The Hollier 8 Automobile

Readers of my website will be aware of the car made in the USA early in the 20th century called the "Hollier 8", manufactured by the Lewis Spring and Axle company of Chelsea, Michigan. See here. The origin of the car's name has until recently been unclear to me. One correspondent pointed out that the firm's address was 12 Hollier Street, but that then begged the question of why this street name appeared in Chelsea, Michigan.

Thanks to research by Elliott Hollier who works for General Motors in Warren, Michigan, the problem has been solved. In fact the Hollier connection has been sitting in my master database all this time. Charles Lewis, the founder of the company - himself born in Somerset, England, married Elizabeth Hollier in 1874 in Auburn, Cayuga County, NY. She has been born in Auburn, but was the daughter of William Hollier and Mary Ann Lewis who had emigrated from Somerset, England, see here. They were part of the "Somerset Holliers".

The Lewis family was researched in depth by another correspondent, Chuck Lewis, but I seem to have misplaced the extensive Gedcom he gave me of that family.