Silas M., was born in 1816 to Jabez/Jabish Holmes. A brother, also named Jabez, was four years older, and would become a business partner later. Although it is unknown when the Holmes brothers moved west, early Detroit business records find Silas in partnership with R.S. Babcock in 1840, in the eponymous dry goods company in their store named "The Old Manhattan Store," presumably because Babcock and/or Holmes had come to the area from the East with their initial stock, probably about this time (Palmer, F., Hunt, H. and Miller, C. Early Days in Detroit. 1906). The business operated for a few years before dissolving, and Holmes going into business with his brother, Jabez, as Holmes and Co. The business flourished for a while, and the brothers built a four-story brownstone on Woodward Ave., filling it with what one contemporary observer in 1854 speculated was "the most extensive and best managed dry goods store in the United States, outside of New York."
At some point, Silas entered politics. He helped organize the newly formed Republican Party in Michigan. When their candidate won the election of 1854, Holmes became head of the party in the state, and served two terms as State Treasurer from 1855 - 1858. Also around the same time, Holmes acquired the Detroit Daily Advertiser, a newspaper with a Republican "bent." Family lore maintains that he was a personal friend of Lincoln's, and while we approach family stories with some skepticism, Holmes' role in the party and ownership of a newspaper by the time the Civil War erupted, puts him in a good position to have had personal dealings with the President (or neighboring Illinois representative). The paper struggled, in part because Holmes was not a "newspaper man." That did not deter him from acquiring several papers, which were ultimately merged with the Advertiser. He eventually sold the paper(s), reportedly at a significant loss.
Although his third endeavor, other than dry goods and newspapers, is not clear, according to accompanying family histories, Silas made and lost 3 fortunes, dying penniless in Corning, CA in June 1905, having moved there to live with two of his married daughters. Jabez was a bit luckier, his wife having money of her own, with which they retired in comfort back to Stonington.
While still in the East, Silas was VERY active in the underground railroad in Detroit with the First Congregational Church of Detroit.
He and his family moved to Oakland CA(I would love to find out why) approximately 1875 subsequently moved to Corning to be near his in-laws.
He is buried in the Corning Cemetery along with his Chittenden in-laws. (Correction, he is buried in the Tehama Cemetery along with his wife)
Linda Wolfe