East Baton Rouge Parish
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Michael J. Oliver, the efficient superintendent of the Baton Rouge paraffin
plant of the Standard Oil Company of Louisiana claims the old Buckeye State as
the place of his nativity, his birth having occurred in the City of Marietta,
Ohio, August 3, 1859. His father. Michael Oliver, was born in County Mayo,
Ireland, in time year 1836, and was a resident of Parkersburg, West Virginia, at
the time of his death, in 1908. Michael Oliver was reared and educated in his
native land, and was an ambitious youth when he came to the United States, in
1848, and made settlement in the State of Maryland. In 1834 he established his
residence at Marietta, Ohio, and thence he removed in 1864 to Parkersburg, West
Virginia, where he passed the remainder of his life, his active career having
been given largely to successful railroad contracting. He was a staunch
democrat, and he and his wife were devout communicants of the Catholic Church.
Mrs. Oliver, whose maiden name was Ann Durkin, was born in County Mayo, Ireland,
in 1833, and her death occurred in 1906 at Parkersburg, West Virginia. At
Parkersburg still resides Miss Mary, eldest of the children; Patrick died in
that city at the age of seventy-three years, he having there served a number of
years as chief of police and having also been a successful merchant; John was
general yardmaster for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Parkersburg at the time
of his death, in 1903; Ann is time wife of John McCabe, of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania: Michael J., of this sketch, was time next in order of birth ; and
Thomas is in the employ of the Standard Oil Company of Louisiana at Baton Rouge.
Michael J. Oliver was a lad of about five years at the of time family
removal to Parkersburg, West Virginia, where he was reared to manhood and where
he profited by the advantages of private, parochial and public schools. At the
age of seventeen years he there entered the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio
Railroad Company, in time service of which he continued nine years, within which
he won advancement to the position of yard clerk. He next assumed the position
of gauger at the Parkersburg plant of the Standard Oil Company, for which he
later became yard foreman. There he remained until 1909, when he was assigned by
the company to the post of gauger at the plant in Newark, New Jersey. In the
following year he came to Baton Rouge, where he has since continued his
effective service as superintendent of the paraffin plant of the Standard Oil
Company of Louisiana in North Baton Rouge.
Mr. Oliver's political faith
is that of the democratic party. He is a member of the Baton Rouge Chamber of
Commerce and the Baton Rouge Golf and Country Club, and he still retains
affiliation with Parkersburg Lodge No. 198, Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks, in his old home city. As earnest communicants of the Catholic Church, he
and his wife are active members of the parish of St. Joseph's Church.
On
the 24th of June, 1914, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Oliver and Miss Anna
Garry, daughter of the late Anthony Garry, of San Antonio, Texas, the mother
likewise being deceased. For a number of years Mr. Garry was an interested
principal in the conducting of a chair factory at Marietta, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs.
Oliver have no children.
Note: The referenced source includes an autographed portrait of the subject.
Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 129-130.
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