My Genealogy Hound

Dr. G. Thomas Holmes. There are those in every locality whose upright and consistent career in various affairs has gained for them universal respect and esteem. Such a one is Dr. Holmes, a native of North Carolina, who was born October 26, 1836. His parents were John and Phadra (Perry) Holmes, also of North Carolina, who in 1844 removed to Tennessee, and from there to Perry County, Ark., in 1856, where Mr. Holmes died in 1864. He was of English descent, his father having been born in England. His wife, who was of Scotch descent, departed this life in 1859. The subject of this sketch, the tenth in a family of eleven children, spent his youth and early manhood in Tennessee, and there received a common-school education. His medical learning was obtained under the instruction of Dr. L. D. Hill, of Perry County, and since 1880 he has practiced his profession with ability and success. Coming to Perry County, in 1856, he remained till the beginning of the war, when he entered the Confederate service in Company H, in the first regiment ever organized in Arkansas. He was first sergeant one year, and then ordnance sergeant till the close of the war, taking part in the Oak Hill (Mo.) fight, Pea Ridge (Ark.), Chickamauga, with Johnston on his retreat to Atlanta, with Hood on his route to Nashville, in the fight at Franklin, Tenn., and also at Nashville, passing through hostilities without a wound. At the close of the war Dr. Holmes went to Dardanelle, Ark., being engaged in the drug business till 1873, when he returned to Perry County, where he has since resided. In 1876 he was elected justice of the peace, filling that office two years, and in 1878 was elected as representative of Perry County for one term. In 1882 he was elected State senator, serving four years. In 1881 he was appointed post master at Nimrod, which position he still holds. He is a Democrat, having cast his first presidential vote for Buchanan. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and his wife of the Presbyterian. The Doctor has 125 acres of land, about forty of it under cultivation. In December, 1861, he married Miss Aurelia P. Craig, who was born in Mississippi, January 9, 1839. She died November 23, 1886. They had six children: Jesse L., Rufus D., Walton M., Thomas A. (deceased), Lorenzo J. and Nettie A. In every position to which Dr. Holmes has been called he has manifested an earnestness and faithfulness to the interests of those whom he served, which have redounded to his great credit. His public life has been untarnished, and he now richly merits the universal respect accorded him.