History of Colrain, (Franklin County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Biographies:

Ovando James Hollister, editor, was born in Colrain, Mass., Oct. 7, 1834; son of Lorin and Sarah (Center) Hollister; grandson of Giles and Rhoda (May) Hollister, and a descendant of John Hollister, who came from England to Wethersfield, Conn., in 1643, and was a prominent member of the Connecticut colony. Ovando was brought up on a farm at Lebanon, N.Y., where he attended the public schools and was employed in a printing office. He served in the civil war in the first regiment of Colorado volunteers, 1861-63, attaining the rank of sergeant. He was discharged on account of disability and engaged in the newspaper business in Denver, Col., and subsequently at Black Hawk, Col., publishing the Mining Journal until 1867, and edited the Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Col., in 1868. He removed to Salt Lake, Utah, in December, 1868. He was correspondent to the New York Tribune and the Chicago Tribune under the pen name "Douglass;" was part owner and contributor to the Salt Lake Tribune, and was U.S. internal revenue collector, 1869-92, and superintendent of mines for the Netherlands Amsterdam company. He was married, Dec. 1, 1869, to Cartie Vroom Matthews, half-sister of Vice-President Colfax. He is the author of: The Mines of Colorado (1867); Life of Schuyler Colfax (1886). He died at Salt Lake, Utah, Feb. 12, 1892.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Robert Cochran, patriot, was born in Colrain, Mass., in 1739. He settled in Bennington, Vt., in 1768 and subsequently removed to Rupert, Vt. He was a captain among the Green Mountain Boys before the Revolution; led forty men against the "court party" after the Westminster massacre, and helped to convey the prisoners to the Northampton jail. He was a captain in the Ticonderoga expedition and assisted Seth Warner in the capture of Crown Point. He was one of the eight men outlawed by New York in 1774, and was captain in Colonel Elmore's regiment until July 29, 1776, when congress promoted him to the rank of major. He commanded Fort Dayton, Tryon county, N.Y., and served in the campaign of 1777, probably on Gates's staff, as he bore dispatches from that officer to the general committee of safety. In 1778 he was sent to Canada to gain a knowledge of the military situation and narrowly escaped with his life through the hospitality and faithful ministrations of a woman at whose house he sought asylum when closely pursued by the enemy. He commanded Fort Schuyler in 1778 and in 1780 was promoted lieutenant-colonel. At the end of the war he was greatly involved in debt and his wife and children were for some time sheltered in the garret of a wretched tavern. Later years brought him prosperity and enabled him to reward the kind woman who had befriended him. He resided at Ticonderoga and in Washington county, N.Y. He died at Sandy Hill, N.Y., July 3, 1812.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor