Ironton Tribune, Monday, January 12, 1998

Submitted by Sharon M. Kouns

Oliver S. Collier, Lawyer, was born, May 16th, 1817, in Perry township, Lawrence county, Ohio, and is the eighth of fourteen children whose parents were James and Martha (Baker) Collier. His father was of English and Welsh lineage, a native of Virginia, and a farmer by occupation, who removed to Ohio in 1806, and was a pioneer in the section where he located; he was a Justice of the Peace in Perry township for a number of years, and where he died in October, 1858, having survived his wife but one month. The latter was a native of Ashe county, North Carolina, and of English and Irish descent. Oliver worked on a farm until he was eighteen years old, attending school in the winter. He was next employed in an iron works, where he labored for eight years, and his leisure hours were passed in general reading and study. In 1843 he returned to a farmer's life, which he followed for about four years, and then commenced reading medicine. For eighteen months he was so engaged, and then abandoned the pursuit. During the winters of 1849 and 1851 he was engaged in teaching school. In 1850 he commenced the study of law in the office of John M. Clark, a prominent attorney of Gallia county, Ohio, and practiced before justices of the peace until 1855, when, having passed the requisite examination, he was admitted to the bar, and at once entered upon the practice of his profession at Ironton, where he continued until 1865, when he removed to Ceredo, Virginia, where he continued his legal pursuits for six years. In 1871 he returned to Ironton, where he has since resided and has established a successful and lucrative practice. He has never sought nor held any public office whatever. Politically he is a Democrat, but in an earlier day was a Whig, having voted for William H. Harrison. His religious faith is that held by the Baptists. He is a man of unquestionable integrity and of genial manners, and is painstaking, laborious and conscientious in his profession. He was married, May 30th, 1843, to Rebecca, daughter of James Gibson, an early settler of Lawrence county, Ohio.