F. H. HOLMES
Bio- Sawyers
SURNAMES: FOYE, LAKE,
F. H. HOLMES.—A successful, influential business man and rancher is
F. H. Holmes of Morrill Road, two miles to the northeast of Berryessa.
He is a native son and was born in San Francisco, March 15, 1865. His
father, A. Holmes, a native of Maine, came to California and married
Emily C. Foye, also a native of Maine. A. Holmes was the first
principal of the State Normal at San Francisco. Going to Rio Vista to
farm when a boy, Frank H. Holmes started his big collection of birds
and skins. In 1886, he moved to San Jose to farm his uncle's ranch
which consisted of 160 acres which he developed to prunes and apricots.
He was married to Hattie Lake in 1890 in San Jose, a native of
the Golden State and the daughter of an Argonaut. His mother is still
living in Palo Alto at the age of eighty-two. In 1899 Mr. Holmes owned
his first automobile, a Stanley Steamer, one of the very first in the
valley. It was in this machine he made the first trip into Yosemite
Valley, the first machine in and out under its own power. In 1905 he
started to manufacture Sunset automobiles in San Francisco. Being burnt
out by the 1906 fire he moved his factory to San Jose, the latter being
sold in 1912. In 1892 he started in the fruit packing business,
increasing his business each year until in 1917 he packed out as many
as 160 carloads of fruit from the packing house during a season. Though
leading a busy life as a rancher, manufacturer and packer, he devoted
much of his time to collecting birds and to fishing, being a great
lover of outdoor sports.
His two sons, William Roy and Ellis Holmes were born in 1892 and 1894,
respectively. William Roy went first to Berryessa grammar school, then
to San Jose high school and was graduated from the University of
California in 1906 with a degree in pomology. Ellis Holmes went first
to Berryessa school, then to Lick Polytechnic in San Francisco and
later spent a year in Santa Clara College, finishing off his course of
study in the agricultural school of the University of California at
Davis. Now he and his brother are the owners of a ranch of 160 acres
near Fresno, 120 acres of which is being set to table and raisin
grapes, while forty acres are in fig trees, all being sixteen years
old. The brothers alternate in assuming the executive or
superintendents offices. They also manage the orange grove at Terra
Bella in Tulare County, owned by their uncle and father, consisting of
fifty acres in Navel and Valencia oranges eight years old. They are
also silent partners of the W. J. Benson Company auto distributors of
the Stephens automobile for Northern California, Nevada and the
Islands. Both are Elks, William Roy Holmes belonging to San Jose Lodge
No. 522 and Ellis Holmes to Fresno Lodge No. 437. William Roy is also a
Mason.