Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/335

 HOLLEY

HOLLEY

He became a member of the city council; presi- dent of the Peoples bank, the Wilkes-Barre in- stitute, the Hollenback Cemetery association, and the Harry Hillmau acadenry; vice-president and director of the city hospital, and a director in numerous corporations. He was elected a trustee of Lafayette college in 1865, and presi- dent of the board in 1892. His benefactions to the college were frequent and large. He was married, Oct. 25, 1854, to Anna E., daughter of Eli Beard, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Their two sons died in infancy and their daughter, Emily B., married Dr. Lewis H. Taylor, of Wilkes-Barre. His first wife died in 1864, and he was married secondly, Dec. 13, 1866, to Josephine, daughter of John Woodward, of New York city, and their daughter, Eleanor J., married Murray Gibson, of Philadel- phia. His second wife died while her three daughters were of a tender age and lie was mar- ried thirdly to Amelia Beard, sister of his first wife, and they had tliree daugliters.

HOLLEY, Alexander Hamilton, governor of Connecticut, was born at Lakeville (Salisbury), Conn., Aug. 12, 1804; son of Jolm Milton and Sally (Porter) Holley: grandson of Luther and Sai"ali (Dakin) Holley, and of Col. Joshua and Abigail (Buell) Por- ter and a descendant in the seventh gener- ation of John Holl}-, a pioneer settler of Stamford, Conn.,

about 1644. He ob- tained his prepara- tory education at the Rev. Orville Dewey's school at Sheffield, Mass.; at the Rev. Mr. Parker's school at Ellsworth, Conn., and at the Hudson, N.Y., academy, and intended to enter Yale, but was prevented by ill health. In 1819 he engaged with his father, senior member of the firm of Holley & Coffing, in mercantile and iron manufacturing business, and continued with that firm and other combinations of it until his father's death in 1836. He thereafter con- tinued in local trade, to which he added in 1844 a manufactory of pocket cutlery, known after 1854 as the Holley Maiaufacturing company, and in 1900 the oldest continuously operated concern of its kind in the United States. He was a delegate to the convention that nominated Henry Clay for President in 1844, and a delegate at large to the convention that nominated Abraham Lin- coln in 1860. In May. 1854. he was elected lieu- tenant governor of Connecticut, and in 1857 was

elected governor, serving 1857-58. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the state militia. He was interested in all public improvements, particularly the development of railroads, being instrumental in procuring the funds for building the Housatonic railroad, assisting in the exten- sion of the Harlem railroad from Dover to Chat- ham, N.Y., and in 1869-71 taking an active part in the organization and management of the Con- necticut Western railroad. He was president of the National Iron Bank of Falls Village, Conn., and of the Salisbury Savings society. He was thrice married: first, in 1831, to Jane M., daugliter of Erastus Lyman, of Goshen, Conn., who died in September, 1832, leaving one son, Alexander Ly- man Holley (q.v.); secondly, in 1835, to Marcia, daughter of John C. Coffing, who died in 1854; and tliirdly, in 1856, to Sarali C, daughter of the Hon. Thomas Day. Mr. Holley retired from active business about 1860. He is the author of numerous addresses and contributions to news- papers. He was elected a life member of the New England Historic Genealogical society in 1869. He died at Lakeville, Conn., Oct. 2, 1887.

HOLLEY, Alexander Lyman, engineer, was born in Lakeville, Conn., July 20, 1832; son of Gov. Alexander Hamilton and Jane M. (Lyman) Holley, and grandson of John Milton and Sally

He

(Porter) Holley, and of Erastus Lyman.

attended academies

in Connecticut and

Massachusetts and

graduated at Brown,

Pli.B., in 1853. In

1851, while an under- graduate, he invented a cut-off, enti rely dif- ferert and in many respects better than the device then in use. Tliis was illustrated and described in Ap- pleton's Mechanical Magazine in July,

1852. He was a drafts- man and mechanic in the Corliss steam engine works. Providence, R.I., 1853-54, and was employed in the New Jersey locomotive works, Jersey City, 1854-55. He was co-editor with Zerah Colburn of the Rail- road Advocate, 1855-56, purchasing the paper in April, 1856, and editing it alone. In August, 1856, its name was changed to HoUey's Railroad Advocate, and in July, 1857, it became Holley and Colhvrn's American Engineer, it was sus- pended in September, 1857, and soon after Mr. Holley went with Mr. Colburn to Europe to study foreign railway practice. Their report appeared in 1858 under the title, "The Permanent Way