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Daniel Henry Holmes (April 28, 1816 – July 3, 1898) was born in the Point Pleasant area of

Clermont County, Ohio Clermont County, popularly called Clermont ( ), is a county in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 208,601. Ordinanced in 1800 as part of the Virginia Military District, Clermont is Ohio's eighth oldest county, the ...

. Orphaned at age two, he lacked any formal education. He became a successful businessman, developing the D.H. Holmes

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

business in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

in 1842 and opening the store in 1849. It was the largest in the South, with more than 700 employees.

Early life and education

Daniel Henry Holmes was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, on April 28, 1816. Both of his parents died when he was two years old, and he eventually became friends with the children of Eugene Lavassor. The Lavassors were in the dry goods business, and also spoke French. Holmes eventually was sent to New York by Lavassor to work at Lord and Taylor. When Lord and Taylor, a few years later, opened a New Orleans store, Holmes, who spoke French as a result of the Lavassors, was an obvious candidate to run their store. French was a dominant language in New Orleans at the time. Holmes died on July 3, 1898, in New York. His body was sent to New Orleans to be buried in the family crypt, but disappeared. Holmes made his way to New Orleans, working on riverboats. He eventually went into business for himself in 1842 with his retail company, and built the D.H. Holmes department store in 1849 on Canal Street in New Orleans, at the edge of the French Quarter.port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

, from where it exported

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

to Great Britain and France, and by its large

slave market A slave market is a place where slaves are bought and sold. These markets became a key phenomenon in the history of slavery. Slave markets in the Ottoman Empire In the Ottoman Empire during the mid-14th century, slaves were traded in special ...

and associated businesses.Le Bon Marché,'' as well as major

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

retailers. Department stores were a new way of doing business that appealed to many shoppers, and the D.H. Holmes store became a city landmark. In Holmes' many trips by

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

between New York and New Orleans in the early 1850s, the businessman frequently journeyed by the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

and was attracted to Covington, Kentucky, as a rest stop. Holmes bought land in the

Kenton County Kenton County is a county located in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 169,064, making it the third most populous county in Kentucky (behind Jefferson County and Fayette County). Its ...

area known as Buena Vista; in 1866, he began to build the home of his dreams. He named the three-story, English-gothic castle as Holmesdale. The 32-room mansion was built on about . Holmes divided his time between Holmesdale, a home in France, and an apartment in New Orleans.New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
department store was the largest in the South, with more than 700 employees. Holmes often said he owed his success as a businessman to his commitment to selling only the best merchandise. He traveled extensively across the country and to Europe, searching out the products he sold. Holmes died on July 3, 1898, while on a business trip to New York. His personal estate was valued at more than $1.2 million.The Kentucky Post ''The Cincinnati Post'' was an afternoon daily newspaper published in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. In Northern Kentucky, it was bundled inside a local edition called ''The Kentucky Post''. The ''Post'' was a founding publication and onetime f ...
'' on July 4, 1898. The article termed Holmes the "retail king of New Orleans" and !one of the richest people in Covington." In 1915 the Holmes family sold the Holmesdale mansion to the Covington Board of Education for $50,538.36. The site is now part of the

Holmes Junior/Senior High School Covington Holmes Junior/Senior High School in Covington, Kentucky, is the oldest public high school in Kentucky, founded as Covington Central High in 1853. It is a vital part of the Covington Independent Public Schools. Its boundary includes mu ...

campus. D.H. Holmes in New Orleans was bought by

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The ...

in 1989, becoming part of a chain. The original store on Canal Street was sold and redeveloped as a boutique hotel, opening in 1995 as Chateau Sonesta. It was renovated in 2012 and is now the

Hyatt French Quarter Hotel Hyatt Centric French Quarter New Orleans is a hotel on Canal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. A downtown landmark, the building was constructed in 1849 and served as a highly successful department store for more than a century. The structure was ...

.

References

Further reading

*Nordstrom, Betty Lee, ''Echoes of the past : a history of the Covington public school system'' Covington Independent Public Schools, May 2002, 144 pp.

External links

Excerpt from "Daniel Henry Holmes" in ''Echoes of the Past: A History of the Covington Public School System''
by Betty Lee Nordheim {{DEFAULTSORT:Holmes, Daniel Henry 1816 births 1898 deaths American businesspeople in retailing Businesspeople from New Orleans 19th-century American businesspeople