Oliver, George W.

OLIVER, NORTHAM, ADAMS, SAMPSON

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/24/2007 at 23:53:05

Source: History of Monona County, Iowa 1890
Pub: Chicago National Com

George W. Oliver, one of the old settlers of Monona County, who located in Ashton in 1857, is now engaged in agricultural pursuits on Section 24 and 25, in Franklin Township.
Mr. Oliver was born at Bridgeton, Cumberland County, Me. May 31, 1811. He traces his ancestry back to George Oliver, a native of Bridgeport England, and Nancy (Northam) Oliver, his wife, who emigrated to America in 1786, and located at Portland, Me. He was a carpenter by trade and followed that line of business until the day of his death. His wife died at Portland in 1787, having been the mother of two children—William and Nancy, the latter of whom died in infancy. Some time afterward he married Miss Cybil, but by this marriage had no issue. His son William Oliver was born in England, May 16, 1773, and came to America with his parents, working at carpenter work with his father in Portland. After a time he removed to Bridgeton, where he married Miss Hannah Fowler, a native of Cumberland County, that State, born December 31, 1773. They had a family of fifteen children, eight boys and seven girls, and died at Bethel, Me.—the mother, January 27, 1848: the father, October 11, the same year.
George W., the seventh son and tenth child of his parents, received his education and grew to manhood in the State of his birth and followed farming, carpentering and shoemaking. In 1846 he came west, locating in DeKalb County, Illinois, and after a time employed on a rented farm moved to St Charles, Kane County, where he followed carpentering until the spring of 1857, when he came to Monona County, arriving at the village of Ashton on the 2d of July. For about two months he and his family made their residence in the old court-house at Ashton, in the meantime erecting a home in the newly laid out town of Onawa, into which they moved about the 15th of September . He and his son, Franklin G., both worked at carpenter work that summer, but in the fall the subject of this sketch removed to the farm on section 25, which he had traded for, where he has since lived. Mr. Oliver has the general reputation of being an excellent workman and good calculator, and his genial disposition has won him the esteem of his neighbors. He has always been a great favorite with the children and many of those who he knew as such in early days, although grown to manhood and womanhood, still remember him with esteem and affection. In his political principles he was formerly a Democrat and cast his first vote for Andrew Jackson for President. He afterward affliated with the Whigs and voted for William Henry Harrison and hard cider in 1840. Since the organization of the Republican party he has been identified with it, and in 1888 deposited his ballot for Benjamin Harrison.
Mr. Oliver was united in marriage April 5, 1832, with Miss Hannah Ridley Adams, a native of that part of Kennebec County, now known as Franklin, Me., who was born April 6, 1807. Of this union there have been three children: Mary P., who was born August 4, 1833, the widow of Alfred U. Hanscom, now living in Sioux Township: Franklin G., who was born February 19, 1835, and Hannah F, who was born October 26, 1844, and is the wife of D.W. Sampson.