Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects Who's Who in 1921 & 1922 John Raymond Oliver

"The Fairfield Tribune"
Friday, April 7, 1921
Page SIX

NO. 9 (sic - should be 10)

JOHN RAYMOND OLIVER

This, madam, is one of our most beautiful and exclusive designs and you should be proud to have it on your walls for it is the identical pattern selected by President Harding for his home."

"Humph, I'm a democrat and I don't think much of Harding."

"Yes, but madam, this pattern is also one that our grand and greatly beloved Woodrow Wilson has selected for his new home."

You see, when you go to buy wall paper of John Raymond Oliver you may as well leave your objections behind because he can out-talk any conscientious objector who ever lived when it comes to selling merchandise. Ray is prepared to meet every taste in wall paper; you will note in the opening dialogue of this veracious biography how he overcomes a little trifle of preference. It's Ray's way--and he gets by with it, too.

Ray is a product of bleeding Kansas; that's the probable reason why his backyard is filled with sunflowers. He was brought up a miller and at the age of ten he knew more about wheat and flour than the average man does at forty. He went into the flour and feed business with his father when they first came to Fairfield some eight years ago--just took to it naturally. But after he had some rooms decorated and got the bill for material some years ago he made up his mind that the paint and wallpaper business was where the big money was, and he couldn't rest until he got into it.

Ray's wife, or any of his neighbors, will tell you that he is a very domestic sort of a chap and that he is exceedingly fond of his home for six and a half days out of the week. But Monday mornings he likes to spend most anywhere rather than at home for Ray thinks washday an institution of the devil's. Even the promise of bread puddings for his dinner, for which he would burglarize a restaurant, cannot induce Ray to stick around the house on Monday morning.

A while back Ray took an airplane trip to Ft .Dodge (sic); now he assumes the role of the family hero and talks learnedly of fuselage, propellers, hangars, and the like. He'll miss his meals any time to watch an airplace circling about town. And he takes an uncanny interest in kite flying now. In his spare time you'll find him helping the kids fly their kites--that is, unless he has to officiate as umpire at one of the neighborhood ball games in a side street or on a vacant lot. For, despite the dignity of his years and his social and business position, John Raymond Oliver is somewhat of a kid yet when it comes to taking an interest in the little things in life. life. (sic)

But the greatest game of all for John Raymond is that of town boosting. It's a game he likes so well he plays at it about all of his waking hours. Ray thinks about the meanest thing a fellow can do is to spend his money out of the town he lives in. A town that's good enough to live in is a town that's god enough to buy in, he says. Ray went on a business trip to Burlington last summer during the hot weather and expected to get back that night. Matters came up so that he had to remain about four days. He hadn't prepared for so long a stay in the matter of clothing. When he got back his collar was dirty and wilted and he needed the attention of a barber badly.

"Why didn't you get shaved and get some clean clothes in Burlington?" his wife asked him.

"Huh," said Ray, "d'you s'pose I'm going to spend my money out o' town when we got clothing men and barbers here at home?"

Ray contributes liberally to the Home Missionary society but refuses to give to the Foreign Missionary ladies--wants to keep his money at home, you see. Always buys a round trip ticket when he takes a railway journey so that the money is spent right here at home. It's a kind of religion with him--this thing of buying at home.

It may be gathered from these truthful incidents that John Raymond Oliver is a chap who plugs pretty hard for Fairfield. Boosting Fairfield is, next to flying airplanes and kites, about the most pleasant job that Ray has. And when there's a bit of work to be done in the interest of the town and community John Raymond Oliver will even break away from the kids in the alley in order to do it. Of course, there has never been any trouble about getting Ray to do these things, and he'd probably do them any time--yet it seems something rather more than coincidence that he's always particularly willing to do committee work on Monday.

His wife says she believes she understands the reason.