ter." In 1853 he arranged and indexed twenty- three folio volumes containing the papers of Gov. George Clinton. He was surveyor-general of the state in 1838, and during the last ten years of his life was employed in the office of the secretary of state of New York. He was the author of " De- scription of Citv of New York " (1847), and " Life of Franklin " (Boston, 1856).
HOLLIDAY, Ben, expressman, b. in Bourbon
county, Ky., in 1819 ; d. in Portland, Oregon, 8
July, 1887. He became a pioneer in western Mis-
souri, and afterward in Kansas, was an army con-
tractor during the Mexican war, and in 1849-'52
established mercantile houses in Salt Lake City
and San Francisco. A few years later he founded
Holliday's mail and overland express, which for
ten years was the connecting link between the
western frontier states and the Pacific. He also
established the fast pony-express, and a line of
twenty-three steamers from Alaska to Mexico. He
afterward invested in mining property, and with
the proceeds of the Ophir mine in Nevada bought
a tract of land in Westchester county, N. Y., which
he called Ophir farm. Here he built a house that
cost $1,000,000, where he entertained his friends
in magnificent fashion, but the property was for
many years in litigation, and it finally passed en-
tirely out of his hands.
HOLLINGSWORTH, Levi, merchant, b. in
Elkton, Md., 29 Nov., 1739 ; d. in Philadelphia, Pa.,
24 March, 1824. His great-grandfather, Valentine
Hollingsworth, accompanied William Penn to
Pennsylvania in 1682. Levi became a merchant
in Philadelphia in 1760, and was a zealous and ac-
tive supporter of the cause of American independ-
ence. He suffered loss from supplies that he fur-
nished the army, and served in the field as a mem-
ber of the original troop of city cavalry. He was
sent to Canada with the specie for the payment of
Gen. Montgomery's army when it was investing
Quebec, and was employed in many other special
ervices. He was afterward one of the leaders of
the Federal party in Philadelphia.
HOLLINS, George Nichols, naval officer, b. in
Baltimore, Md., 20 Sept., 1799 ; d. there, 18 Jan.,
1878. He entered the navy as midshipman in 1814,
and served on the sloop-of-war " Erie " in her un-
successful attempt to break the British blockade
of Chesapeake bay. He was assigned to the frigate
"President" under Stephen Decatur, was cap-
tured by the British, and kept a prisoner of war
at Bermuda until peace was established. He also
served under Decatur in the Algerian war in 1815,
and received from him a Turkish sabre for his
bravery in the capture of an Algerian frigate.
After serving on the " Guerriere," the " Columbus."
the " Franklin," and the " Washington," he took
command of an East Indian merchantman. In
1825 he was promoted lieutenant, and in 1844 com-
mander. In 1855, while lying off the Mosquito
coast of Nicaragua, the American residents of
Greytown appealed to him for protection from the
local authorities, by whom they alleged they had
been injured. Hollins accordingly bombarded the
city as a~ punishment to the authorities, and the
property and lives of the English residents being
imperilled, they declared he had encroached on
British domain, as Nicaragua was under the pro-
tection of that government. In consequence of
his precipitate conduct, serious difficulties were apprehended between England and the United States.
n 1861 he resigned his commission to join the
Confederate navy, but the war department refused
to accept it, struck his name from the rolls, and
ordered his arrest. He eluded the authorities, went
to the south, and was commissioned commodore in
the Confederate navy. In October, 1861, he attacked
the National blockading squadron at the passes of
the Mississippi, and was appointed flag-captain of
the New Orleans station for what was claimed as
an important victory. In 1862 he was superseded
by Com. William C. Whipple. After the war he
became a crier in the city court of Baltimore.
HOLLIS, Thomas, benefactor, b. in England
in 1659 ; d. in London, England, in February, 1731.
He was for many years a successful merchant in
London, and a bequest made to Harvard college in
his uncle's will, of which he was a trustee, first at-
tracted his attention to that seat of learning. After
making two considerable donations to the college,
he gave in 1721 the fund by which the Hollis pro-
fessorship of divinity was constituted. He was a
Baptist and a Calvinist, required his professor of
divinity to be " of sound or orthodox principles,"
and stipulated that Baptists, who were then in no
great favor in New England, should not be ex-
cluded from the chair that he had established. In
1727 he also established a professorship of mathe-
matics and philosophy, and his donations amounted
at that time to £4.900 in Massachusetts currency.
He also gave books for the library, and a set of
Hebrew and Greek types for printing. — His broth-
ers, John and Nathaniel, were also donors to the
college. — His nephew and heir, Thomas, son of
Nathaniel, d. in 1735, also gave money, books,
and philosophical apparatus to the college. —
Thomas, son of the second Thomas, b. in London,
England, in 1720; d. in Corsecombe, Dorset, Eng-
land, in 1774, followed literary pursuits, and did
much to propagate the principles of civil and relig-
ious liberty. Among his gifts to Harvard college
was a donation of books that were valued at £1,400.
He is said to have given away half his large fortune
for benevolent purposes. He was a zealous pro-
moter of the spirit of freedom in America, and
aided in republishing the political treatises of ^lay-
hew, Otis, and John Adams. His memoirs, com-
piled by the Rev. Francis Blackburn, archdeacon
of Cleveland, were published in 1780 in two quartos,
with engravings, by Thomas Brand Hollis, also a
benefactor of Harvard. — Other members of the
Hollis family were also liberal donors to Harvard
college, and one of the halls of that institution
is named in their honor.
HOLLISTER, Gideon Hiram, author, b. in Washington, Conn.. 14 Dec, 1817; d. in Litchfield, Conn.. 24 March. 1881. He was graduated in 1840 at Yale, where he was class poet, studied law in Litchfield with Origen S. Seymour, and after a brief stay in Woodbury, Conn., practised in the former town. He was clerk of courts there in 1843-'52, and in 1856 was chosen to the state senate, where he was instrumental in procuring the election of James Dixon to the U. S. senate. President Johnson appointed him consul-general and U. S. minister at Hayti in 1868, and he served till 1869, when he removed to Stratford, Conn., and practised law in Bridgeport, but in 1876 returned to Litchfield. He was elected to the legislature in 1880, and made a speech on the New York boundary question that was published and attracted much attention. Mr. Hollister was an enthusiastic student of the English classics. The acting copyright of his tragedy " Thomas a Becket " is owned by Edwin Booth, but it was produced only three times. His poem " Andersonville " acquired considerable popularity during the civil war. He published "Mount Hope," an historical romance of King Philip's war (New York, 1851) ; a " History of Connecticut " (2 vols., New Haven, 1855) ; and
