Horace Holley

Horace Holley (February 13, 1781 – July 31, 1827) was an American Unitarian minister and president of Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Early life Horace Holley was born February 13, 1781, in Salisbury, Connecticut, the fourth son of Luther and Sarah (Dakin) Holley. Orville L. Holley and Myron Holley were his brothers. Their father was the founder of a successful iron business, and was also a farmer and merchant. Holley began his early studies before the age of four, and finished them by age ten. For the next few years, he studied at home under the tutelage of his father. In 1797, at the age of sixteen, he began preparatory studies at Williams College. He matriculated to Yale in 1799. While attending Yale, he became excited by the religious doctrines of Yale president Timothy Dwight, a staunch opponent of deism. In 1803, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and delivered a graduation address entitled "The Slavery of Free Thinking." Ministry Holley determined to pursue the profession of law, studying in the office of Riggs & Radcliffe of New York, but abandoned this ambition after only a few short months. He returned to Yale to study divinity under President Dwight. He earned his degree in December 1804, and was licensed to preach by the North Haven Association. On January 1, 1805, he married Mary Austin, a fellow student at Yale who would later publish History of Texas. The couple moved to Fairfield, Connecticut where Holley was ordained by the Western Consociation of Fairfield County, Connecticut on September 13, 1805. That same year, he began to pastor Greenfield Hill Congregationalist church in Fairfield, Connecticut.