My second book about the RMS Titanic and her passengers and crew along with some movie talk. Same rules apply, no drama, trolls, and disrespecting the people on this ship
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
December 18th, 1856 - January 31st, 1942
She is a Sagittarius.
Ella Bertha Holmes was born at Myrtle Street in Boston, Massachusetts to Edwin Holmes (April 25th, 1820), a telegraphist and inventor, and Eliza Ann Richardson (born 1822), natives of Massachusetts and Vermont, respectively and who had married in Fitchburg, Worcester, Massachusetts on May 4th, 1844. She had two elder brothers, Edwin Thomas (October 27th, 1849 - 1920) and Frank (March 1st, 1853 - 1870) and a younger sister, Belle (December 3rd, 1861 - 1945), later Mrs. Andrew Summer March Jr. Frank died on August 26th, 1870 at the age of 17 when he fell from the high rafters of a barn in Holden, Massachusetts where he has been visiting friends.
Her father was involved with early electronics and telephony and later purchased the patent of the electromagnetic burglar alarm, first setting up his home burglar alarm business in Boston in 1849, the Holmes Electric Protective Company. His business wasn't performing well in that city so he moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1859 where his enterprise had more success. By 1880 Holmes Electric Protective Company won a contract to lay line plant for burglar alarm services in Philadelphia and Boston and the business flourished further as it later emerged that existing telephone lines could be utilized for their burglar alarms in lieu of single-purpose cables. In 1878 he became president of the newly established Bell Telephone Company and also has numerous interests in various electrical companies. By the time of his death he had established a fortune.
Having moved to Brooklyn in 1859, Ella and her family appear on the 1870 census at an unspecified address. By the time of the 1880 census they were living at Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn. After 23 years in Brooklyn the family moved to Manhattan. Ella was just days shy of her 38th birthday when she was married in Manhattan on December 12th, 1894 to John Stuart White (August 29th, 1844 in New York), son of William White and Margaret McCartney, a match that contemporary media labeled as "surprising". They made their home in Manhattan but the marriage, apparently a happy match, was childless and short-lived, with John dying at the age of 52 less then 3 years later on May 19th, 1897. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Ella never remarried and returned to live with her parents; her father died at their home in Manhattan on January 17th, 1901 and Edwin-previously secretary and treasurer of Holmes Electric Protective Company, also a close friend of Alexander Graham Bell-took over the presidency. Her mother later died at the home of Belle March in Orange, New Jersey on December 11th, 1904. A wealthy and a slightly eccentric widow without ties, Ella maintained a luxurious summer apartment at Briarcliff Manor in Westchester, New York as well as living out of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the latter of which she became a permanent resident in 1914. She also took to globetrotting and travelling the length and breadth of the USA.
While vacationing in Atlantic City, New Jersey in early 1910 she crossed paths with Marie Grice Young. Marie, a resident of Washington DC, was a well-connected music teacher and was in Atlantic City recuperating from the recent loss of her mother. They must have had an instant connection and soon Ella was inviting Marie to her frequent parties at Briarcliff Manor. Soon they were living together as well as becoming frequent travel partners. They became devoted to each other and they were rarely mentioned as being apart from each other in the contemporary media.
