Freestone County, Texas Biographies Biography of Dr. James H. Oliver ( Sep. 9, 1848-Jul. 19, 1899, buried Buffalo Cemetery in Buffalo, TX.) A Memorial and Biographical History of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon Counties, Texas Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1893; pages 480 James H. Oliver, M.D., merchant and farmer, was born in Sumter county, Alabama, in 1848, and was the second in the family of Asa and Eliza (Brewer) Oliver, natives of Tennessee and Alabama. The Oliver family settled in Virginia many years ago, and the father of Asa Oliver was reared in that State, of a family of planters and stock raisers at an early day, becoming in later life men of property. The paternal grandfather of our subject moved to the State of Tennessee at an early day, becoming one of the pioneers, but the father of our subject left the State of Tennessee in 1836, going to Alabama and Florida, taking part in the Seminole war, as a private. After its close he remained in the State of Alabama. About 1842 he married the lady who became the mother of our subject and engaged in conducting a plantation, but he continued his residence in Alabama until 1850, when he removed to Mississippi, continuing there until he came to Texas in 1865. The location of Mr. Oliver was in Freestone county, ten miles west of Fairfield, where he engaged in farming. He made his home in this county, and resided here until his death, which occurred in 1888 [1887 according to Asa's tombstone], at the age of seventy-four years. He and his wife were the parents of five children, four of whom lived to be grown. James H. and R. D. of Freestone county; Eliza, wife of W. D. Hail of Bosque county; and Cornelia, wife of E. T. Easton, of Leon county. Mrs. Oliver was a widow at the time of her marriage to Mr. Oliver. Her first husband was Philemon Hodges, and to this union were born three children: John, deceased, the family residing in this State; Mary, deceased, wife of H. W. Norville; and Fannie, deceased, wife of Robert Harper. Mrs. Oliver died in 1884 [1882 according to Eliza's tombstone], a member of Missionary Baptist Church. Mr. Oliver had long been a member of the A. F. & A. M. fraternity. James H. Oliver received his literary education in the school at Garlandville, Mississippi, and at the age of twenty-two engaged in the study of medicine under Dr. W. G. McInnis of Freestone. At the age of twenty-five he entered the Tulane University of Louisiana, and in 1878 attended the clinics at the medical school at St. Louis, Missouri. In 1874, our subject engaged in the practice of his chosen profession under a State certificate, and after his return from St. Louis he went through a serious illness, but finally resumed his practice, continuing in Freestone county from that time until 1891, a period of seventeen years. At this time his location was eleven miles south of Fairfield. In 1891 he removed to his present place, and has discontinued the practice of medicine. In 1883 the Doctor engaged in the mercantile business at his home in Freestone county, and did a business for some time of $25,000. In 1891 he opened his present business and carries a stock of the value of some $15,000 or $25,000. In his store may the farmer find everything he needs and also the mechanic, and so great is his trade that he requires the assistance of four men. The Doctor has under cultivation some 800 acres of land in Freestone county, and this place is under a fine state of cultivation, and he raises cattle, on a single ranch having some 200 or 300 head. In 1862, at the age of thirteen, he left school and joined Company H of the Thirty-seventh Mississippi Infantry, and served as marker for the regiment, but after he entered active service he drew his gun and marched away as a private in the regular service. At this time his weight was only 107 pounds, and he participated in the battle of Corinth, where he was captured and sent to Columbus, Kentucky, but was retained only a short time, being exchanged at Vicksburg in 1862, when he rejoined at Snyder's Bluff on the Yahoo river. He was next engaged as a guard on the steamboat Magnolia, on the Mississippi River, his regiment being quartered in Vicksburg, and the boat went up the river to Greenwood, the lines being closed around Vicksburg the day our subject's regiment entered. After our subject had served on the boat seven or eight days, a company was formed of the guards commanded by Captain Pounds and did scout duty, on the Yazoo river, and had a serious fight on Dixie Bar, when the Confederate forces had sunk some old boats with the object of checking the Federal gun boats. The Confederates were victorious, while the gunboats returned to Yazoo city. After the fall of Vicksburg they returned to Jackson, Mississippi, where our subject was taken sick and sent home on leave of absence, remaining there until the regiment, which had been captured at Vicksburg, was placed in parole camp at Enterprise, Mississippi, where he immediately went. About 121 of the regiment, who had not been captured, were mounted and employed in hunting deserters, until the exchange of the regiment, when our subject rejoined it, and it was then attached to General Johnston's command at Resaca, Georgia, and before the battle of Resaca, previous to the arrival of Johnston's army, and while under the command of General Canty, of Alabama, fought a severe engagement at Snake Creek Gap, Georgia, when the regiment suffered serious loss, but held the enemy in check until the arrival of Johnston. Immediately afterward the battle of Resaca was fought, in which our subject participated, and from that onward, for forty-seven days, was almost constantly engaged in fighting, the principal battles being those of Kennesaw mountain, Pine mountain, New Hope, Peach Tree Creek, on the 28th the battle of the Poor House, and in front of Atlanta, and so on until the battle of Jonesboro, Georgia. The brigade of our subject was left in front of or in the ditches around Atlanta until September 1, when it evacuated the trenches and reached Jonesboro just as the battle was over. The division of our subject went from Jonesboro to Tennessee with the ill-starred General Hood, and took part in the battles of Franklin and Nashville. After this the retreat to Goldsboro, North Carolina, took place. Here our subject and his regiment surrendered. Dr. Oliver was once wounded at Nashville in the leg, a very painful although not dangerous injury. After the war our subject returned to his home in Mississippi, and then came out here with his father. Our subject was married in 1880 to Miss Mattie Sneed, of Fairfield, Texas, who came to this State at the age of one year with her parents, A. W. and Mattie (Davis) Sneed, early settlers of this State. The fruits of this union are: Alice, Annie, Jimmie, George A., Joe T., and Billie, -- the latter deceased.