Henry F. Hollis is a rising young lawyer of Concord and a descendant of some well-known New Hampshire families. He was born in West Concord, August 30, 1869, and is a son of Major Abijah and Harriette V. M. (French) Hollis. The first of the name on record was John Hollis, an early settler in Weymouth, Mass. After him came another John, and then, in succession, four of the name of Thomas, all of them natives of Braintree, Mass. The last named Thomas Hollis, who was the grand father of the subject of our sketch, was a stone contractor of Quincy, Mass., and one of the leading men of his time in that business. He furnished the stone for the famous Minot’s Ledge light-house. In 1826-27 he laid the track of the first railroad ever built in America to haul granite from the quarries to the Neponset River. He was one of the most prominent citizens of Milton, and took an active part in all its local affairs. He married Deborah C. Allen, of Braintree, Mass. She was a descendant of the Rev. Peter Clark, who was graduated at Harvard in 1712, and ordained minister of the church at Salem village in 1717, and married Deborah Hobart, of Braintree, in 1719.
Abijah Hollis was the youngest son of Thomas and Deborah, and one of a large family of children. He first attended the district schools of Milton, then went to Phillips Exeter Academy, and subsequently studied law at the Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass. He was admitted to the Suffolk County (Massachusetts) bar in 1861. Before entering upon the practice of his profession, however, the Civil War having broken out, and inspired with patriotic ardor, he enlisted, and was elected a commissioned officer in the Forty-fifth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, and served out his term of enlistment 1865 he removed to Concord, N.H., and in company with his brother proceeded to open one of the first stone quarries ever worked in this town. This business he successfully conducted until his retirement in 1895. Major Hollis has taken a prominent part in the political affairs of the State, and held many public offices. In 1876 he was elected to the legislature.
Major Hollis married Harriette V. M. French, daughter of the Hon. Henry F. French, of Exeter and Chester, N.H., who was Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury from the time of Grant’s administration to that of Cleveland, and from 1855 to 1859 was Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in New Hampshire. He was the first President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. His father, Daniel French, was a second cousin of Daniel Webster, and was Attorney General of New Hampshire early in the century. Judge French married Anne, daughter of William M. Richardson, Chief Justice of New Hampshire for many years. Their son, Daniel C. French, is the distinguished sculptor of New York City, among whose most celebrated works are the statue of the Republic, executed for the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, and the Minute-man standing at the historic bridge in Concord, Mass. Major Hollis is the father of the following children: Thomas, who is a broker in Boston, Mass.; Anne R.; Henry F., of Concord; Allen, also a lawyer of Concord, N.H.; and Mary F.
Henry F. Hollis, the subject of this sketch, was graduated at the Concord High School in the class of 1886. In 1886-87 he was engaged in railroad engineering between Denver, Col., and San Francisco, Cal., and on a survey of the intervening mountain passes. Returning East, he prepared at Concord, Mass., to enter Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1892. He attended the Harvard Law School, and also studied law in the offices of the Hon. William L. Foster and H. G. Sargent at Concord, N.H., and was admitted to the Merrimack County bar in 1893. Since that date Mr. Hollis has formed a law partnership with Harry G. Sargent and E. C. Niles, of Concord. He has been elected a Trustee of the New Hampshire Savings Bank and a member of the Board of Education, a marked evidence of the confidence which his fellowtownsmen already repose in him. In politics he is a Democrat, and cast his first Presidential vote for Grover Cleveland in 1892. June 14, 1893, he was united in marriage to Grace B. Fisher, of Norwood, Mass. They have two children-Henry F., Jr., and Anne R. Mr. Hollis bids fair to enter the first ranks of his profession and to add fresh laurels to the family record.
