David Hollister & the Hollister Family (2)

Part Two - Across the Midwest
If you missed Part 1 of the story, go here . . .

David Hollister was born in newly settled western New York in 1802. His parents might have been John Hollister and Elizabeth Van Scoter. He first married Celinda Giddings, the widow of his brother Abraham. They lived in Pennsylvania and Indiana but Celinda would die around 1841. In those days, death was common and almost expected. The living would carry on and as a matter of survival, most widowed spouses would remarry. David was in his 40s with a family in tow, but as you will read below, there would be another beginning as he had not even reached the halfway point of his long life.

Wisconsin Territory about the time the Hollisters came to the state.
Settlement was limited to the south and along Lake Michigan.
Indian tribes still occupied areas north of the Wisconsin River.

David Hollister & the Hollister Family (1)

Part One - Connecticut and New York

Note: I have updated this series a few times as more information has become available about David Hollister and his family. Now, in 2025, I made the decision to split the original three-part series into four parts with new information in all four parts. This will allow me to continue to grow and refine these posts as more information is obtained.

David Hollister's lifespan encompassed most of the 19th century. He was born about 1802 in New York and died 101 years later in 1903 in western Iowa. He spent a good part of his life on the move, pioneering in New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin and finally Iowa. David's life is fairly well documented but up until now, his exact ancestry has been elusive. There are at least 40 Hollister families in New York in the 1810 census and since children's names are not given, it has been hard to tell who David might belong to. In addition, the Hollister lineage in Colonial America is well known but David does not show up in that body of work either. Recently, an online source has provided a possible ancestral line and I will list that here but beware, it has yet to be verified.

Captain John Hollister built this house in Glastonbury in 1649. It has been noted
that he lived across the river in Wethersfield and probably rented out this house.
Later, Hollister would claim it as their ancestral home and live in it for generations.