Handbook N-P - Fulton County Public Library

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years. At that time he bought from his father the farm of ninety-five acres on which he now lives.
The land was entirely unimproved when it came into his possession, but by good management and
close application to duty, he has made it one of the valuable farm properties of the community,
equipped with a fine set of buildings. On January 4, 1888, Mr. Oliver was united in marriage to
Amarinda Collins, who was born in Fulton county, September 17, 1868, and is the daughter of
William and Eliza Collins, whose record appears elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Oliver
have become the parents of three children: Irvin Roy, who married Anna Leavell and has five
daughters, and one boy, Shirley Eileen, Marjorie Ruth, Lola Grace, Helen Maxine, Rachel Jane
and Irvin Devon; Vernice Gail, and Alvin V., who married Edith Biggs and has three children:
Lucy Vernice, Lowell Andrew and Marcus Claude. James A. Oliver has always voted with the
Republican ticket, firmly believing that the principles advocated by that party best conserve the
public welfare. He and his wife are members of the Baptist church, and they are among the people
of genuine worth in their community.
[Henry A. Barnhart, Fulton County History, pp. 253-255, Dayton Historical Publishing
Co., 1923]
OLIVER, JOSHUA C. [Rochester, Indiana]
See: Hotels - Fairview
OLIVER, REECE [Akron, Indiana]
AKRON’S REECE OLIVER WAS ‘MAN OF CLOSE CALLS’
By Ann Allen
As the ship entered the Suez Canal from the Red Sea, the young Hoosier hurried ashore
to explore the area. Pausing to buy trinkets and to browse native markets, he kept pace with the
ship on its 100-mile journey by walking rapidly or arranging horseback rides.
By the time the ship was ready to enter the Mediterranean Sea, his fiancee, who had
remained on board, couldn’t see him anywhere. Fearing he had been killed by turbaned Arabs or
kidnaped by dark-skinned people wearing djellabas, she was on the verge of panic until she saw
him in the distance -- riding a camel a full trot in a desperate attempt to catch up.
“That was a close call!” he said nonchalantly as he bounded aboard and handed her a
peace offering of goat cheese so fetid she immediately up chucked.
An educator, explorer and adventurer who easily could have served as a role model for
Indiana Jones, Akron native Reece Augustus Oliver was a man whose life was one close call after
another. He didn’t intend to offend his lady.
It was simply that, having traveled alone to “wild country” Philippine villages never
before visited by Americans and as much at home in the classroom as he was visiting cannibal
tribes, dining on dog stew (“a fine soft food,” he wrote to his brother) or hiking uncharted jungles,
the future guerrilla leader had become inured to sights and smells others found objectionable.
Born August 1, 1891, the fourth of Marshall and Fay Rebecca Oliver’s five children, he
learned about adversity early in life when, soon after the family’s home was destroyed by fire,
Marshall Oliver died. With poverty and hunger their constant companions, an older brother,
Cecil, who was forced to drop out of school at 15 to take a job on the railroad to help augment Fay
Oliver’s rug-making income, was killed when a locomotive exploded.
A second brother, Ira, also quit school to become the family wage-earner but was
seriously injured when a train backed into him. The accidents and their brothers’ dedicated efforts
provided the impetus for Reece Oliver and his brother Kenneth and sister Densie to complete their
educations. All three became teachers.
Reece Oliver’s transition from basketball-playing student to stern headmaster was rapid-he
graduated from Akron High School in May of 1910 and by September was teaching at Henry
township’s one-room school at Sugar Grove. For the next few years he variously taught school in
the winter, attended Indiana University in the summer and gave vent to his spirit for adventure by