Dora (King) Holmes (1878 - abt. 1946)

Born 1878 in South Carolina, United States

Wife of Louis Holmes — married 21 Jul 1892 in Pulaski, Arkansas, United States

Died about 8 Jan 1946 at about age 68 in Pulaski County, Arkansas, United States

Biography

Dora (King) Holmes is a part of US Black heritage.

Dora Holmes was interviewed in Little Rock, Arkansas in about 1937 about her life and her time as an enslaved person. Dora was born well after Emancipation.

"My father's half-brothers were white. They all fought in the army. They were Confederate soldiers. Once during the war when they came home, they brought my mother the goods for two dresses, - twenty yards of figured voile, ten yards for each dress. The cost of the whole twenty yards was fifty dollars ($50.00). I still have the dresses and some petticoats and pantaloons which are nearly as old. I have ironed these things many a time until they were so stiff they stand straight up on the floor."

This is the entire interview as recorded.

It is followed by comments of the interviewer. "Mary Ann King, mother of Dora Holmes, was the original owner of the dresses. She died at the age of ninety-eight, two or three years ago. One of the dresses is still in possession of the daughter. It has a skirt with nine gores and a twelve-inch headed ruffle. The petticoat is of white muslin with a fifty-two yard lace ruffle in sixteen tiers of lace with beading at the top. It was worn just after the Civil War. There are also a baby dress and a baby petticoat fifty-six years old."

Interview: Dora Holmes was interviewed in Little Rock, Arkansas, by Samuel S. Taylor as part of the Federal Writer's Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The results are made available by the Library of Congress. ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ [1] Library of Congress - WPA - Slave Narrative - Dora Holmes - Vol. 2, Arkansas, part 3; pages 307-307, images 308-308 of 394.

• "Arkansas Marriages, 1837-1944", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F73S-PY1 : 11 January 2020), Dora King in entry for Louis Holmes, 1892.

• "United States Census, 1900", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M3XS-F85 : 16 February 2022), Dora Holmes in entry for Lewis Holmes, 1900.

• "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKVT-KP5 : accessed 2 March 2023), Dora Helmes in household of Louis Helmes, Little Rock Ward 8, Pulaski, Arkansas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 134, sheet 10A, family 228, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 62; FHL microfilm 1,374,075.

• "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDFD-DC5 : 31 January 2021), Dora Holmes in entry for Lewis Holmes, 1920.

• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XMGZ-ZLZ : accessed 2 March 2023), Dora Holmes in household of Louis Holmes, Little Rock, Pulaski, Arkansas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 36, sheet 6B, line 88, family 154, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 92; FHL microfilm 2,339,827.

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31366611/dora-holmes: accessed 02 March 2023), memorial page for Dora King Holmes (15 Jun 1878–8 Jan 1946), Find a Grave Memorial ID 31366611, citing Oakland and Fraternal Historic Cemetery Park, Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas, USA; Maintained by RS Green-Starnes (contributor 47410223).