James E. Holmes, cashier of the First National Bank of Kiowa, came to Kansas with his parents, in 1880, when a youth of sixteen years. He was born on a farm near Monmouth, Ill., Aug. 18, 1864. James H. Holmes, the father, was a native of Ohio, born April 26, 1824. In 1854 he married Mary McCready, a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., and of their union six children were born—four sons and two daughters: Anna is the wife of G. W. T. Wood, a farmer in Ness county, Kansas; Thomas A. is a farmer and merchant in Arkansas; William died in infancy; James E. is the next in order of birth; Henry M., born in 1866, is a merchant at Penalosa, Kan.; and Jennie A., born in 1868, is Mrs. Clarence L. Russell of St. Joseph, Mo. The family removed from Illinois to Kansas in 1880 and located first in McPherson county. Ten years later, in 1890, they removed to Ness county, where the father died, in 1892. The mother survived until 1906, when she, too, passed away in Ness county, Kansas.

James E. Holmes spent the earlier years of his youth in Illinois. He began his education in the common schools of that state and completed it in the city schools of McPherson, Kan. During his subsequent career in Kansas he taught school five years; then, in 1903, he entered the Commercial Bank of Kiowa to learn the principles of the banking business. Business acumen and close and thoughtful application to his duties soon demonstrated his fitness for a more repsonsible[sic] position and, in 1905, he became cashier of the bank. In 1906 it became the First National Bank of Kiowa, and Mr. Holmes was elected its cashier, which position he now holds. The bank occupies its own brick building, modern in structure and appointments, and is one of the most successful financial institutions in Barber county. It has a capital of $25,000, with an earned surplus of $18,000. In 1896 Mr. Holmes was elected county clerk of Barber county as the Republican candidate, and was reëlected to that office in 1898, serving in all five years. He sustains prominent fraternal relations, being a member of the Masonic order, in which he has attained the Thirty-second Scottish Rite degree, and he is a member of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias. Politically he has always been a Republican.

On April 26, 1898, Mr. Holmes was married at Kiowa, Kan., to Miss Frances M. Smith, a daughter of James Smith, of Chicago, Ill. Mr. and Mrs. Holmes enjoy a high standing in their community.