Holmes, Isaac E.

Born: 1796-04-06 Charleston, South Carolina

Died: 1867-02-24 Charleston, South Carolina

Isaac Holmes attended common schools and graduated from Yale College in 1815. He studied law, earned admittance to the South Carolina bar in 1818, and started a practice in Charleston. He served on the Charleston City Council and in the South Carolina House of Representatives, serving from 1826 to 1829 and 1832 to 1833. In 1839, Holmes won election, as a Democrat, to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving until 1851. He served alongside Abraham Lincoln during the Thirtieth Congress. He moved to San Francisco, California in 1851 and continued to practice law until 1854. Holmes returned to Charleston for a short time before returning to San Francisco, where he lived from 1857 to 1861. He returned once again to South Carolina in 1861, where he earned appointment to serve as a commissioner of the state to confer with the federal government.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 1231; Gravestone, Circular Congregational Church Burying Ground, Charleston, SC.