Hiram C. Holmes was born January 22, 1826, and was a ship master, merchant, and businessman in Mystic Bridge, Connecticut. He also served as a surveyor for the Stonington Customs District at Mystic and Noank, from 1861 to 1865. During the period covered in this collection, Holmes was master of the Sloop ACTIVE, 1848-1854, which he operated in the coasting trade between Mystic and New York. He later owned a feed store that burned down around 1865. Between 1860 and 1880, Holmes conducted an active business with Joseph Allen & Co., and Williams & Potter, both New York firms dealing in flour and wholesale groceries; and with Waldron & Church, wholesale grocers and commission merchants in Providence, Rhode Island. He was also the son of Jeremiah Holmes, a local hero in the defense of Stonington against the British, and the younger brother of Joseph Warrent Holmes, a well known Mystic ship master, who doubled Cape Horn 83 times during his 60 years at sea.