BIOGRAPHY: Hollis, Charles M.
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

*************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
*************************************************
	CHARLES M. HOLLIS was born in Randolph, Norfolk County, Mass., August 1, 1837, and 
was the oldest child of Minot Hollis and Mary B. Foss, his wife, who died at the age of thirty-two.  His 
father was born February 6, 1806, and was the son of Ambrose Hollis, born in 1780.  The Hollis family 
came to Plymouth Colony from England at an early day, and the subject of this sketch is a lineal 
descendant of that Colonel Cecil Hollis, who was a compatriot with Hampden, and was one of the 
famous five whom King Charles I ejected from the House of Commons, an act which resulted in the 
beheading of the king and the establishment of the Protectorate of Cromwell.

In 1856, Mr. Hollis entered Middlebury College and graduated with the degree of A.B. in 1860, 
and in 1863 the degree of A.M. was conferred upon him by his alma mater.  During college vacation he 
taught schools in Massachusetts, Vermont and New York, and immediately after graduating, 
commenced the study of law with A. B. Waldo, of Port Henry, New York.  In the Spring of 1861, he 
located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and continuing his legal study with E.U. Bates; was in January, 1862 
admitted to practice.  In the Spring of the same year he took charge of the Cedar Valley (now Cedar 
Rapids) Times as editor and publisher, and conducted it until February 1863.  As a journalist he soon 
acquired an enviable reputation, and during his administration the Times was placed on a secure 
foundation

In the Spring of 1866, he removed to Marion, Iowa, where he has since resided, and is now 
permanently located in the practice of his profession, and in carrying on an extensive real estate 
business.

In November, 1862, he married Sarah Stephens, by whom he had two children, Minnie S. and 
Fred W., both surviving.  Having lost his first wife, he married in January 1873, Elizabeth C., daughter 
of Rev. J.V. DeWitt, who is a grand nephew of Gov. DeWitt Clinton, of New York.  By this second 
marriage he has had two children, Birdie L., who died in infancy, and Nellie May still surviving.

As a man of business, Mr. Hollis has been very successful, and is in the enjoyment of the 
substantial rewards of well directed efforts.  Possessed of a literary taste and a cultivated mind, and 
having a large library, he devotes much of his leisure time to his books.  He is one of those men whom 
misfortune can not dishearten, and who quickly build new castles on the ashes of old hopes.  His 
fondness for the domestic pleasures of the fireside, combined with his taste for literature, render him 
independent of the great outside world. 

Well established in business and resting content in a beautiful home, he enjoys the good of life 
philosophically, and disdains the bubbles which attract the multitude.