Horace Holmes (Dolton, IL)
Horace Holmes (Feb. 19, 1877 – Feb. 8, 1947)
Biography
- Name: Horace Holmes
- Birth: February 19, 1877 Amity, DeKalb County, Missouri
- Death: February 8, 1947 Hobbs, New Mexico
Horace Holmes was born in Amity, Missouri on the 19th of February, 1877. His parents were William C. and Louis L. Holmes. They established their home at Harvey, IL in 1892. Horace Holmes completed high school at Harvey, graduating in the class of 1898 and in August of the same year entered the service of The Bank of Harvey. About nine years later, on the 1st of May, 1907, he resigned his position as assistant cashier of The Bank of Harvey to assume the management of the First National Bank of Dolton, which he had organized in the previous April in association with Charles E. Waterman.
A prominent representative of financial interests in Cook county, Horace Holmes, was cashier of the First National Bank of Dolton since he aided in its organization. He occupied the presidency of the First Trust & Savings Bank of Riverdale since he organized that institution in February 1916, and was also the vice president of the South Holland Trust & Savings Bank. He organized the South Holland Trust & Savings Bank, a private bank, in December 1911. Mr. Holmes had been the active head of these three institutions since their inception.
He was the secretary and manager of the Dolton-Riverdale Building & Loan Association, which he organized in company with W.J. Haney in 1912. The association was a very successful enterprise, having assets of over $240,000 by 1925. The Association also developed an extensive business in the field of insurance.
He served as secretary of the board of education of the Harvey school district from 1901 until 1907, as trustee of schools for Thornton Township during the nine-year period between 1909 and 1918, and as treasurer of the city of Harvey from 1905 until 1907. He was a member of both the Dolton Chamber of Commerce and the Harvey Chamber of Commerce and fraternally was identified with the Masonic order, belonging to Harvey Lodge No. 832, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
After his banking career, Mr. Holmes became a real estate dealer, retiring in 1947. A week after retiring on a move to Riverside, California for his health, he became ill in a tourist cabin in Hobbs, New Mexico. He passed away on February 8, 1947. Holmes was en route to Riverside in his own automobile driven by Melvin H. Oft, 22, of Harvey. Oft reported that he believed Holmes was overcome by a defective gas heater in the cabin. A coroner's jury returned a verdict of death from unknown causes. He was survived by his widow, Anna, already in Riverside; his daughter, Mrs. Esther Frost of Riverside; two sons, Horace J., Raleigh, North Carolina and Edward, Miami, Florida, and a grand-daughter, Susan Holmes, Riverside. Interment was at Riverside, California.
Bank Officer Summary
During his banking career, Horace Holmes was involved with the following bank(s):
- The Bank of Harvey, Illinois: Assistant Cashier
- First National Bank of Dolton, IL (Charter 8679): President 1927-1932; Cashier 1907-1926
- First Trust and Savings Bank of Riverdale, Illinois: President
- South Holland Trust and Savings Bank: Vice President
Sources
- Horace Holmes on Findagrave.com.
- Banks & Bankers Historical Database (1782-1935), https://spmc.org/bank-note-history-project
- Francis Murray Huston, Financing an Empire: History of Banking in Illinois (4 volumes) (Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1926), Vol. 2, pp 250-251.
- The Times, Munster, IN, Mon., Feb. 10, 1947.