History

In 1746 Hollis received its charter from the Royal Governor of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth and established the town government. During the fifteen years between the arrival of Anna and Peter and its official recognition as a chartered township, Hollis grew from one family in a wilderness on the fringes of what is now Silver Lake, to forty-three families with a church, a graveyard and a town common.

By the time of the Revolutionary War, Hollis was the residence of two hundred and eighty families scattered about thirty square miles. It was a town which had developed a patina of civilization with a productive town government, home to both farmers and tradesmen. This gentle society was to be disrupted by British attempts to subdue the rebellious Minutemen at Lexington and Concord.

In spite of the hardships, most Hollis families fiercely citing to their belief in liberty. Between 1776 and 1781 there were many upheavals in the homes of Hollis. Two hundred and fourteen men from Hollis were considered fit to "do service" in the first year of the war.

As the war dragged on for almost six years, men from Hollis served at Ticonderoga, Bennington, White Plains and Valley Forge. Those at home struggled with food shortages, small pox, and quotas for men and goods. Families were devastated by the loss of one or more members in battles with bullets and disease. When it was all over, Hollis was part of a new country with an original concept about the rights of the individual and the responsibilities of the state.

Shortly after the close of the Revolutionary War, the population of Hollis was nearly fourteen hundred fifty. The town had at least two taverns, one church, several schools, and about two hundred fifty homes. The roads that ran through Hollis carried commerce from Amherst, Pepperell, Milford, Nashua and Boston. Patch's Corner at the crossing of the present South Merrimack and Silver Lake roads boasted a general store, cooper shops, blacksmith and a shoemaker.