Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Holls, George Charles

HOLLS, George Charles, clergyman, b. in Darmstadt, Germany, 26 Feb., 1824; d. in Mount Vernon, N. Y., 12 Aug., 1886. He was educated at Darmstadt and at Strasburg, and at an early age he became assistant to Dr. Wichern, founder of the “Rauhe Haus,” near Hamburg. When he was twenty-five years of age he was placed in charge of the government charities in the province of Upper Silesia, and while holding this office organized the work of relief during the famine of 1848-'9 in that province, having at one time 4,000 destitute children under his charge. He resigned in 1851 and came to this country, where, after teaching for several years in Ohio, he was appointed superintendent of the Lutheran orphan farm-school at Zelienople, Pa. He remained there until 1866, when he took charge of the newly founded Wartburg farm-school near Mount Vernon, N. Y. In August, 1885, failing health compelled him to resign, and he afterward lived in retirement till his death.