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From the historical files of June E. Tuck, who does not validate or dispute any historical facts in the article.
Past History and Present Stage of Development of Texas
Published by The Forrister History Company
Regan Printing House, Chicago, Ill.
I. G. Forrister, Publisher
(No date given.)
William Oliver, D. D. S. was born February 9, 1840, on a farm in Fayette County, Alabama. Dr. Oliver accepted the crude educational facilities afforded in those days. He enlisted in Confederate Army, Co. I, 11th Reg., Ala. Volunteers, June 11, 1861, and participated in numerous battles, among which might be mentioned Second Manassas, Seven Days fighting around Richmond, Potomac River, and was wounded in the hand during the Siege of Petersburg and in the left leg in the battle of Sharpsburg. Dr. Oliver had the honor of knowing Gen. Robt. E. Lee personally. After the surrender and peace being declared in April, he returned to his old home in Alabama, and in the fall of 1865 came to Texas, settling in Old Tarrant, this county. In later years he took a course in the Louisville, (Ky), Dental College, and entered upon the practice of dentistry. Fourteen years ago he decided to still better qualify himself in the progress of his profession, and took a course and obtained a diploma from the Kansas City Dental College of Surgery, and it can be said of him that his success in his chosen profession has given him a well-earned state-wide reputation. Dr. Oliver resided for some years in the Saltillo country, twelve years at Cooper and became a citizen of Sulphur Springs in 1893. He was married to Miss Martha Ann Posey, of Old Tarrant, the year after he came to Texas, April 22, 1866, and three sons and five daughters were born to them, one daughter and two sons being dead. Dr. Oliver owns valuable residence and farm property, bank stock, belongs to the Texas Dental Association, and the family worship with the Baptist Church. Something like 160 years ago, Dr. Oliver’s great-grandfather placed a piece of hickory wood in a spring branch near Anderson, South Carolina, where it remained for seven years, and was taken out in a petrified state and afterwards formed into a razor whetstone. From generation to generation this old family relic has been handed down the line, and has been in Dr. Oliver’s possession for the past twenty years. He also has in his possession an old land grant, sheepskin document of the Oliver family in Alabama, dated 1839, signed by Martin Van Buren as President. (Edited)
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