Born in Fayette County, Kentucky, Rev. Holmes established a church in St. Joseph, Missouri by 1889. After the death of his wife Ella, he moved to Kansas City where he was a pastor from about 1894 to 1898. He then served in Omaha, Nebraska until the spring of 1899.

The May 5,1899 Iowa State Bystander noted he had been assigned to the Burns Chapel in Des Moines. He served as pastor there as late as August 1902. A September 1912 report in the Iowa State Bystander noted he was the minister at the Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church in Oskaloosa when he married Lucy Carvington.

A January 1903 reference reported he was in Colorado Springs and was assigned to start a church there in 1904. The cornerstone for the church was set on May 4, 1904. He held positions in Colorado into the early 1910s, but returned to the Midwest by the late 1910s. He served as a minister in Hannibal, Missouri by 1918. He remained in the area until his death in 1938.