Page 30 - Copshaholm Curriculum Book_2015

Oliver Family History 4

to take up the trade of a cooper in the shop where the barrels were made. Here he
gained considerable knowledge as a carpenter.

James and Early Married Life

Joseph Doty, a direct descendant of the Mayflower pioneers, worked with James.
After the death of his wife in the East he had moved from Berrien County, Michigan to
Mishawaka with his daughter, Susan Catherine. James, inclined to be bashful, became
enamored of Susan Catherine, and although she rebuffed him several times, he
persevered, with caution, and won her hand the following year. James went by a raft he
had built down the St. Joseph River to South Bend where he obtained the wedding
license. They were married May 30, 1844. James was 20 and Susan Catherine was
19.

James and Susan began married life in a slab cabin on the riverbank near
Alger’s Island in Mishawaka. They purchased the cabin for $18 and paid $7 annually
for land on which it stood. While James improved the cabin (the best lumber cost $6
per 1,000 board feet) Susan wove rag carpets on a borrowed loom. They lived in the
cabin eight months, and then sold it for $50 in a transaction that brought them a house
and three-fourths of an acre of land on the north side of the river. They went in debt
$450 to obtain the house. James later described the eight months in the cabin as “the
happiest days of our lives.”

Meanwhile, the gristmill was destroyed by fire and James had to work for
considerably less than $15 a month for a while until the spring of 1845 when he went to
work in a blast furnace owned by William Gillen. There James learned the molder’s
trade. In 1852 James and Susan sold their house and purchased a larger home and 10
acres of orchard on the south side of the river. The site adjoined the Lake Shore and
Michigan South Railroad (later the New York Central) that had been built a year earlier.

The Early Beginnings of the Chilled Plow

James and his wife Susan soon needed additional room in the new home they
had purchased. A daughter, Josephine, had been born April 6, 1846, and a son,
Joseph Doty, called “J.D.,” had arrived August 2, 1850. They resided in this home until
1858 when they moved to South Bend.

After William Gillen’s furnace failed financially in 1847, James went to work for
the St. Joseph Iron Company that made plows as well as castings. Here James seized
an opportunity to better himself financially. Among castings produced were 22-pound
flanged plates used beneath railroad joints for strength. The company was unable to
meet production schedules because of the inability of molders to cast the plates
according to specifications. James contracted with the company to produce 100 tons of
the plates for $5 “and five shillings” a ton. He completed the contract and produced 35
tons more in four months. He made $675.

James later admitted he almost killed himself doing it, but this contract and the
earlier purchase of a lot in Mishawaka for $75 where he built a house and rented it to a
merchant were two events which gave him his start.

The St. Joseph Iron Company also manufactured cast iron plows, as did almost
every foundry and blacksmith in the country. For James, plow production provided a