Term: Holmes, Frederick Lionel 1883 - 1946
Definition:
author, lawyer, journalist, b. near Waukau. He graduated from the Univ. of Wisconsin (B.A., 1906). He worked as a reporter for the Wis. State Journal (1906-1909) and was business manager for La Follette's Magazine (1909-1913). In 1909 he also began publication of Holmes' News Service, which was carried by several midwestern newspapers until its discontinuance in 1929. A Republican, Holmes was state assemblyman (1913-1916), and in 1917 again joined the staff of La Follette's Magazine, serving as managing editor (1917-1929). A staunch supporter of Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (q.v.), he was national publicity director for the La Follette presidential campaign of 1924. In 1927 Holmes was admitted to the Wisconsin bar, and was practicing in Madison with F. D. Shuttleworth at the time of his death. A friend and supporter of university president Glenn Frank (q.v.), Holmes was one of the leaders of the alumni protest against Frank's dismissal in 1937. He was the author of numerous books, many of them dealing with Wisconsin history and travel. Among his works are Regulation of Railroads and Public Utilities in Wisconsin (1915), Abraham Lincoln Traveled This Way (co-authored with his wife in 1930), Alluring Wisconsin (1937), Badger Saints and Sinners (1939), and OId World Wisconsin (1944). He was editor of the Wisconsin Blue Book (1923, 1925, 1927), and was also editor-in-chief of a five-volume history of Wisconsin (1946). A devout Catholic, his The Voice of Trappist Silence (1941) dealt with the Trappist monastic order. Holmes served as curator of the State Historical Society from 1935 until his death. F. L. Holmes, et al., eds., Wis. (5 vols., Chicago, 1946); Wis. Mag. Hist., 30; M. M. Quaife, Wis. (4 vols., Chicago, 1924); Madison Capital Times, July 28, 1946; F. L. Holmes Papers.
View a related article at Wisconsin Magazine of History Archives.
View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.
[Source: Blue book]
