HOLMES. HOLMES. 317 and on his father's side from John Holmes, who was in Plymouth in 1632. His education began in the district school in an outer district in the sparsely populated town of Bridgewater, and was continued in Bridgewater Academy, and in Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. H. He took the degree of A. B. in 1843, and his degree of A. M. in 1S46 — both from Har- vard University. He spent a year in Eu- rope in attending a course of lectures at L ' Ecolc de Medicine, in Paris, and in the hospitals of Paris and London. He took his medical degree from Harvard Univer- sity in 1848, and became a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society the same year. He began practice in West Cambridge (now Arlington), and moved to Lexington in 1S51, where he is now in active success- ful practice. He served several years as vice-president and president of the Mid- dlesex South District Medical Society, and many years as councilor of the parent society, which he represented in 1876 at the annual meeting of the New Hampshire Medical Society, in 1882 at the annual meeting of the State of Maine Medical Association, and in 1884 at the American Medical Association, at Washington, D. C. He has published several works — among them a paper on " Puerperal Con- vulsions," oxieon "Imperforate Anus," and another on "Tetanus following Labor," etc. He was the originator of the society for shading the streets and public places in Lexington, 1S53, and one of the first mem- bers of the Lexington Farmers' Club, 1854. He was instrumental in founding two public town libraries — one in Plym- outh county, for which he rendered pecu- niary assistance, the other in Middlesex county, where, at his request, a person of wealth founded a free town library, the name and the form of trusteeship being furnished by him. He has held a commission of justice of the peace about twenty-five years. He has held the office of town physician sev- eral years, both in West Cambridge and Lexington, and was a trustee of the public library in West Cambridge. He was chairman of the town committee to induce the trustees of the agricultural college to locate it in Lexington. He was one of the general centennial committee for the ob- servance of April 19, 1875, in that place ; chairman of the town committee to induce the trustees of the state normal school to re-locate it there ; chairman of the com- mittee to resist before the Legislature the efforts of the town of Arlington to take water from Vine Brook. He was for many years a member of the school committee, both in West Cambridge and Lexington, wrote some of the annual reports, and served on other committees of importance. He is a resident member of the New England Historic Genealogi- cal Society. HOWLAND HOLMES. He has lived the quiet life of a country physician, who, penniless and without the aid of wealthy friends, by indomitable perseverance in teaching and studying alternately, secured his credentials for future usefulness and activity. He married in Albany, N. Y., August 28, 1849, S. Maria W., daughter of William Cotting, of West Cambridge, and has two children. HOLMES, NATHANIEL, son of Samuel and Mary (Annan) Holmes, was born at Peterborough, Hillsborough county, N. H., July 2, 1814. His ancestors of the names Holmes, Hunter, Moore, Allison, Steele, McFarland, Smith, Harkness and Annan, came from Scotland and the North of Ire- land, and were among the earlier settlers of Peterborough and Londonderry, N. H. He lived with his parents on a farm in Peterborough until seven years of age, and
