Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/140

 OLIN

OLIVER

OLIN, Stephen, clergyman ami educator, was born in Leicester, Vt., March 2, 171)7; son of Jiulge Henry Olin (q.v.). He was graduated from Middlebnry college with first honors, A.B., lS'2i), A.M.. 18"23. On account of poor liealtli he taught scliool in Cokesbury, Abbeville district, S.C., 18"20-2:j. and while there joined the Metlio- dist church and became a preacher. He con- nected liimself with the South Carolina confer- ence in January. 1834, and was stationed at Charleston, S.C, 1824-26. His strength not being equal to the task of the itineracy, he accepted the professoi-ship of ethics and metaphysics at the University of Georgia, where he served, 1824-26, 1831-33. He was ordained deacon in the Metho- dist church, Jan. 13. 1826, and elder, Nov. 20, 1828. He was married. Aug. 10, 1827, to Mary Ann Bostick of Milledgeville, Ga. In July, 1832, he was elected the first president of the newly es- tablislied Haudolph-Macon college under the joint patronage of the conferences of Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia, and he accepted the office by letter dated Athens, Ga., Jan. 9, 1833. In December, 1833, he traveled from Athens to Virginia in his private carriage, accompanied by his wife, presented the needs of the college in Georgia and South Carolina on his journey, and secured the endowment of two professorships and otiier gifts for the college. He was also pro- fessor of mental and moral science, receiving $1500 per annum, and served until 1836, when infirm liealth caused his retirement. He traveled in Europe, Egypt and the Holy Land with his wife until 1840, when he returned to the United States. He was president of Wesleyan university, Middle-

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town. 1839-41 and 1842-.'51; declined the presi- dency of Genessee college, N.Y., in 1850; was ac- tive in the debates of the general conference of 1844. and was prominent in the founding of the F.vangelical Alliance. London. England, in 1S46. He was married secondly, in October. 1843, to Julia Matilda, daughter of Judge James Lynch of

New York city, and cousin of the wife of Freeborn Garretson, the Methodist pioneer at whose home in Rhinebeck, N. Y., Miss Lynch met Dr. Clin, then a widower. Their oldest son and only surviv- ing child, Stepiien Henry Olin, Wesleyan, 1866, became a prominent la«-yer in New York city. Tlie honorary degree of D.D. was conferred on Stephen Olin by Middlebury college in 1832', and by Wesleyan university and the University of Alabama in 1834, and that of LL.D. by Yale in 1845. The estimate of Dr. Olin's character and attributes given by his friends appears extrava- gant. Theodore L. Cuj'ler (q.v.). who knew him less intimately and did not sympathize with his religious creed, says: " In pliysical, mental and spiritual stature combined, no Methodist in the last generation towered above Dr. Stephen Olin. He was a great writer, a great educator and pre- eminently a great preacher of the glorious gospel. Like all great men he was very simple and unas- suming in his mannei's; with his grand logical head was coupled a warm, loving lieart. Valuable as were his writings, yet his imposing personality was greater than any of his published produc- tions." He is the author of: Travels in Egypt, Arabia, Petrcea and the Holy Land (1843); Youth- ful Piety (1853). The Works of Ste]ihen Olin (1853); Greece and the Golden Horn (1854), and College Life, its Theory and Practice (1867), were edited by his widow. His name in " Class G., Preachers and Theologians," received four votes for a place in the Hall of Fame for Great Amer- icans. New York University, October, 1900. He died in I\Iiddletown, Conn., Aug. 16. 1851.

OLIVER, Andrew, representative, was born in Springfield, Otsego county, N.Y., Jan. 16, 1815; son of William Morrison and Eleanor (Young) Oliver, and grandson of the Rev. Andrew Oliver. His parents removed to Penn Yan, N.Y., in 1818, where he was prepared for college. He matricu- lated at Hamilton in 1831, left in 1833, and was graduated at Union college, A.B., 1835, A.M., 1838. He studied law under his father and prac- tised with him in Penn Yan, 1838-44. He suc- ceeded his father as judge of the court of com- mon pleas of Yates county, serving, 1844-47; was county judge and surrogate under the constitu- tion of 1846. 1847-52. and a Democratic rei)resen- tative from the twenty-sixth New York district in the 33d and 34th congresses, 1853-57. but on questions of national policy voted with the Whigs. He was defeated as the American candidate for representative in the 35th congress in 1856, and in 1857 resumed his law practice in Penn Yan, In 1871 he was elected county judge and surro- gate by the Democrats of Yates county for the term 1^72-77; was defeated for comity judge by William S. Briggs in 1877, and for state senator by George P. Lord in 1881. He was married in