\ •_ (t- 
artist was very envious, and in lieu of "bought en colors he squeez- 
ed the juice of weeds for -green and berries for red and with im- 
provised brushes began his career as a painter. One of the 
happiest days of his boyhood was the occasion when the local 
market man was induced to buy for him in Wheeling, Virginia, 
twenty miles away, a box of colors and the necessary brushes. He 
did not, however, understand the use of brushes and painted with 
the point, much as with a pen, but soon learned better and early 
* 
in the sixties had procured oil paints, and several examples of 
his work of that period in both mediums are preserved. 
His mother died when he was ten and he lived a year 
with his grandparents, John and Mary Herberling , charming old 
folks, in the village of Georgetown, two and one-half miles away. 
The young man was probably of small account on the 
farm, his two older brothers taking the heavier burdens while 
he hunted squirrels and rabbits, fished, sketched and went to 
school. At nineteen he was fortunate enough to be able to attend 
the KeBeely Eorman School at Hopedale, seven miles away, from 
which institution he graduated in 1867. In 1865 he was able 
to secure a certificate to teach in the common schools, and be- 
gan in this field as assistant to his cousin, Abram Holmes, in 
the r ' e<3 ' Hil1 s °Hoolhouse near Cadiz, and later taught in the 
neighboring schools of Science Hill and Beech Spring. 
In 1866 Holmes found the prospect of a teacher's life 
so unattractive that he decided to take up the study of art if 
V 
