Handbook N-P - Fulton County Public Library

Ol
[Nellans & Urbin Families, Ruth Nellans Urbin, Fulton Co Folks, Vol. 2, Willard]
OLIVER, HENRY C. [Liberty Township]
BIOGRAPHY
Henry C. Oliver was born on the farm where he now resides December 12, 1841; married
December 29, 1868, to Minerva Linsey, at Spring Hill, Kan. She, Mrs. Oliver, was a native of
Fayette County, Ohio, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Linsey. Mr. and Mrs. Oliver are the
parents of four children--James, Orion, Bessie and Frankie. Mr. O. served in the Twenty-ninth
Indiana Volunteer Infantry during the late war, and was in the battles of Shiloh, Stone River,
Liberty Gap and Chickamauga; at the latter place he received a gun-shot wound in the head for
which he draws a pension. He had also three brothers in Eighty-seventh Indiana Infantry, one of
whom died in the service. This couple are members of the Baptist Church, and Mr. O. is a
member of the Masonic fraternity. Mr. Oliver’s father, Andrew O. Oliver, was born in
Washington County, Penn., in 1801, and died May 18, 1881. He was twice married. His first wife
was Miss Chrystal A. Myers, born in Ohio, February 21, 1809; died January, 1878. By this
marriage he had three children, and by the second five. He was an extensive stock dealer and a
member of the Baptist Church. He received a hurt from a fall about two years before his death,
while visiting in Virginia, that compelled him to use crutches for the rest of his life.
[T. B. Helm, Fulton County Atlas, A. L. Kingman, 1883, p. 44]
OLIVER, JAMES A. [Liberty Township]
BIOGRAPHY
James A. Oliver was born in Liberty township, Fulton county, Indiana, March 14, 1859,
and he is the third generation of the family to make his home in Fulton county. The father of our
subject was David C. Oliver and was born in Madison county, Ohio, January 4, 1833, whence he
was brought to Fulton county, Indiana, at the age of four years. He was reared on the pioneer farm
in Liberty township and on reaching his majority engaged in farming for himself. He inherited a
part of his father’s estate and added one hundred and sixty acres to his possessions in Liberty
township. This last purchase he later sold, and at the time of his death, which occurred February
24, 1889, he owned the one hundred and eighteen acres that he got from his father. He served
three years in the Union army during the Civil war and sustained a gunshot wound in the hip and
thigh at the battle of Chickamauga. He was captured and confined in the notorious Libby Prison,
but he was fortunate enough to be exchanged after which he returned home. In 1856 he married
Lucy Ann Shelton, a native of Hendricks county, Indiana, where she was born on October 31,
1838. She is still living, having reached her eighty-fifth year, and resides on the old farm in
Liberty township. She was the daughter of Wilson and Mary (Beaty) Shelton, natives of Virginia.
They immigrated to Indiana in a very early day and first settled in Hendricks, coming to Fulton
county in 1838. Wilson Shelton became a prosperous farmer and owned several farms near Green
Oak. In 1852, he started for California but died in Kansas while enroute. His son Isaac, who was
one of the party, continued the journey and remained in California about four years when he
disappeared, the supposition being that he was killed by Indians. The children born to Wilson
Shelton and his wife were: Thomas H.; Isaac T.; James R.; Lucy; Amanda V., who died at the age
of seven years; and two who died in infancy. The paternal grandparents of James A. Oliver were
Andrew and Rebecca (Corbett) Oliver, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the
latter was a native of Ohio. They came to Fulton county, Indiana, and settled in Liberty township.
From his brother he bought land which he cleared and on which he made his home until his death
at the age of eighty years, his wife having died at the age of sixty-seven. Andrew Oliver had a
family of seven children: John, Margaret, David C., William, Henry, Elizabeth, and Jane. The
first two named were by a marriage prior to that with Rebecca Corbett. James A. Oliver was the
oldest of a family of three children, the other two being Mary T., who married Alfred B. Rouch,
and John M., who resides in Rochester township. He assisted in the operation of the home farm
until he attained his twenty-first year when he rented the farm from his father for the next eight