G. F. Holmes, police judge and justice of the peace, Augusta, Kans., is a Civil war veteran who for a quarter of a century has been identified with the interests of Butler county. Judge Holmes is a native of Indiana, born in 1842, and is a son of William S. and Elizabeth (Iseminger) Holmes. The father was a native of North Carolina, and when a child twelve years of age went to Indiana with his parents; the family, however, had lived in Kentucky about twelve years preceding their removal to Indiana. The mother came from an old Pennsylvania family of German descent. G. F. Holmes was one of a family of seven children, as follows: Mrs. Mary Wirt, lives at Benedict, Neb.; Daniel, died at Creston, Iowa; Mrs. Margaret A. Badger, of Chariton, Iowa; Martha B., died in infancy; G. F., the subject of this sketch; Mrs. Kalista Martin, of Chariton, Iowa, and William S., also of Chariton.

G. F. Holmes received his education in the common schools of Indiana and Iowa, his parents removing to the latter State when he was twelve years old. He remained at home following the peaceful pursuits of the average boy until the Civil war broke out, when at the age of nineteen, July 8, 1861, he enlisted, becoming a member of Company B, Sixth regiment Iowa infantry. He participated in many important battles and at the battle of Shiloh was severely wounded, a musket ball passing through his right lung but being a young man of excellent physique and good health, he recovered from this severe wound in an unusually short time. He was discharged October 22, 1862, and after fully recovering from his wound, he reenlisted at Chariton, Iowa, and served until the close of the war. During his second term of service in the army, his regiment operated in the Army of the West and did considerable guarding of railroad property, especially in the locality of Memphis, Tenn. Mr. Holmes was finally discharged from the army at the close of the war with an unusually good military record. Besides receiving the wound above mentioned he experienced many narrow escapes. On the same day that he was wounded, his canteen was shot off.

At the close of the war he returned to Iowa where he was engaged in farming until 1870, when he was elected sheriff of Lucas county, and served in that capacity for ten years or until 1880. He then removed to

York county, Nebraska, where he bought a farm, and for twelve years was engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1892 he disposed of his interests in Nebraska and came to Butler county, Kansas, and bought a farm adjoining the town of Augusta, on the west, where he resided until 1908, when he sold his farm and removed to Augusta.

Judge Holmes has served as police judge and justice of the peace for the past five years, and as a judicial officer, has won a wide reputation for fairness in the administration of the equity side of his court, as well as a broad knowledge of the law in the application of legal principles. Although Judge Holmes has passed the three score and ten milestone, he is a man of unusual physical and mental activity, and he has enjoyed the best of health during his long career. He says that he never took a dose of medicine until he was past sixty years of age, and that statement sounds very reasonable as he has every appearance of a man who does not need any medicine.

Judge Holmes has been twice married, his first wife being Miss Phoebe Badger, to whom he was married in 1863; she died in 1904, leaving the following children: Kalista Frickey; U. G., a farmer near Augusta; Martha D. Chance, Wichita, Kans.; Walter E., lives near Latham; Mrs. Bess M. Arnold, El Dorado, and Charles D., Augusta. Mr. Holmes's second marriage took place November 15, 1905, when he was united in marriage to Mrs. Henrietta DeMoss, of Augusta, Kans. Mrs. Holmes is a native of Kentucky and was left an orphan at an early age. Her mother died when she was three years old and shortly afterward her father was killed by bushwhackers in Kentucky during the Civil war. She was brought to Butler county when a mere child by an uncle, J. K. Withrow.

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