Hilary Herbert Holmes
HOLMES, HILARY HERBERT, educator and State senator, was born November 12, 1882, at Tensaw; son of Thomas Galphin and Lucinda Vaughan (Bryars) Holmes, the former a member of the 15th Alabama infantry regiment, C. S. Army; grandson of Dr. Thomas Galphin, sr., and Elizabeth (Weakley) Holmes (q. v.), the former came to what is now Alabama early in the 19th century and settled in the northern part of Baldwin County, serving in the Creek Indian War, and of Hon. Red Berry and Sarah (Fickling) Bryars; great-grandson of John Holmes, a native of Ireland, and of George P. Weakley, one of the surveyors who assisted in laying out Mississippi and Alabama; great- great-grandson of George Galphin, of Silver Bluff, S. C.
He was educated by tutors and in the public school of Tensaw; graduated Ph. D., 1904, from the State normal school at Troy; student University of Alabama; and graduated from Columbia university, where he received the degree of B. S., 1910, A. M., 1912, and Ph. D. in 1913. He taught in Alabama schools a number of years; was instructor in the New York training school for teachers in 1913. While principal of Geneva County high school he began the movement to humanize education by the introduction of vocational pursuits, and read a paper on this subject before the Alabama education association, 1912. He instituted the "loan fund" of the Troy normal school. Mr. Holmes was elected to the State senate from the 21st district in 1914, and on August 14, 1915, was appointed president of the Daphne state normal school, and has been re-elected successively since that time.
He is a Democrat; a Baptist; Knight of Pythias; Mason; a member of the Order of the Eastern Star; and of the Acacia and Phi Delta Kappa college fraternities.
Married: June 3, 1915, at Princeton, Ind., to Christine, daughter of James Hamilton and Anna (Ward) Warnock, the former a planter and banker.
Residence: Daphne.
Source (8) page 831