DeSoto County MsArchives Biographies.....Holmes , Francis June 6, 1839 - April 1, 1916 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ms/msfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Paul Holmes holmesp@cofc.edu March 7, 2012, 9:43 pm Source: AS I REMEMBER THEM --- Author: Irene Beasley Francis Holmes Born: 1839, June 6 at Plum Point, MS on the homestead of Valley Grove Died: 1916, April 1 at Plum Point, MS at Valley Grove - buried in Bethlehem Cemetery, Shelby County TN Father: Finley Holmes (Jr.) (b. 1802, March 24 in Columbia, SC; d. 1884, September 24 at Plum Point, MS at Valley Grove - buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, TN) Mother: Emily G. Raines Holmes (b. 1806, July 29 in Montgomery County GA; d. 1881, April 29 at Plum Point, MS at Valley Grove - buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, TN) Siblings: Georgianna Holmes Wood (b. 1825, d. 1846), Robert R. Holmes (b. 1826, d. 1878), Alpheus Cadmus Holmes (b. 1828, d. 1881), Finley Holmes (b. 1832, d. 1849), Lawrentine Holmes (b. 1835, d. 1866), Thomas A. Holmes (b. 1837, d. 1862), Abercrombie Holmes (b. 1842, d. 1890), Nathaniel Holmes (b. 1843, d. 1904), Marcia Elbertina Holmes Beardsley (b. 1845), Winfield W. Holmes (b. 1847, d. 1897) Wife: Elizabeth Kelley Clarke Holmes (b. 1841, January 15 in Crittendon County AR; d. 1929, March 25 in Coahoma, MS - buried in Bethlehem Cemetery, Shelby County TN) - married December 15, 1866 in Hernando, MS Children: all were born at Valley Grove and were by Elizabeth • Finley Vance Holmes (b. 1867; d. 1936 - buried in Bethlehem Cemetery, Shelby County TN), married Willie Casandra Harrison (b. 1872, d. 1927 - buried in Bethlehem Cemetery, Shelby County TN); and married second to Miss Evie Mcleary Holmes (b. 1884, d. 1982) - buried in Linwood Cemetery, Paragould, AR • Frank Clarke Holmes (Judge) (b. 1835; d. 1866 - buried in Hernando Memorial Cemetery, DeSoto County MS), married Elizabeth Morgan in Hernando, MS • Lizzie Raines Holmes Fant (b. 1871, d. 1960), married Edward M. Fant of Coahoma, MS • Johnnie Elmore Holmes (Judge) (b. 1875; d. 1935 - buried at Forest Hill Cemetery Midtown, Memphis, TN), married Eula Owens • Agnes Holmes (b. 1877; d. 1965 - buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Mountain View, OK), married Alfred H. Hathaway (b. 1871; d. 1959 - buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Mountain View, OK) • Herbert Holmes (Judge) (b. 1878; d. 1960 - buried in Bethesda Cemetery, Senatobia, Tate County MS), married first Minnie Gabbert (b. 1883, in Senatobia, MS; d. 1910 in Senatobia MS - buried in Bethesda Cemetery, Senatobia MS); married second Arney Eone "One" Gabbert (b. 1890 in Senatobia MS; d. 1980 in Senatobia MS - buried in Bethesda Cemetery, Senatobia MS) • Bertha Holmes (b. 1881; d. 1915 - buried in Llano Cemetery, Amarillo, TX), married James Neel Beasley (b. 1878, d. 1963 in San Antonio, TX) Francis Holmes enlisted as a Private in Company I, 29th Mississippi Regiment, Walthall's Brigade, in March, 1862. He commanded a company as a Private during the Battle of Murfreesboro when his commanding officer was killed. Mr. Holmes was promoted to Lieutenant, and later, wounded and captured at Lookout Mountain (Chattanooga, TN). Mr. Holmes was a prisoner for the remainder of the Civil War (18 months) and commissioned Captain while a prisoner at Camp Chase, Columbus, OH and later sent to Fort Delaware before release. He returned to Plum Point after the war, married Elizabeth "Lizzie" Kelley Clarke on December 13, 1866 in Hernando, MS and upon his father's death, assumed management of farmlands and the homestead at Valley Grove. Notes: Plum Point, DeSoto County MS was located just below the Tennessee- Mississippi state line on Tchulahoma Road - so called because there was a plum tree grove there. In the early nineteen hundreds, there was a small general store which also housed the Post Office, a sign proclaimed the area as Plum Point, Mississippi. It was little more than a postal name, for this was countryside in every sense of the word, and houses were few and far between. Valley Grove was the home built by Finley Vance Holmes' grandfather (Finley Holmes, b. 1802). It was a house of Colonial design built between 1845 and 1852 on land located in DeSoto County Mississippi near the Tennessee-Mississippi state line on Tchulahoma Road. The house no longer stands, but the land is now just north of the Stateline Road in Tennessee! Additional Comments: Biographical material presented here has been enhanced by information from family records, bibles, interviews, newspaper accounts of weddings and deaths, and other public documents for wills, land transfers, etc. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ms/desoto/bios/holmes19gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/msfiles/ File size: 5.0 Kb