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O. I. JAMISON, editor and publisher of the Columbus Gazette, of Columbus Junction, was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, Jan. 12, 1845, and is a son of William D. and Isabella (Seeds) Jamison. His father was born in Madison County, Ohio, in 1814, and was descended from Scotch-Irish ancestry, while his mother was born in Pennsylvania, in 1812, of Irish descent. In 1854 our subject came to Iowa with his parents, the family settling in Wapello Township, this county, where his youth was passed on a farm. His primary education was received in the public schools, supplemented by a course in the Iowa Wesleyan University of Mt. Pleasant. In 1868 he secured a position as teacher in the schools of Wapello, and there taught for two years, after which he spent a year or two in the live-stock business in Texas and Missouri.
On the 12th of January, 1872, Mr. Jamison was married to Miss Mary J. Gillis, who was born in Pennsylvania, and is a daughter of Ridgeway B. and Margaret (McBain) Gillis, and a granddaughter of Gen. McBain, of the British army, who fought in the battle of Waterloo. Her paternal grandfather fought in the famous battle of Lundy’s Lane as an American patriot. Mr. and Mrs. Jamison have one child, a son, William D., who was born in 1873, is a practical printer in his father’s office, and an expert compositor.
Soon after his marriage Mr. Jamison engaged in farming in Wapello Township, carrying on that occupation until 1878, when he again became Principal of the Wapello schools, which he taught from that date until 1883. He then bought the Wapello Times, a weekly Democratic paper, which he conducted at Wapello until 1884, when he moved the office to Columbus Junction, and changed the name of the paper to the Louisa County Times, under which name he published it until Jan. 1, 1886, when he sold it to George P. Neal, the present Postmaster of Columbus Junction. In September, 1887, he again bought the paper, the name of which had been changed in the meantime to the Columbus Gazette, and has since continued its publication. This is the only Democratic paper in Louisa County, and is a newsy, wide-awake journal, true to its name in advocating a just and equable system of general and local government in opposition to class legislation in the interest of capital, monopolies and trusts, and under the delusive pretense of protection to labor. Mr. Jamison is a thorough Democrat, a fluent and easy writer, and is doing good work in the interest of Louisa County and his party. He has a well-equipped job office, and is securing a fair share of the business in that place.