Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Chamberlin, Oliver S 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com November 10, 2007, 1:01 am

Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County

OLIVER S. CHAMBERLIN. Among those who, through unaided exertions and the 
exercise of sound judgment, have risen from humble positions in youth to 
places of honor and influence among their fellow-citizens, may be mentioned 
Mr. Chamberlin, who for years was an enterprising business man and farmer of 
this county, but is now living retired at No. 1112 Cass street, Joliet. He was 
born in southeastern Canada, near Vermont, September 14, 1825, a son of 
Franklin and Rebecca (Leavitt) Chamberlin, natives of Waterford, Me., and 
Stoke, Vt. His paternal ancestors were from England and settled on the coast 
of New England during colonial days. The grandfather, John Chamberlin, a 
native of Waterford, engaged in business as proprietor of a packing house. 
After the close of the war of 1812 he moved his family into the dense woods of 
Canada East, one hundred miles from Montreal. Cutting down the timber, 
he "grubbed," cleared and improved a farm, and on it spent his remaining 
active years. Up to the time of his death he retained, in full, his physical 
and mental powers, and the death summons came suddenly to him while seated at 
the breakfast table one morning in the home of his son, John, near Montreal. 
He had only two children, Franklin and John. The latter, a lifelong resident 
of Canada, was especially active in church matters and served as a deacon for 
a number of years. Born January 22, 1797, Franklin Chamberlin was a boy when 
his parents settled in Canada, and there he grew to manhood. In 1837 he 
journeyed by wagon from Canada to Chicago, thence came to what is now Will 
County and took up land at Twelve Mile Grove. After seven years he moved to 
Blue Island. In 1851 he moved to Black Oak Grove, now known as Oak Lawn, of 
which he was a pioneer. During his residence there he represented the town of 
Worth as a member of the Cook County board of supervisors for several years, 
and was a leader in local politics. On the farm which he improved there he 
died, when eighty-four years of age. His wife died at the home of their 
daughter, Mrs. Adams, in Utah, in 1889, aged ninety-two years. Of their seven 
children, Sallie Ann died at Nachusa, Ill.; Oliver S. is the subject of this 
sketch; Annie married Jediah Scott, now of California; Mary married John Adams 
and lives in Centerville, Utah; James lives in Pasadena; Henry went to Nevada 
and traveled by wagon from there to Oregon, settling seventy-five miles from 
Lagrande, where he died in 1896; and one child died in infancy. When twelve 
years of age our subject accompanied his parents from Canada to Chicago, a 
trip that consumed four months. They reached Chicago in the summer and found 
it a small, insignificant town. Joliet, too, was a little hamlet of no 
importance. He assisted in building a cabin on the claim at Twelve Mile Grove, 
using black walnut timber in the construction of the building. He accompanied 
his parents later to Blue Island, where he remained until twenty-seven years 
of age. In 1854 he began to buy cattle and afterward engaged in the stock 
business on a rather extensive scale. In 1857 he purchased a farm near Blue 
Island and there he made his home for seven years, meantime buying and selling 
cattle. In 1862 he sold his farm and moved to Joliet, where he resided for 
thirteen years. On coming to this city he purchased the crockery business of 
Thomas Cagwin, and for some years sold crockery and glassware. His store and 
stock were destroyed by fire in 1866, after which he opened a store on Chicago 
street, continuing in the grocery business there for a few years. In 1875 he 
sold out and purchased a farm on Maple street, New Lenox Township, where he 
engaged in raising fine stock and made his home for seventeen years. When he 
rented his farm in 1892 he moved to the house formerly owned by his father-in-
law, and here he has lived in retirement from business cares. Besides the 
property which he owns, his wife has four hundred and forty acres in New Lenox 
Township, which she rents. In politics he always votes the Republican ticket. 
In 1853 Mr. Chamberlin married Eliza, daughter of Henry K. Stevens, whose 
sketch appears on another page of this volume. They have one son now living, 
Frank E., and lost one son, Albert H., the elder of the two, who was killed at 
the age of twenty-two while on a hunting trip on the Kankakee River. Frank E. 
married Virginia C, daughter of George House, and they and their son, Albert 
F., reside with his father and mother on Cass street. 

Additional Comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical 
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900

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