Martin T. Hollister was born on November 13, 1847, in Glastonbury, Connecticut, to Martin T. Hollister and Ruth Kellogg. His father was a manufacturer who owned $7,000 of real estate and $4,000 of personal property in 1860. He grew up and attended school in Glastonbury, Connecticut.

 

Hollister enlisted in the Union army on February 22, 1864, and mustered in as a private in Company D of the 11^th Connecticut Infantry later that day. The regiment took part in the Overland Campaign, the siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox campaign. He was promoted to corporal on March 17, 1865, and he mustered out in Hartford, Connecticut, on December 21, 1865.

 

He returned to his parents’ household in Glastonbury after leaving the army, and by 1870, he was working in a woolen mill. He married Elizabeth Ebell around 1871, and they had at least four children: Lucy, born around 1872; Frederick, born around 1874; Louisa, born around 1878; and Jane, born around 1884. By 1880, he was working as a “ferryman.” He applied for a federal pension in February 1887 and eventually secured one. He died in Glastonbury on July 13, 1897.

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