Holmes, Uriel, Jr.

Township Proprietor, Surveyor, Attorney, United States Representative

Birth: August 26, 1764, East Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut
Death: May 18, 1827, Canton, Litchfield County, Connecticut
Burial: East Cemetery, Litchfield, Litchfield County, Connecticut
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Uriel Holmes, Jr., a member of the Connecticut Land Company, was an original proprietor of Vienna Township. The other two proprietors were Ephraim Root and Timothy Burr.

Holmes is believed to have visited what was originally known as Town 4, Range 2, in 1798 to measure and divide the land for sale. With Samuel Hutchins and Dennis Clark Palmer, both of whom would settle in Vienna, he worked through the spring and summer, returned to Connecticut for the winter, and traveled again to Vienna--this time with settlers--in 1799.

In 1810 Holmes and Ephraim Root deeded to the Vienna Presbyterian Church the land for Vienna Township Green and Cemetery.

Holmes, born in East Haddam, Connecticut, moved with his parents to Hartland, Connecticut. After a common school education, he attended and graduated from Yale College in 1785. He studied at the Litchfield Law School, in Litchfield, Connecticut, and was admitted to the bar in 1798, the same year he surveyed the Connecticut Western Reserve.

When Samuel Hutchins' father John died in 1787, Uriel Holmes brought Samuel, several of his young siblings, and his mother Anna into his household. Hutchins named one of his sons after Uriel Holmes.

After establishing a law practice in Litchfield Holmes served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1803 to 1805. Over the next decade he served a prosecuting attorney and judge in Litchfield County.

Holmes was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1816 and served from 1817-1818.