Alexander Oliver

Alexander Oliver (November 30, 1744 – September 2, 1828) was an American soldier who fought during the Revolutionary War.

Background and the American Revolution

Oliver was born in Sherborn, Massachusetts, to Launcelot Oliver and Mary Walker. His brother was Robert Richard Oliver, also an officer in the Massachusetts Continental Line of the Revolutionary War. Before the war he married Mary Warner, third cousin of Seth Warner and seventh cousin of George Washington. His decision to fight against the British was very much disliked by part of his family, mainly because his second cousin was Andrew Oliver, a Massachusetts politician who was commissioned to enforce the Stamp Act in Massachusetts, and another cousin more distant this time Thomas Oliver would become Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. He was made a corporal of 13th Massachusetts Regiment raised by Colonel Samuel Brewer, while in the 13th he fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Battle of Valcour Island and Battle of Saratoga where he led a group of men to capture general John Burgoyne. Then he was Regimental Quartermaster of Jeduthan Baldwin's Artillery Artificer Regiment, then an Ensign or Second lieutenant in the 5th Massachusetts Regiment, then a Lieutenant, and then a Colonel for Massachusetts. Alexander Oliver was in charge of recruiting men to fight all around Massachusetts. Oliver was a participant in the Boston Tea Party. Alexander was also in George Washington's staff at Dorchester Heights and was near him as they marched into Boston.

He was also the third great grandson of Thomas Oliver one of the first Olivers in the Colonies and a Ruling Elder of the Church of Boston.

Ohio River Expedition

Oliver and major Nathan Goodale were sent with an exploring committee down the Ohio River into the Kanawha River for about six weeks to find out as much information as possible on the area, traveling through present day West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina on the way.

Moving to Ohio

After arriving in Ohio Oliver helped found Belpre, Ohio along with thirteen other Revolutionary War veterans. After leaving Belpre he moved to Point Pleasant, Ohio where he later died.

Family

Oliver had eleven children with Mary Warner; one of his notable descendants is his granddaughter who married Admiral Raphael Semmes.

Citations

• Daughters of the American Revolution's "Lineage Book Volume 41" (1928) Pg. 244
• Gerald Faulkner Shepard's "The Shepard Families of New England" (1973) Pg. 125
• Egbert Cleave's "Cleave's Biographical Cyclopaedia of Homeopathic Physicians and Surgeons" (1873) Pg. 345
• William Thomas Roberts Saffell's "Records of the Revolutionary War: Containing the Military and Financial Correspondence of Distinguished Officers" (1894) Pg. 429
• Samuel Crocker Cobb's "An Historical Address Delivered on the Occasion of the Centennial Celebration at Boston, Massachusetts" (1883) Pg. 45
• Cornelius Evarts Dickinson and Samuel Prescott Hildreth's "A History of Belpre, Washington County, Ohio" (1920) Pg. 191