Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/325

 OILMAN

GILMER

iV-

< )

u

army during the greater period of the Revolu- tion, being in the service six years and three months. He was at one time on the staff ' f Washington .a,, ^ Hid as dep-

\ity adjutant- general re- < eived from Cornwallis the roll of 7050 - ^, " ""■;■ British prison- ers surrendered ust./y.v,>fe«<. j^j Yorktown.

He declined a position on the staff of General Arnold and after the war was a delegate to the continental congress, 178G-88, a member of the Federal constitutional convention at Philadelphia in 1787; a representative in the 1st— ith con- gresses, 1789-97; a presidential elector in 1793 and 1797; and U.S. senator, 1805-14, having been elected as successor to Senator Simeon Olcott in 1805 and re-elected in 1811. He died in Phil- adelphia, Pa., May 3, 1814.

OILMAN, Nicholas Paine, author and educa- tor, was born at Quincy, 111., Dec. 31, 1849: son of Charles and Annette Maria (Dearborn) Oilman; grandson of Allen Oilman and of Wear Dearborn; and great-grandson of John Ward Oilman. He attended academies at Parsonsfield, Maine, and Effingham, N.H., and was graduated from the Harvard divinity school in 1871. He was pastor at Scit- uate. Mass., 1873-84, and at Bolton, MaoS. , 1875-78, and then served as college preacher and piofes- .sfir of ethics and Knglish literature in Antioch college, Ohio, 1878-81. Returning yr^/J^Oi fl to New England, he

sji r^XHjiAAAJXAX/ was pastor at Way- land, Mass., 1883-84, removing to West Newton in the latter year and devoting his time chieflj' to editorial work. After a number of years of service on the staff of the Literary World, of Boston, he was its edi- tor, 1888-95. He was for several years assistant editor of the Unitarian Jlerietr, and edited T!te New ^yorld, quarterly, Boston, from its beginning in 1893. In 1895 he removed to Meadville, Pa., where he accepted the Hackley professorship of sociology and ethics in the Theological semi- nary, still retaining the editorship of The New World He is the autlior of: Pro,li( Sharing Between Employer and Employee: a Htudy in the

Eiuilntion of the Wmjes System (1889); The Laws of Daily Conduct (1891); Socialium and the American Spirit (1893); A Dividend to Labor (1899); and many contributions to periodicals.

OILMAN, Samuel, author, was born in Glouces- ter, M;iss., Feb. IG, 1791; son of Frederick and Abigail Hillier (Somes) Oilman; and grandson of Samuel and Lydia (Robinson) Giddings Oilman. He was graduated from Harvard in 1811, was a tutor in mathematics there, 1817-19, and was then ordained pastor of the Unitarian church, Archdale street. Charleston, S.C., where he re- mained till the close of his life. He was married, Oct. 14, 1819, to Caroline, daughter of Samuel Howard of Boston, Mass. He received the degree of S.T.D. from Harvard in 1837. He contributed both prose and poetry to various periodicals; translated some of the satires of Boileau, and is the author of: Memoirs of a New England Village Choir (1839); Pleasures and Pains of a Student's Life (1853); andCoiitrilmtions to American Literature (1856). He also wrote Fair Harvard for the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the college, 163(5-1836. At the time of the nullifica- tion excitement in South Carolina he wrote Hail our Country's Natal J\Iorn! a Union ode which was sung at a Union meeting in Charleston, and dur- ing the civil war was republished in the New York Tribune and became popular. He died at the residence of his son-in-law, the Rev. Charles J. Bowen, at Kingston, JIass., Feb. 9, 1858.

OILMER, Oeorge Rockingtiam, governor of Georgia, was born in Wilkes comity, Oa., April 11, 1790; son of Thomas Meriwether and Eliza- beth (Lewis), grandson of Peachy Ridgway and Mary (Meriwether), and great-grandson of Dr. Oeorge and Mary Peachy (Walker) Gilmer. At the age of twelve he was sent to a classical school at Abbeville Court House, S.C. From there he went to Dr. Waddel's academy near by, where he remained several years, finally becom- ing assistant in the academy In 1808 he re- turned to his home and taught a small private school. Subsequently he studied law and then on account of ill health was inactive for several years. In October, 1813, he was made 1st lieu- tenant in the 43{1 U.S. infantrj-; served against the Creek Indians; and was honorably discharged from .service in 1815. In 1818 he I'esumed his law study in Lexington. Ga,, was admitted to the bar and served in the state legislature, 1818-30, and again in 1834-36. He was a representative in the 17th congress, 1831-33; in 1836 was elected to fill an unexpired term in the 19th congress and was again elected to the 30th and 33d con- gresses. He was governor of Georgia, 1839-31, and 1837-39; and during his second term suc- ceeded in removing the Clierokee and Creek Indians from Georgia to the Indian territory, a