Bennington

HOLLEY, Justus

Vermont Historical Magazine, No. XI, October 1867, p 187
(extracted from a section on the history of Dorset, Bennington County, 
Vermont)

Justus HOLLEY settled in Dorset [Bennington County, Vermont] in 1780; came 
from Richmond [Berkshire County], Massachusetts; enrolled himself as fifer in 
Captain ROBINSON's Company at Bennington; when about to go into battle young 
HOLLEY asked his Captain for a gun, thinking it a more effective instrument 
with which to serve his country than a fife. But Captain ROBINSON preferred 
the powerful effect of the young man's fife. Mr. [Justus] HOLLEY married 
[Miss?] Elizabeth FIELD, who immigrated to this town [Dorset] from Mansfield 
[Tolland County], Connecticut, at two and a half years of age, in her 
mother's arms, upon horseback. The first death in the family was that of the 
youngest daughter, at the age of thirty-one years. Mr. [Justus] HOLLEY died 
in 1849, aged eighty-six years, leaving his wife, ten children, and sixty 
grandchildren, all of whom inherited unusually fine musical abilities. His 
wife [Mrs. Elizabeth HOLLEY] died in 1858, aged eighty-five years, leaving to 
her posterity the rich legacy of an exemplary life and the following golden 
precept delivered from her death bed: "My children, I desire that you should 
not only be good but do good."

Submitted by Cathy Kubly