Berkeley County, West Virginia Biography of Harry HOLLIS This file was submitted by Vivian Brinker, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 186 HARRY HOLLIS, representing a family that has been in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia for several generations, acquired an extensive acquaintance over portions of the adjoining states during his work as a traveling salesman, and is now doing a prosperous business as a wholesale merchant at Martinsburg. He was born on a farm in Mill Creek District, Berkeley County, West Virginia. His great-grandfather, William Hollis, was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and came to Berkeley County in early days from Ohio. He was a farmer in the vicinity of Darkesville, and in the days before the railroad he marketed the produce of his farms by team and wagon. He had two six-horse teams, and would load his wagons and sometimes go to Baltimore and at other times to Tennessee. William Hollis was buried at the Presbyterian Cemetery at Gerrardstown. He married Lydia Dick near Sandusky, Ohio, and both of them lived to old age. Their eight children were: Jane, Joseph, John, Sally, Amanda, Lydia, Bennett and William. Of these John Hollis was born in Berkeley County in 1818, and as a young man bought a farm near Gerrardstown, and remained in Berkeley County until his death at the age of seventy-five. He married Rebecca Thornburg, who was born in Berkeley County in 1824. Her father, Thomas Thornburg, was a farmer living about four miles southwest of Martinsburg. The first wife of Thomas Thornburg was Barbara Byers. Rebecca (Thornburg) Hollis died at the age of eighty-four. Her eight children were named William, James, Parren, Anna, Emma, John, Clarence and Edgar. Paren Morgan Hollis, father of Harry Hollis, was born at Gerrardstown in Berkeley County, March 13, 1850. As a boy he attended subscription schools during the winter time, and otherwise assisted on the farm. After reaching his majority, he began his career by renting land, and he remained in the ranks of solid and prosperous farmers of Berkeley County until 1896, when he removed to Martinsburg and for one year carried mail between the postoffice and the railroad, for thirteen years he was an employee of the Standard Oil Company, and is still keeping up a routine of work as night clerk in the Berkeley Hotel. On November 28, 1878, he married Annie Chamberlain, born in Jefferson County in February, 1854, daughter of John Chamberlain, who was a miller and operated a number of mills including the Strider Mill on Opequan Creek and the Balch Mill at Lewtown. John Chamberlain married a member of the Sharff family, who were pioneers in Jefferson County. Mr. and Mrs. Paren Hollis reared eight children, named Charles, Harry, Lou, Edgar, Fannie, Estellla, Ernest and Roy. The mother is a member of the Methodist Protestant Church. The father in political matters is a democrat. Harry Hollis spent his early life on his father's farm and attended rural schools in both Jefferson and Berkeley counties. Later he attended the Martinsburg city schools, and after completing his education he took up a business career and for a number of years was a traveling salesman over an extensive territory in West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. In 1920 Mr. Hollis engaged in the wholesale fruit and produce business at Martinsburg, and is one of the enterprising men of affairs of that city. In 1902 he married Mamie Shaull, a native of Jefferson County and daughter of John Shaull. Mrs. Hollis, who was an active member of the Trinity Episcopal Church, South, died in 1917, leaving two daughters: Helen and Anna. Helen married Evered Long, and they have one son, William Lee, born May 18, 1922.