaker, 97, 99.
Holmes, Martha, dau. of Isaac, of

Pioneer, 176.
Holmes, Martha, dau. of Samuel of

Pioneer, 187.
Holmes, Martha A. — Cream Ridge,

153, 157.
Holmes, Mary — Brown, dau. of Rev.

Obadiah, 53, 55, 56, 61.
Holmes, Mary, Mrs. — Holmes Bury-
ing Ground, 72, 77.
Holmes, Mary — Easton, dau. of Jona-
than—Capt. & Speaker, 97, 99.
Holmes, Mary— Mott, dau. of Shf.

Obadiah, 108, 118.
Holmes, Mary — Imlay, dau. of Hon.

Jos., 122, 138, 141, 161.
Holmes, Mary Bruere, 122.
Holmes, Mary, dau.' of Lieut. John &

Deborah L., 129, 147.
Holmes, Mary Clunn, 4, 161, 166, 167,

171, 189.
Holmes, Mary Johnson, 173, 187.
Holmes, Mary McNabb, 186, 187, 201.
Holmes, Mary McCoy, 4, 213, 217,

223, 224, 225, 227.
Holmes, Mary Heberling, 213.
Holmes, Mary Marshall, 174.
Holmes, Mary, dau. of Isaac, of

Pioneer, 176.
Holmes, Mary, dau. of Samuel, of

Pioneer, 187.

Holmes Meeting House, 172, 173, 183,
205.

Holmes, Nackey, dau. of Samuel, of
Pioneer, 187.

Holmes, Nancy, dau. of Samuel, of
Pioneer, 187.

Llolmes, Nancy, dau. of Isaac, of
Pioneer, 176. ^ *--

Holmes, Rev. Obadiah, 3, 5, '7,'TT, 12,
15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25,
26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43,
44-50, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 62,
65, 71, 72, 77, 79, 80, 83, 89, 91, 98,
99, 100, 113, 114, 129, 153, 161, 165.

Holmes, Obadiah — Judge, s. of Rev.
Obadiah, 52, 53, 55, 61, 83, 162.

Holmes, Obadiah — Sheriff, 3, 80, 88,
97, 98, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109,
113, 114, 118, 119, 121, 161, 162,
165.

Holmes, Obadiah, s. of Shf. Obadiah,
108, 114, 117, 118.

Holmes, Obadiah, 107.

Holmes, Obadiah — Pioneer, 4, 6, 122,
138, 141, 161, 163, 164, 165, 166,
167, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175,
176, 183, 189, 193, 196, 211.

Holmes, Obadiah, s. of Pioneer Oba-
diah, 162, 169, 171, 173, 176, 190,
200.

Holmes, Obadiah, s. of Wm., of
Pioneer, 176, 181.

Holmes, Obadiah, Capt., s. of Samuel,
of Pioneer, 186, 187, 217.

Holmes, Phebe Ekey, 213.

Holmes, Phebe, dau. of Samuel, of
Pioneer, 187.

Holmes, Phoebe Wardell, 122.

Holmes, Rachel Coombs, 129.

Holmes, Rachel Mansfield, 213.

Holmes, Rebecca — King, dau. of
Samuel, of Pioneer, 186, 187.

Holmes, Rezin, 212.

Holmes, Robert, bro. of Rev. Obadiah.
. 43, 48.

240

Index

Holmes, Sally, dau. of Samuel, of
Pioneer, 187.

Holmes, Samuel, s. of Rev. Obadiah,
52, 53, 55, 56, 61, 162.

Holmes, Samuel, s. of Jonathan —
Capt. & Speaker, 97, 98.

Holmes, Samuel, s. of Shf. Obadiah,
108, 109, 113, 114, 117, 119.

Holmes, Samuel, 130.

Holmes, Samuel, s. of Pioneer Oba-
diah, 167, 171, 176, 177, 179, 186,
187, 200.

Holmes, Samuel, s. of Abraham, of
Pioneer, 173, 174.

Holmes, Samuel, s. of Isaac, of
Pioneer, 176.

Holmes, Samuel, s. of Samuel, of
Pioneer, 12.

Holmes, Sarah Borden, 3, 72, 80, 97,
98, 103.

Holmes, Sarah — Holmes Burying

Ground, 72.
Holmes, Sarah — Holmes Burying

Ground, 72.
Holmes, Sarah — Slade, dau. of Jona-
than—Capt. & Speaker, 97, 98.
Holmes, Sarah — Erie, dau. of Capt.

Jonathan & Lydia T., ]22.
Holmes, Sarah McNabb, 4, 173, 201,

203, 205, 206, 211, 213, 217.
Holmes, Sarah Moore, 213, 214.
Holmes, Sarah Watson, 113.
Holmes, Sarah, dau. of Isaac, of

Pioneer, 176.
Holmes, Sarah — Ashton, dau. of

Samuel, of Pioneer, 186, 187.
Holmes, Shepley Ross, Dr., 173.
Holmes, Susannah, dau. of Isaac, of

Pioneer, 176.
Holmes, Susannah, dau. of Samuel,

of Pioneer, 187.
Holmes, Tacy Thompson, 205, 213.
Holmes, William, 149.

Holmes, William, s. of Pioneer Oba-
diah, 162, 171, 173, 176, 181, 187,
200.

Homestead of Hon. Jos. Holmes, 123,.
125, 127, 131, 133, 136, 162.

Homestead of Jos. Holmes, Jr., 143.

Homestead of Col. Jos. Holmes, 190,
214, 217.

Homestead of Asa S. Holmes, 190,
214, 217.

Homestead of Samuel Holmes, 179.

Hop Brook, 114, 119.

Hopedale, O., 214.
Hopewell Church, 181.
Hornor, John, 150.
Houldon, Capt. Randall, 41.
Houlme, Ranulphus or Randulphus —

Randolph Holmes, 6.
House of Deputies, R. I., 56, 94, 95.
Houston, Wm. Churchill, 152.
Howly, Mary— 48.
Hubbard, Major James, 119.
Hubbard Mss., 32.
Hubbard, Samuel, 31, 32.
Hubbard, Airs. Samuel, 32.
Hubbard, Miss, 32.
Pluddy, Capt. Joshua, 110.
Huff family, 184.
Huff, John, 184.
Huff, William, 194.
Hull, Gen. William, 205.
Hull, Joseph, 90.
Hulme, Alyce, 11.

Hulme, Katherine Johnson, 11, 12, 44.
Hulme, Robert, g. father of Rev.

Obadiah, 11.
Hulme, Robert, father of Rev.

Obadiah, 11, 44.
Huston, John C, 211.
Hutchin, Hugh, 150.

IlHnois, 213.

Imlay, Elizabeth, 138, 148, 151.

Index

241

Imlay, Mary Holmes, 122, 138, 141,

161.
Imlay, Peter, 122.
Indian deed, 83.
Indian Sachems, 80, 83,
Indian Shortcreek Homestead, 217,

219.
Indian Shortcreek, Ohio, 4, 171, 173,

203, 217.
Indian spy, 172, 181, 193.
Indian Territory, 227.
Indians, 26, 56, 80, 83, 87, 138, 170, 172,

181, 182, 184, 189, 190-200, 202.
Introduction, 5.
Inventory of Estate of Rev. Obadiah

Holmes, 65.
Iowa, 213.

Irish Revolution, 174.
Ivens, Moses, 148.

Jack, 148.

Jefferson County, Ohio, 171, 181, 185,

186, 201, 210, 217.
Jerusalem, 183.
John — Disciple, 53.
John — Indian, 193.
John St., New York City, 183.
Jones, James, 205.
Jones, Mrs. James, 205.
Joseph of Arimathea, 53.

Kansas City, Mo., 5.

Kelsy, Enos, 152.

Kenton, Ohio, 182, 184, 187.

Kentucky, 56, 166, 182, 217.

King, Rebecca Holmes, 186, 187.

King, Rev. Dr. H. M., 57.

Lancashire, Eng., 7, 12, 48, 114.

Lancaster County, Pa., 165.

Lancaster, Mass., 38.

Latimer, Bishop, 26.

Lawrence, William, 83, 86.

Leesville, Ohio, 175, 176, 182.

Legislature — Ohio, 200.

Leisler, Gov. Jacob, 55.

Lemon, John, 105.

Letters of Rev. Obadiah Holmes : to

Bro. Robert, 44; to Wife, 48; to

Children, 52.
Lexington, Battle of, 163.
Leyden, Holland, 15.
Lincoln, Abraham — President, 56, 166.
Lincoln, Abraham — g. f. of President,

56.
Lmcoln, Hannah Salter, 165.
Lincoln, John, 165.
Lincoln, Mordecai, 55, 83.
Lincoln, "Virginia" John, 56, 165.
Linder, Samuel, 196.
Linder, Mrs. Samuel, 196.
Lippencott — Murderer of Huddy, 110.
Little Beaver, 194.
Liverpool, Eng., 12.
Livingstone, Gov., 149, 152.
London, Eng., 38.

Long Island, 3, 31, 38, 80, 103, 114.
Long Island Historical Society, 37, 38.
Looker, Gov. Othniel, 209, 210.
Lorain, Ohio, 227.
Lords Proprietors of New Jersey, 86,

87, 96.
Lot's Wife, 54.
Louisville, Ky., 217.
Lucas, Robert, 211.
Lydia — Biblical, 53.
Lynn, Mass, 18, 29, 79.

Lacey, John M., 211.
Labway Creek, 148.
Lamberton, N. J., 4, 161, 162.
Lamton, Geo., 41.

Manchester, Eng., 3, 7, 11, 12, 48. 51,

57, 79.
Manhattan Island, 87.
Mann, James, 17, 37.

242

Index

Mann, Airs. James, 17.

Mansfield. Ohio. 174. 186.

Mansfield, William, 217.

Marietta, Ohio, 172, 181, 203.

Marlborough, Mass., 38.

Marshall, Capt., 174.

Mary and Martha— Biblical, 53.

Maryland, 137, 164.

Massachusetts, 8, 16, 18, 29, 31, 41, 84,

93, 97.
Massachusetts Bay Colony, 15.
Maumee River, 189, 206, 209.
Mecklenburg, Va., 4, 166, 174, 189, 201.
Medfield, Mass., 38.
"Memento" by Samuel Holmes, s. of

Sheriff Obadiah Holmes, 113.
"Memorial History of Boston" —

Winsor, 29.
Mental Pictures of Rev. Obadiah and

Capt. Jonathan Holmes, 99, 100,

101.
Methodism, 108, 174, 183, 205.
Mexican War, 186, 210.
Miami, Ind. Ter., 227.
Miami of the Lakes, 189.
Middleborough, Conn., 57.
Middlesex County, N. J.. 51, 107.
Middletown, East Jersey, 3, 51, 52, 55,

66, 84, 85, 87, 88, 103, 104. 105, 107.

108, 109, 118, 121.
Middletown Baptist Church, 52, 84,

107, 108, 130, 135.
Middletown Company, 87.
Middletown farm, 51, 79.
Middletown Point, 138, 148.
Mills, Thomas, 199.
Mingo Bottom, 200.
Miscellanies— Stillwcll, 87.
Mississippi River, 182, 217.
Mitchell, John, 175.
Mitchell, Lieut., 190.
Monmouth, Battle of, 109.
Monmouth County, N. J., 8, 51, 52, 83,

84, 97, 103, 105, 107, 109, 113, 118,

121, 147, 152, 16L

Monmouth County, History by Ellis,

130.
Monmouth Patent, 51, 52, 80, 83, 85,

86, 87, 88, 96.
Monmouth Resolutions, 136.
Moore, Samuel, 85.
Moravian Campaign, 169, 199.
Mordecai and the Jews, 18.
Morgan, Rev. Abel, 114.
Morris, Col. Lewis, 105.
Morris, Robert, 152.
Morrison, William, 195, 196.
Mott, Gershom, 109, 130.
Mott, James, 135.
Mott, James, 150.
Mott, James, Jr., 149.
Mott, Mary Holmes, 108, 118.
Alott, Sarah Clayton, 109, 130.
Mount, George, 84.
Mount Pleasant, Ohio, 199, 201, 202,

203, 206.
Mount, Richard, 135.
Muskingum & Hocking Expedition,

199.
Muster roll of Col. Joseph Holmes,

209.

McCoy. Air. 199.

McCoy, Mrs., 199.

McCrea, Jane, 138.

McGuire, Francis, 194.

McLene, Jer., 210.

McMahon, Capt., 193, 195, 196, 200.

McMahon's Owl Creek Expedition,

195.
McNabb, George, 174, 201.
McNabb, Martha Shepherd, 174, 201,

202.

Napoleon, 221.
.Nassau Island, 114.
Necamolin's Path, 167.
New Amsterdam, 87.
New Athens, Ohio, 214.

Index

243

New Brunswick, N. J., 136.

New Caesarici, 104.

New England, 15, 41, 47, 103, 104, 129.

New Eng. Hist, and Gen. Register,

5, 7.
"New England Legends" — Drake, 42.
New Jersey, 8, 83, 110, 118, 137, 139,

140, 165, 175, 176.
New Jersey Regiments, 109, 110, 139,

161.
New Jersey Rev. Corr., 153.
New Netherland, ,87.
New Orange, 88.

New Orleans, La., 175, 176, 199, 217.
New Philadelphia, Ohio, 227.
New Plymouth Grand Jury, 17.
New York, 8, 88, 97, 103, 108, 109,

114, 137, 161, 162, 168, 175, 176,

183.
Newman, Rev. Samuel, 16, 17, 18.
Newport, R. L, 3, 8, 18, 30, 41, 61, 62,

79, 80, 88, 89, 95, 97, 101.
Newport Hist. Soc., 62.
Nicolls, Gov., 85, 87.
Nicolls Patent — See Monmouth

Patent.
Nonsettler, Elizabeth, 185.
North Kingstown, R. L, 72.
Northwest Territory, 8, 183, 185, 200,

227.
Nowell, Mr. Encrease, 15, 19, 21, 22.

Obadiah— Biblical, 53.

Ocean County, N. J., 51.

Odlin, Martha Holmes, 53, 55, 56, 61.

Ogborne, Samuel, 135.

Ohio, 5, 140, 189, 190, 217.

Ohio border, 168.

Ohio County, Va., 202.

Ohio River, 6, 163, 168, 184, 186, 189

190, 194, 196, 203, 205.
Ohio Senate, 210.
Old John St. Mission, New York

City, 108, 183.

Old Mingo Bottom, 195.
Old State House, Boston, 29.
"Old Times in Monmouth"— Beek-

man, 113.
Ordinance of 1787, 84.
Osborn, Israel, 196.
Owl Creek, 193, 195, 197.
Oxford, Eng., 26.
Oxford University, 12, 16, 17, 44.

Page of Memorial — Rev. Obadiah

Holmes, 45.
Pan Handle of Virginia, 5, 170, 173,

175, 176, 181, 184, 189, 201, 202.
Paris, Treaty of, 163, 170.
Parsons, Baldwin, 190, 193, 194.
Pawtucket Church, R. L, 57.
Pegg, Elias, 185.
Pegg, Elias W., 185.
Pegg, Elizabeth Nonsettler, 185, 186.
Pegg, Margaret Holmes — Hays, 166,

171, 185, 186.
Pennsylvania, 5, 8, 83, 140, 164, 165,

167, 200.
Peoria, 111., 185.

Perth Amboy, N. J., 88, 97, 107, 162.
Philadelphia, Pa., 55, 107, 129, 161,

162. 164, 165, 167, 174.
Philadelphia Advertiser, 200.
Philip, King, 38.
Pilgrims, 15.
Pine Barrens. 137, 148.
Pine Robbers, 109, 137, 139. HO.
Pitcairn, Maj. John, 163.
Pittsburgh, Pa., 172, 175, 181, 2]7.
Plymouth, Eng., 15.
Plymouth, Mass., 29, 37.
Point Pleasant, Battle of, 168.
Polhemus, Alice Holmes, 122, 141.

148, 151, 161.
Polhemus, John, 122, 148.
Poplar field, 83.

Portland Point, East Jersey, 84.
Portsmouth, R. I., 3, 37, 80, 90.

244

Index

Potomac River, 164, 165, 166, 201.
Power of Attorney — Jonathan

Holmes, 103, 104.
Preston, Eng., 12, 16, 17, 51.
Princeton, Battle of, 109.
Providence, R. I., 18, 41.
Providence Plantation, 38, 103.
Provincial Congress of New Jerse\-,

136, 153.
Pumphrey, Elizabeth Holmes, 162,

164, 171, 181.
Pumphrey, William, 181.
Puritan Commonwealth, 30.
Pusley. David, 199.

Quakers, 29.
Queen Anne, 106.

Ramonoson Brook, 119.

Rea, Joseph, 211.

Read, Charles, Regr., 152.

"Real Benedict Arnold, The"— Todd,

41.
Red Bank, X. J., 8, 113.
Red House, The, 153.
Reddish — Manchester — Eng., 11, 48.
Register, New Eng. Hist, and Gen.—

See under New Eng.
Rehoboth, Mass., 16, 17, 26, 79, 101.
Rehoboth Church, 16, 17.
Rehoboth, History of — Bliss, 16.
Reid. George, Jr., 119.
Religious Freedom and Persecution,

15, 16, 17-30.
Retaliatory Resolutions of Monmouth,

110.
Revolutionary War, 41, 62, 109, 110,

122, 130, 137, 138, 139, 140, 149,

161, 164, 169, 170, 173, 185, 186,

201, 202, 205, 212.
Rhode Island, 5, 8, 18, 30, 31, 38, 41,

56, 80, 84, 89, 95, 97, 103, 113, 152.
Rhode Island Charter, 31, 41, 94.

Rhode Island College, 57.

"Rhode Island Dictionary" — Austin,

15.
Rhode Island House of Deputies, 94.

95.
Richland County, Ohio, 174, 186.
Ridley, Bishop, 26.
Rigging Loft, 183.
Rile}', Francis, 194.
Rile}^, Mrs. Francis, 194.
Riley, John, 194.
Riley, William, 194.
River Ribble, 12.
Robinson, Rowland, 65.
Robinson, Thomas, 17.
Rockingham County, Va., 164, 165. 166
Rollins, Nathan, 199.
Rowlin, Arthur, 135.
Royalists, 109.
Rue, Airs. Mary Holmes, 8, 141, 153,

157.

S. A. R., 153, 173.

"S. D."— Holmes Burying Ground, 72.

Sachuset farm, 32.

St. Clair's Defeat, 169, 190.

St. Clairsville, Ohio, 201.

St. Lawrence River, 164, 169.

"Salem. Annals of— Felt, 12.

Salem Centennial Address, 58.

Salem Church, 15, 16.

Salem, Mass., 12, 15, 29, 38, 42, 79.

101, 153.
Salem., N. J., 55.
Salem Harbor, 42.
Salter, Edwin, 56, 57.
Salter, Hannah — Lincoln, 165.
Salter, Richard, 55. .
Salter, Sarah Bowne, 55, 165.
Samuel — Biblical, 53.
Sandusky Plains, 169.
Sandy Defeat, 199.
Sandy Hook, 109.
Sanford, John, 30.

Index

245

Scene of Quarterly Meeting, 207.

Schemmerhorn, John, 194.

Schismatists, 16.

Schoonover, Mrs. Elizabeth Holmes,

183.
Schuylkill River, 174.
Scioto River, 173.
Scoles, William, 205.
Scoles, Mrs. William, 205.
Scotland, 11.
Scots Chester, 114.
Seconnet River, 32, 66, 79.
Secretary of State, Trenton, N. J.,

108, 138, 152.
Seekonk, Mass., 16, 20.
Seminole War, 210.
Seventh Day Baptists, 32.
Shearman, Philip, 41.
Sheffield, Capt. Joseph, 94, 95.
Shelter Island, N. Y., 43.
Shenandoah River, 164, 165, 166.
Shenandoah Valley, 201.
Shepherd, Capt. Abraham, 201.
Shepherd, Col. David. 202.
Shepherd, Elizabeth Van Meter, 201.
Shepherd Family, 201.
Shepherd, Capt. Thomas, 201.
Shepherd, William, 202.
Shepherdstown, Va., 4, 166, 186, 193,

201.
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley Butler,

169.
Shinn, Rev. Asa, 205.
Shortcreek, Ohio, 194, 195, 200, 205,

227. .
Shrewsbury, N. J., 85, 87.
Signature of Jonathan Holmes, 91.
Signatures of Rev. Obadiah Holmes,

91.
Sinickson, Andrew, 152.
Slade, Sarah Holmes, 97, 98.
Slander Suit— Rev. Obadiah Holmes

vs. Newman, 17.
Smith, Dehverance Holmes, 108, 118.
Smith, Edward and Wife, 17.

Smith, Lieut. John, 87.

Smith, John, 118, 148.

Smith, Phillip, 37, 61.

Smith, Richard, 117.

Smith, Samuel, 117.

Smock, Col. John, 110, 111.

South Strabane Township, Pa., 167.

Southwick, Cassandra, 42, 43.

Southwick, Daniel, 42.

Southwick, Josiah, 42.

Southwick, Lawrence, 42, 43.

Southwick, Mrs. Lawrence, 43.

Southwick, Provided, 42.

Spencer, James, 199.

Spencer, William, 199.

Sprague, Jonathan, 90.

Stamp Act, 129, 163.

Standish, Capt. Miles, 18.

Staten Island— N. Y., 52, 55, 56, 162.

Steubenville, O., 175, 202, 205, 209, 227.

Stevens, J., 71, 72, 77.

Stewart, John. 194.

Stiers, Cynthia Holmes, 212, 213.

Stiers, John, 212, 213.

Stiers Meeting House, 214.

Still, Jacob, 150.

Stillwater, 193, 195.

Stillwell, Dr. John E., 87.

Stillwell, Joseph, ]49, 150.

Stockport, Eng., 11, 12, 54.

Stokely, Samuel, 211.

Story, Mr. Justice, 58.

Stout, David, 118.

Stoutt, Richard, 86.

Strabane Township, Pa., 167.

Stuyvesant, Gov. Peter, 88.

Sugar Creek, 95.

Swearingen, Eleanor, 202.

Tallman, Peter, 152.

Taylor, Colonel, 137.

Taylor, Edward, 150.

Taylor, Hopestill Holmes, 53, 55, 61.

Taylor, William. 135

246

Index

Tartt, Edward, 84, 85, 86.

Tax Question, 93.

Tennessee, 164, 217.

Tennyson, Alfred, 12.

Third Ohio Infantry— :\Iex. War., 186.

Third Reg., 1st Brig., 4th Div., Ohio
Mil., 206, 209.

Thirteen Daughters of Samuel
Holmes, 186.

Thomas, Elizabeth Holmes, 212, 213.

Thomas, Isaac, 212, 213.

Thomas, Susannah, 212.

Thompson, Dr. Samuel, 221, 222.

Three Bloody Sevens, Year of, 138.

Throckmorton, John, 104.

Throckmorton, Joseph, 151.

Thurston, Edward, 62.

Tillinghast, Martha Holmes, 97, 99.

Tillinghast, Alar}- Holmes — Dilling-
ham, 71.

Tillinghast, Dr. William T., 71, 72, 77.

Tiltons. 196.

Todd, Chas. Burr, 41.

Tonnika Creek, 193, 195.

Tor}-, Joseph and Wife, 17.

Treaty of Paris — See Paris.

Trenton, X. J., 108, 136, 138, 152, 161,
162, 164, 165, 167.

Tuscarawas River, 193, 195, 196.

Tymochte Creek, 26.

Upper Freehold Homestead — See

under Homestead of Hon. Jos.

Holmes.
Upper Freehold, X. J., 3, 4, 117, 118,

121, 130, 139, 147, 149, 161, 162.
Upper Freehold Township, Alon-

mouth Co., X'^. J., 147

Van Arsdall, John, 200.
Van Buskirk. Mrs., 196.
Van Xest, Abraham, 152.

Van Meter, John, 201.
Van Meter, Margaret, 201.
Vandike, Joseph, 149.
Vaughan, William, 41.
Vicksburg, Miss., 199, 217.
Virginia, 8, 42, 137, 140, 167, 189.
Virginia Shortcreek, 200.

Wainright, John, 111.

Walker family, 193.

Wall, Jarot, 135.

Wallabout Bay, 168.

Walnut Hills— Vicksburg, Miss., 199.

Walraven, William, 205.

Walraven, Airs. Wm., 205.

War Department, Washington, D. C,

172, 209.
War of 1812, 205, 209.
Ward, Charlotte Holmes, 186, 187.
Ware, Thomas. 104.
Warren's Ridge, 185.
Warrenton, Ohio, 203.
Warwicke, R. I., 30, 31.
Washburn, Jos., 200.
Washington County, Pa., 167, 173, 190,

193.
Washington, D. C, 172.
Washington, Gen. George, 110, 161,

162, 164, 201.
Wattson, Luke, 85.
Wayne, Gen. Anthony, 170, 189, 190,

193, 194, 195, 206.
Wayne's Treaty, 194.
Wayne's Victory, 170.
Waxler's block-house, 194.
Weaver, Prudence, 72, 77.
Webb, Capt. Thomas, 183.
Webb, John, 213.
Webb, Joseph, 212, 213.
Webb. Alartha Holmes, 213, 214.
Webb, Susannah Holmes, 212, 213.
Welling, William, 205.
Welling, Airs. William, 205.
Wells, Ensign William, 196.

Index

247

Wellsburg, Va., 4, 170, 174, 184, 196,

205.
Wetzel, Lewis, 193, 199, 200.
Wetzel, a brother of above, 193.
Weymouth, Mass., 38.
Whipping of Rev. Obadiah Holmes,

22, 25, 26, 30, 42, 57, 58, 65, 79.
Whipping Post, 23, 27.
Whitewoman River, 195, 196.
Whitlock, Ensign Thomas, 87.
Whitman, Catherine Holmes — dau. of

Capt. Jonathan, 97, 99.
Whitman children, 97, 99.
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 42.
Wilkin farm, 181.
Will of Rev. Obadiah Holmes, 58, 59,

61, 62.
Will of Capt. Jonathan Holmes, 98.
Will of Sheriff Obadiah Holmes, 118.
Will of Hon. Joseph Holmes, 147,

148, 149.
Will of Pioneer Obadiah Holmes,

170, 171.
Will of Col. Joseph Holmes, 212.
William, the Conqueror, 6.
Williams, Elias,-65.
Williams, Jim., 194.
Williams, John, 135.
Williams, Mrs. John, 135.
Williams, Jos., 194.
Williams, Roger, 18, 30.

Williams, William, 194.
W^illiamson, Col. David, 199.
Wilson, Rev. John, 20, 29.
Windsor, Mr., 174.
Winsor's "Memorial Hist, of Boston,"

29.
Winterton, Thomas, 85.
Wisconsin Hist. Library, 181, 190.
Witch Hill, 58.
Witchcraft, 12.

Witter, William, 18, 19, 20, 21.
Wodell, William, 41.
Woodman, John, 90.
Woodville, Pa., 173.
Worley, James, 205.
Worley, Mrs. Jas., 205.
Worthington, Eleanor Swearingen,

201.
Worthington, Gov. Thomas, 201.
Wyckoff, Elizabeth Holmes, 122.
Wyckoff, Samuel, 122.
Wyoming, 6.

Yellow Creek, 194.

Yellow Meeting House, 121, 122, 129,

130, 159.
York Town, Pa., 137.

Zane, Betty, 170.

SC^

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