Dolly A. Read (maiden name: Church) was born on March 3, 1815, in Rhode Island. She married George Read in early 1840, and they had at least four children: William, born around 1841; Ellen, born around 1842; Harriet, born around 1844; and George, born around 1846. They lived in Slatersville, Rhode Island, and her husband worked as a “dresser tender.” By 1870, the family owned $3,000 of real estate and $500 of personal property. They moved to Plainfield, Connecticut, in the 1870s, and her husband died in 1883. She died on March 15, 1896.