Page 35 - Copshaholm Curriculum Book_2015

Oliver Family History 9

Meanwhile, “branch houses” were being established across the land to handle
distribution of the plows. The size of the Oliver company simply overwhelmed its
opponents, including the South Bend Chilled Plow Company that had been organized
by Bissell, and allegedly used Oliver patents, in an attempt to capitalize on the
reputation of the Oliver firm, still known as the South Bend Iron Works. The year 1880
was one of great expansion. A record was set in production and sales of plows, new
buildings were erected, riding plows were being produced on a large scale, the
manufacture of malleable castings was started, and additional rail tracks were laid to the
Oliver property.

On May 4, 1881 James purchased the Chess and Vincent properties in the 300
block of West Washington Street. The Chess mansion was an imposing structure, only
19 years old, but James sold the interior woodwork and hired a New York architect who
had designed Canada’s parliament buildings to enlarge and re-design the house. To
enlarge the grounds James also sold and moved the Vincent house next door and hired
an army of workmen to lay stone. The new 60-foot wide, 102-foot wide house (not to be
confused with Copshaholm, which was built later by J.D.) had three stories, a slate roof,
10 bedrooms with dressing rooms, bathrooms and closets attached, and a billiard room.
James and his family moved into the new home at 325 W. Washington Street on
December 10, 1882, and on January 17, 1883, held a reception for 500 guests who
danced in the third floor ballroom and dined on food prepared by a Chicago caterer.

James had come a long way from the simple life of a shepherd in Scotland, but in
spite of affluence he remained a simple man with simple tastes who preferred the heat
of his foundry and the dirt of a farm to the elegant surroundings of his new home. This
was the last place of residence. His wife died in the home in 1902 and he died there
March 2, 1908. The house stood vacant until 1911 when South Bend School City
(presently the South Bend Community School Corporation) purchased and razed it.
Central High School was erected on the site.

J.D. Oliver and Family

Joseph (J.D.) Oliver was 34 when he met Anna Gertrude Wells, daughter of a
wealthy family of Johnstown, New York, who had come to South Bend to visit Grace
Studebaker, a schoolmate at Madam de Silva’s Finishing School in New York. She was
22, tall, aristocratic in bearing and shy, with a good sense of humor. Joseph, handsome
and conservative, also had a good sense of humor. Their storybook romance
culminated in marriage on December 10, 1884 in Johnstown, New York in the “north
parlor of the Johnson home,” according to one report.

After the wedding banquet and dancing, a special train from the railroad of the
bride’s father took the bride and groom to Fonda, New York, where they left on a two-
month wedding trip to California. Newspapers printed a list of wedding gifts. Among
them were solid silver tea and coffee sets, silver flatware, salad bowls, and ice cream
sets, and a $15,000 check from the father of the groom. Upon their return to South
Bend, the newlyweds became the first occupants of Oliver Row, where they took up
housekeeping in apartment number one.