S. C. William M. Holmes married Honore Wells, who was many
years younger than he. This was about 1740. They had a num-
erous family, of whom Elizabeth married George Wells, and they
settled in Licking county, Ohio. Thomas Holmes a son also settled
in that county. Alexander, another son, born in 1757, was killed
in the Revolutionary War. William M. Holmes died March 10,
1758, and his widow, who was many years younger, on November
17, 1759, married Richard Brown, who served as a Colonel under
General Washington. She survived until March 28, 1816, reach-
ing the great age of ninety-two years. Her daughter, Rachel
Brown, (by the second husband), married General James Wells, a
brother of the George Wells who had married her half sister Eliza-
beth. James Holmes, Sr., third son of William M. Holmes, was
born in 1748. He died February 2, 1826, aged seventy-eight.
He had married Nancy Whitaker. James Holmes served in the
American Revolution as a Third Lieutenant in the First Battalion
of Miles' Penna. Rifle Regiment, of Capt. Richard Brown's com-
pany. He resigned on December 31, 1776, being incapacitated for
further service by reason of a gunshot wound through the hips,
which crippled him for life. After the Revolutionary War he first
settled in Washington county, Pa., where he married as above
stated. In 1802 he located with his family in Fairfield county,
Ohio, and reared a large family of sixteen children. James Hol-
mes, born 1789, seventh child of James a- i Nancy Holmes, spent
his entire life upon a farm in Walnut tc -nship, near Buckeye
lake. He married Sarah Ann Haver. He was a good looking man,
a strong Methodist, much respected, a fine talker, and of influence
in his neighborhood. Of his marriage there were born ten children.
The second child was Joshua Holmes, born October 13, 1813, and
died January 29, 1894. He married Mary Maria Fountain, a
native of New Jersey, born June 22, 1815. The Fountains were of
excellent English stock settled in the early colonial days in New
Jersey and Virginia. They married on March 18, 1836, and in
September of that year they moved to Allen county, Ind., where they
settled upon a farm four miles west of Fort Wayne. In 1870 they



FOUNTAIN N. HOOIES 239

moved into Fort Wayne, and Joshua Holmes was there for a short
time a township assessor, and many years in stock business. His
wife died March i, 1881, and he survived until January 29, 1894.
Joshua and Mary M. Holmes were parents of twelve children.
The fifth child was William Jones Holmes, born October 2, 1842.
He married Joanna Edwards and was the father of Fountain N.
Holmes. William Jones Holmes died young, killed in a railway acci-
dent. He died on June 13, 1874, being not quite thirty-two years
old. William Jones Holmes married Joanna Edwards at Roanoke,
Ind., on February 6, 1861. She was a daughter of Joseph G. and
Annie Edwards, who were both born and reared at Chambersburg,
Pa. This Joseph G. Edwards was a son of James Edwards, a
native of Pennsylvania, of Scotch descent, and his mother was
Elizabeth Beaver, a Pennsylvania!!, of German descent. The
mother of Joanna Edwards was Annie Rudisill, of Pennsylvania,
whose people were of Swiss extraction. Through the various
intermarriages of this family the strains of blood blended in Foun-
tain N. Holmes are Scotch, English, Welsh and German. This
makes him a typical citizen of the United States, where many races
have blended together to make what is called the American.

Mr. Holmes was educated in the public schools and night
schools at Huntington, Ind. From a farmer's boy, he became a
newsboy, and he avers himself that he made it a point never to
leave one employment until he saw a better business in sight. In
1891 he completed his training as a machinist at Fort Wayne, and
in 1894 came to Florida and took the management of two ice plants,
one at Cedar Keys and one at Waldo. These plants belonged to
W. S. Ware, of Jacksonville, and after six years in this business Mr.
Holmes severed this connection to go into partnership with John
W. Simmons, of St. Augustine and Fenian dina, Fla., and moved to
St. Augustine, where he took full charge of the ice plant in 1900.
In 1906 they built a steam laundry and since that time he has suc-
cessfully managed both the ice and steam laundry business.

On November 26, 1890, he married Anna K. Hilgenberg,
daughter of John Henry and Emma Hilgenberg of Huntington,
Ind. They have three children, Marguerite, Ralph H. and Edith
Key Holmes.



240 FOUNTAIN N. HOLMES

In national matters a Republican, in local affairs Air. Holmes
contents himself with voting for the best man. A general reader
of the press and of periodicals bearing upon topics of special interest,
his special preferences in the reading way has been mechanical
works, for which he has a strong bent. Notwithstanding the
pressure of his business affairs, he has found time to serve his city
for two terms as a member of the Council. In religious matters he
is a communicant of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Also active
in fraternal circles he is a member of the various Masonic bodies,
including the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Commandery, and Shrine.
He holds membership also in the Knights of Pythias and the St.
Augustine Board of Trade. In a social way he is a member of the
Elks and the Power Boat Club. He lays down as a good working
code, "Be honest, and roll up your sleeves and work," which appears
to be a very practical and complete code in a few words. Speaking
of his own business which he has managed with success, he says
that he manages his business, but never lets it manage him. This
also is an admirable proposition for that large number of men who
allow their business to worry them sometimes into nervous prostra-
tion and sometimes into the cemetery. Mr. Holmes believes that
our citizens should give prompt and close attention to the better-
ment of our public school system and the building of the public
highways, and that while he would encourage immigration, he
believes we ought to watch carefully the character of that immigra-
tion and see that only desirable pe^Dle come into our borders.
Loyal to the State of his adoption ht s now recognized as a sub-
stantial business man of high character . Regardful of the " Golden
Rule," in which he believes, he makes the interests of his employees
his own and tries to advance their interests simultaneously with
his own.

There have been granted at various times several coats-of-
arms to the Holmes, Fountain, and Edwards families from which
Mr. Holmes is descended.



L '



%enas



The rich agricultural county of Bradford was settled by a sub-
stantial thrifty people whose descendants are among the represen-
tative citizens of Florida. With normal advantages they prosper
and improve their conditions and when confronted by obstacles
they redouble their efforts and surmount them with an energy
which takes them even beyond the point to which they possibly
would have attained had the path been less rugged. Prominent
among the native citizens of Bradford county is Andrew Zenas
Adkins, who while still in the bloom of young manhood has attained
a reputation and a standing that extends far beyond the borders of
his native county. And yet he faced life only a few years ago with
many difficult problems before him and the manner in which he
attacked and overcame them, equipped himself for the successful
practice of an honorable profession and climbed upward until he
has become an influential factor in State affairs is a story which
should lend inspiration to the youth of ambition in whatever station
of life.

He is a native of Bradford county, having been born at New
River, March 16, 1877. His parents were Ely N. and Sarah A.
(Sapp) Adkins. His father who was a preacher and a farmer was a
native of South Carolina and in 1854 removed from the Palmetto
State to Florida, locating near New River where he made his home
and reared his family. When the war broke out he enlisted in
the Confederate Army and while in the service the unusual hard-
ships and exposure resulted in such permanent physical injury that
he was never able to work again, so that as soon as Andrew Zenas
Adkins was large enough he went to work on the farm helping to
support his mother and sisters. He knew nothing but hard manual
labor, with a brief period of schooling in the country schools of
the county, until after he had attained manhood's estate. He was



244 ANDREW ZENAS ADKINS

faithful to duty and remained on the farm as long as his services
were needed by those dependent upon him, so that he was twenty-
three years old before he was enabled to gratify his ambition for
education and begin to prepare himself for his life's work. In
February, 1900, he went to school at Abbeville, Ga., for four months,
and during the ensuing summer worked in a cross- tie camp. He
returned to Abbeville in September and after another course there
entered the Georgia Normal College and Business Institute where
he devoted himself to study for fourteen months in 1900 and 1901.
He graduated in the commercial department as bookkeeper, and
was chosen as one of the class orators, responding to a toast at
the annual banquet given the class.

He then engaged in business and for a year ran a country store
at New River accumulating sufficient capital to enable him to
attend Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tenn. He had been
reading law for some time and so well had he prepared himself
that after one session of nine months in the law department of
Cumberland University he was graduated in 1903 and had the
degree of Bachelor of Laws conferred upon him. He then located
at Starke where he was admitted to the bar and began the practice
of his profession. In his profession he has been in every way
successful winning for himself a high place in the esteem of his
fellow-members of the bar and of the community. He has an
extensive and profitable general practice and is recognized as one of
the leading lawyers of t Y section. The people of Starke honored
him with the election to ic office of Mayor for the year 1907 and
re-elected him to the same position for 1908 so that he is the chief
official of the town to which he was only a few years since hauling
the produce of his farm. He takes a lively interest in local affairs
and lends his every effort to the building up and developing of the
town and advancing the interests of its citizens. He is an active
member of the Starke Board of Trade.

He is a Democrat in politics and in the general primary election
was nominated by his people for State Senator from Bradford
county for the four years term beginning January i, 1909. His
election followed as a matter of course and in his race for President
of the State Senate he received much encouragement and many



ANDREW ZENAS ADKINS 245

laudatory notices at the hands of the press of the State, and as one
paper said: "He is of unquestioned ability, broad, conservative,
patriotic and fearless; an aggressive and tireless worker ; an eloquent
and convincing orator; a clear and logical debater; incorruptible
and a Christian gentleman."

While not a member of any church, his preference is for the
Christian Church. He is a member of the Free and Accepted
Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights
of Pythias.



iJftttcfieU Columbus Breto

Among the substantial men of Madison and one who has con-
tributed most largely to the development of that now flourishing
section, is Mitchell C. Drew, farmer, merchant, banker, and general
business man.

Mr. Drew is a native of Madison county, with which his family
has been identified since the pioneer days of Florida. His grand-
father, W. B. Drew, was a native of North Carolina, where the
family had been settled since the Colonial period. In North
Carolina the family increased to such an extent that in 1790
there were fourteen heads of Drew families. Mr. Drew's father
was Farnell Drew. He moved from Georgia to Florida in 1832.
He served in the Seminole War which raged in Florida from 1835
to 1842, and his children and grandchildren have been identified
with the State since that date.

M. C. Drew was born July 22, 1846. One of his brothers,
J. M. Drew was killed at Seven Pines, fighting for the Southern
Confederacy. Another brother, W. B. Drew, died during the Civil
War, and he now has ving one brother, J. E. Drew. Young Drew
was reared in the cou. .ry, obtaining such education as the common
country schools could give, and being a diligent and faithful student
used to the utmost the limited advantages offered. He entered
upon the serious work of life as a farmer. In this he met with a
measure of success, being both industrious and a thinker, and
after the accumulation of some capital engaged in the mercantile
business, in which he prospered. He built up the largest business
in that line in his section of the country. Constantly accumulating
capital, he finally became interested in banking, and was an active
factor in various business enterprises of that part of Florida. His
financial abilities were recognized by his election to the presi-
dency of the Bank of Madison, in which capacity he served ten



MITCHELL COLUMBUS DREW 249

years, and during his administration it was changed from a State
to a National bank, under the name of The First National Bank of
Madison.

Mr. Drew is a stanch Democrat in his political beliefs, but
not himself an office seeker; he is contented as a private citizen
with supporting the policies and the candidates of the party
nearest to his views in its policies. In his religious views, he is a
man of broad and tolerant spirit, and is in hearty sympathy with
every movement for the betterment of the people. At the out-
break of the Civil War he was a mere boy of fifteen and too young
for the regular army, but before the end of that gigantic struggle,
like many other lads in the Confederacy, he was mustered into
the service and served one year.

His entire life has been spent in the county in which he was
born; he has been identified with its every interest, moral and
material. He has made a financial success, and far better than
that, has built up a reputation for integrity and conscientiousness
which has won for him the esteem not only of those who have
done business with him but of all who know him.

The Drew family has contributed some valuable citizens
to our Republic. There were two main branches; one of them
settled in New England, and the other in North Carolina, from
which descendants of the first settlers drifted westward and
southward. The New England family has furnished to Florida
a governor in the person of George F. Drew, the first Governor
elected by the Democrats after Reconstruction, and his sons are
now recognized as among the most prominent citizens of the State.
One of the North Carolina Drews emigrated in the early days to
Tennessee, and from there his son Thomas moved on into Arkansas.
A farmer by occupation, he was a man of strong sense and sturdy
patriotism, and after service in minor capacities came to be the
Governor of the State some sixty years ago. Drew County in
Arkansas was named in his honor, and there are old men in that
State who remember him affectionately to this day.

The family has made a great record in business circles in
New York City, and the Drew Theological Seminary, founded
by Daniel Drew, who was during his life one of the most successful



250 MITCHELL COLUMBUS DREW

business men in New York and practically the founder of the
present system of trading on the New York Stock Exchange,
is a school which has done much for the Methodist Church, of
which old Daniel Drew was a most devoted adherent.

It will thus be seen that M. C. Drew conies of a stock which
has contributed its share of good citizens. In his hands the family
traditions have not suffered; in a long and active business career
he has built upon a good foundation. The branch of the family
to which he belongs was founded originally in Virginia and North
Carolina, thence drifting through the descendants into Tennessee,
Georgia and other States, everywhere standing for good citizenship
in all respects.

Of late years, Mr. Drew has confined himself principally to
looking after his investments and banking interests, he being a
large stockholder and interested in several important financial
institutions.



PUBLIC LIBRARY



ASTOR. LENOX AND
T1LDEN FOUNDATIONS



tptour 31rtgf)t



To no other profession is the world more indebted than to the
medical fraternity. This is especially true during the last two
centuries. The devotion of medical men to their profession, the
way in which they recklessly hazard their lives at the call of duty,
their intense application to scientific discovery which has cost the
lives of many distinguished men, has endeared the members of the
profession to the people to such an extent that no other man holds
the same place in the family life as does the family doctor. He
comes in hours of distress and grief as a messenger of Providence,
and it is to the credit of that splendid profession that in no other
vocation do we find so few unfaithful men. The standard of the
profession in Florida has grown steadily for the last twenty-five
years and today the doctors of Florida will compare favorably with
those of any other section, both in skill and in devotion to duty.

A leading man in his profession in his section is Dr. O. S.
Wright, of Plant City. Dr. Wright was born in Covington, Pa.,
December i, 1852. His parents were George Mercereau and Char-
lotte E. (Evans) Wright. His father was a hotel proprietor and a
contractor. The family is of English extraction on both sides. The
Wrights have a long and honorable record in our country. Between
1630 and 1740 ten distinct families of Wrights were founded in
America, all coming from the same stock in England, and since
our history began to be made our records show that the Wright
family has furnished over fifty men of eminence in the various
walks of life towards the building up of this Republic. On the
maternal side the Evans family has been settled in Pennsylvania
for generations.

Dr. Wright's education was obtained in the high school at
Hornell, N. Y. Having decided upon the medical profession, he
became a student in the medical department of the University
of Michigan, and was graduated by that institution in 1875, with
the degree of M.D. And in the same year he began the practice



254 OLIN SEYMOUR WRIGHT

of his profession in Hornell, N. Y. He practiced there until 1883,
when he decided to move to Florida, and went to Manatee county,
where he followed his profession for four years, and like everyone
else in that county became to some extent an orange grower. In
1887 he removed to Jacksonville, where he practiced for two years,
and in 1888 came to Plant City, where he has since remained and
built up a large practice. He is recognized as a physician of very
superior ability who has been a success in a professional way and
who is now gradually withdrawing from the active practice as the
growth of other interests and advancing years demand and justify.

On September 5, 1888, he married Mrs. P. C. Collins, whose
maiden name was Palestine Hamilton, a daughter of George Hamil-
ton, of Polk Co., Fla. They have three children, Juno E., Pallas
A. and Victor O. Wright.

In religious matters the doctor is a communicant of the Episco-
pal Church. In politics he is a Democrat. In fraternal circles he
is a thirty-third degree Mason, and has held high position in that
splendid old fraternity, and is also affiliated with the Odd Fellows,
Knights of Pythias and Woodmen of the World. He has been a
wide reader and profound student of medical and scientific subjects,
in addition to which he has found most helpful works of a historical
character. Dr. Wright's judgment is that the interests of Florida
would be promoted by the abolition of the credit system which
would protect the merchant against bad debts and the customer
against himself. He believes in the compulsory education of the
youth of the land and the building of good roads, both for the
betterment of transportation and the more speedy development of
the country. A good citizen, profoundly interested in the welfare
of his town, notwithstanding the pressure of his professional duties,
he has served several terms as Mayor of his city. At intervals
as time could be found he has made valuable contributions to the
medical press on subjects of interest to physicians. Aside from his
practice, he is the owner of the Magnolia Pharmacy, and White
Brick Drug store, two well equipped drug stores. He is a Director
in the Hillsboro State Bank. Dr. Wright has achieved by his abili-
ity, his industry l and his integrity a substantial measure of financial
success, and what is even better than that, has gained the respect of
the community as a thoroughly good citizen.



PUBLIC Li,



ASTOK. LENOX AN^
T1LDBNFOONBATIOWS



William , Barnett



Whatever the scientists may say as to heredity, physical and
mental, there is no question of doubt in the lay mind as to the exis-
tence of certain traits of character handed down from father to
son in many families. The proof of this exists in every community
in our land. Indeed, our country has been made up of strong sons,
of strong fathers. The English nation itself, and the American
people, an offshoot from the English nation, is convincing evidence
of strong traits of national character.

William D. Barnett, one of the leading financiers of Jackson-
ville, comes of one of these virile families. His father, William
Boyd Barnett, was a pioneer in three States and the founder of
the bank which his two sons are now managing. William D. Bar-
nett is the oldest son, born at Leesburg, Ind., April 3, 1852. His
father, William Boyd Barnett, was born in Nicholas county, W.
Va., in 1824. He was a son of another William Barnett, who was a
native of Northumberland county, Pa., served as a captain in a
Pennsylvania regiment in the War of 1812, and in his early life was
a pioneer of West Virginia and Ohio. William Boyd Barnett
moved on from Ohio to Indiana, where in 1848 he married at Lees-
burg, Sarah Jane Blue. On April 3, 1852, William B., the eldest
son, was born in that town. In 1858 his father moved to Kansas,
then the " Far W T est." After a successful business there as a banker
and public man, in 1877 he moved to Florida and engaged in the
banking business in Jacksonville.

In the meantime William D. had grown up in Kansas, attend-
ing the common schools of Hiawatha and later the university at
Highland and the State Agricultural College at Manhattan. In
1869, a youth of seventeen, he left college and engaged in the drug
business at Hiawatha, in which he built up a good business, but on
account of his health sold out in November, 1874.



258 WILLIAM D. BARNETT

Before going to Florida he had married on April 8, 1872, Miss
Lilla C. Harrison, daughter of Harlow S. and Lucia S. Harrison,
of Kingsville, Ashtabula county, Ohio. Of this marriage two
children have been born, one of whom, Harlow Barnett, is now
living.

In 1875 he settled in Jacksonville, Fla., and engaged in the
furniture business and continued in this line of business until 1880,
when he joined his father who had established a banking business
under the name of the Bank of Jacksonville, taking the position of
cashier. This bank was established in 1877 and was succeeded
first by the National Bank of Jacksonville, and second, by the
present Barnett National Bank of Jacksonville. Mr. Barnett
served as cashier of the Bank of Jacksonville untill 1888, at which
time it was converted to the National Bank of Jacksonville, when
on account of ill health he withdrew from active participation in the
management of the bank and moved from Jacksonville to the
mountains of western North Carolina in the spring of 1888. In
the spring of 1889, his health being benefited by the stay in North
Carolina, he purchased a general merchandise business in Hender-
sonville, N. C. and continued operating the same until the spring
of 1893, when he returned to Jacksonville and accepted the position
of treasurer and paymaster under the receiverships of the Jackson-
ville, Tampa and Key West Railway and the Florida Southern
Railway, which position he held until the receiverships were closed
in 1897; he then resumed active work in the bank as cashier of the
National Bank of Jacksonville, which position he held until his
father's death in October, 1903, when he was elected vice-president
of the bank, which position he held until the bank was changed to