Constellation Similarity Assertions

John Churchill Coffing of Salisbury, Connecticut (1776-1847), and his second wife, Maria Birch (ca. 1780-1865), had five children: Churchill (1813-1873), Joshua B. (1815-1841), Marcia (1817-1854), Maria (1819-1839), and George (b. 1822). Joshua attended Yale as a member of the class of 1837, but dropped out after one year. Marcia and Maria both attended Grove Hall School in New Haven, Connecticut, in the 1830s. Marcia married Alexander Hamilton Holley (1804-1887) on September 10, 1835; their children were John (1837-1865) and Maria (1842-1914). Holley was born in Salisbury and in 1819 joined his father in the firm Holley & Coffing; John Churchill Coffing was the other partner. Holley sustained a successful business career throughout the remainder of his life, and held several political offices: lieutenant governor of Connecticut (1854-1857), governor of Connecticut (1857-1858), and delegate to the Republican National Convention (1860). He had one son, Alexander Lyman (1832-1882), with his first wife, Jane (d. 1832), and after Marcia Coffing's death he married Sarah Coit.

From the guide to the Coffing-Holley papers, 1834-1836, 1836, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)