Holmes, Edmund M.

HOLMES

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 12:02:21

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.991

EDMUND M. HOLMES
Rev. Edmund M. Holmes, well known as an educator and minister, is now filling the pastorate of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Indianola. His entire life has been devoted to efforts for the moral and intellectual upbuilding of the race and his influence has been of no restricted order. He was born in Hardin County, Ohio, December 15, 1859. His father, Jacob M. Holmes, was a native of Jefferson County, Ohio, and represented a family of English origin. Becoming a believer in the Christian religion and a follower of the Methodist Church, he was for five years one of its local preachers and then entered the ministry in southern Ohio in 1841. In 1846 he was admitted to the Ohio conference and in 1851 was transferred to the Central Ohio conference, filling pastoral appointments at Kenton, Lima and Sidney. He was then appointed presiding elder of the Kenton district in 1859 and afterward served in pastoral relations with the churches at Adrian, Marion Station and Patterson. In the fall of 1869 he came to Iowa and was stationed at Altoona, being transferred to the Des Moines conference. The Indianola district was afterward trans­ferred to the Chariton district and he was presiding elder thereof until his demise. In the meantime, however, on leaving Altoona he went to Red Oak and later to Clarinda as pastor of the Methodist Church, and in the fall of 1875 he was appointed presiding elder of the Indianola district and was thus laboring in the field of church activity until he was called to the reward pre­pared for the righteous. He was a most earnest speaker and a man of con­secrated life and his labors bore rich harvests in the work of the Methodist ministry in this part of the state. His political endorsement was given to the Republican Party.
In early manhood Rev. Jacob M. Holmes wedded Miss Margaret Bradford, who was born in Adams County, Ohio, September 20, 1823, and died in 1883 when about sixty years of age. She was of Irish descent, her grandparents, who were of the Presbyterian faith, having come from the north of Ireland to the new world. She was reared in the Presbyterian Church but before her marriage was converted to a belief in the Methodist doctrines under the preaching of her future husband. Their marriage was blessed with six chil­dren, of whom the Rev. Edmund M. Holmes is the fifth in order of birth.
According to the customs of an itinerant ministry, the abode of the Holmes family was frequently changed during the boyhood and youth of Rev. E. M. Holmes of this review and he accordingly pursued his education in the schools of Kenton, Ohio, and other places. In 1875 he entered the senior preparatory class at Simpson College and in 1880 was graduated from that institution, winning the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Immediately following his gradua­tion, having been licensed to preach, he entered upon the active work of pro­claiming the gospel in connection with the south Indianola circuit as a junior preacher. In the following fall he joined the Des Moines conference and was assigned to the charge at Casey. In order to be still better qualified for the important and responsible duties which he had taken upon himself, in the fall of 1881 he entered the Garrett Biblical Institute, the theological depart­ment of the Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois, and was graduated there from in 1883. He then returned to the Des Moines conference and was assigned to the pastorate of the Methodist Church at Carroll. Two years later he was elected to the chair of Greek in Simpson College and thus served as a member of the faculty for four years, after which he was elected in 1889, to the presidency of that institution. For three years he presided over its interests as its chief executive officer and in 1892 he resigned the position to again take up the active work of a minister of the gospel and was assigned to the Prospect Park Church at Des Moines. There he remained for two years, after which he was appointed presiding elder of the Boone district. He served for a term of six years and was then appointed as pastor of the church at Denison. Iowa. In 1902 he was assigned to Red Oak, where his father had labored many years before, and in 1904 he was made presiding elder of the Des Moines district, so continuing until 1907, when he became pastor of the Methodist Church of Indianola. Here he is now laboring untiringly for the Christianizing of the inhabitants of this attractive city, is fearless in his enunciation of the truth, is eloquent in his utterances and most earnest in his efforts to uplift his fellowmen.
In September, 1884, the Rev. Edmund M. Holmes was united in the holy bonds of matrimony to Miss Carrie M. Page, of Boone, Iowa, and unto them have been born four sons and a daughter: Merrill J., who was graduated from Simpson College with the class of 1908; Stephen Roy, who is a freshman in that institution; Alice, a member of the senior academic class of Simpson College; Elmer M., who is attending the high school; and Kenneth B., who completes the family.
The Rev. Holmes is a supporter of the Republican Party but aside from a citizen's interest in the welfare of his country, takes no active part in politics. Strong in his opinions, yet charitable in his views of others, he commands the respect of all people, while those of his own denomination recognize his worth and fidelity and have high appreciation for his services in the church.