Mahlon Oliphant 1824-1909

OLIPHANT, DIXON, BALL

Posted By: Sharon Elijah (email)
Date: 6/4/2018 at 06:43:54

29 April 1909 - West Branch Times

Mahlon Oliphant was born in Columbiana Co., Ohio, in 1824; died April 11, 1909, at Lake Charles, La. Married Sarah Ann Dixon in 1847; she only lived a year. He came to Springdale Township in 1851, where he married Rachel Ball July 2nd, 1852. Six children were born to them, five sons and one daughter. They moved to Kansas in 1857, where he took an active part, particularly with his pen, in the "Kansas trouble" over the slave question. They moved to Louisiana in 1892, where they lived a few years and then moved to West Branch. Here they lived until three years ago when they returned to Louisiana where he died.

Mr. Oliphant was both a teacher and writer of more than mediocre ability. He published a pretty little volume of poetry--"Wayside Rhymes"--and was the author of a method of shorthand writing, the manuscript of which was destroyed in the great Chicago fire while in the hands of the publisher. It died for want of means to push its publication. He was a pioneer of both Iowa and Kansas as were his parents of Ohio. He was a devout member of the Society of Friends all his life and was ever an active worker in the cause of temperance. He was a loving husband and father and a good neighbor, and thus he lived a long and exemplary life.