Archives West Finding Aid

Harry S. Holcomb (1888-1958) was born in western Nebraska. He entered the army in 1910 and became part of the US 2nd Cavalry, a unit famed for fighting in Florida Indian wars, the Mexican War, the Utah War, the Civil War, and the Spanish American War. Holcomb was first stationed in the Philippine Islands as part of the US occupation force. In 1912 he was transfered with his unit to Texas to secure the destabilized border during the Mexican Civil War. When the United States entered the First World War in 1917 he moved into the field artillery and fought in the American Expeditionary Force in France. The next year his first child was born and he returned to the United States. For a time he worked at Coronel Military Academy in Texas. During the 1920s he became a police officer for the New York Central Railroad, a profession he kept for a quarter century. Holcomb became an excellent marksman and was assingned to protect foreign and federal officals that traveled on the railroad including Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. While living in Niagra Falls, Holcomb continued to be a reservist for the Army and was also fascinated with various sports including baseball and wrestling. He left the Army Reserve in 1939 and retired from the railroad in 1956. He then moved to Florida where he lived until his death in 1958.