Alexander Oliphant
Alexander Oliphant was born at Marlfield, near Kelso, county of Roxborough, in Scotland, in 1806, and died from
the effects of injuries received from a fall in Leavenworth, Kansas, September 22, 1878. He married Mrs. Martha
Nisbet, widow of John Nisbet, December 7, A.D. 1837, in the county of Armagh, in Ireland. His wife survives
him. He had two children, Mary G. Oliphant, now Maitland, wife of Alexander Maitland, and Ralph
Oliphant, both of whom survive him. Johanna H. N. Nisbet was a daughter of Mrs. Martha Oliphant
by her first husband, who married James W. Black, of Richmond, Missouri. She died October 3, A.D. 1860.
In 1838, Mr. Oliphant left Scotland for the purpose of making his future home in the United States. In the same
year he settled on his farm, seven miles north of Richmond, in Ray county, in the state of Missouri, where he remained
until the day of his death. Mr. Oliphant having become a citizen of this country, always took a lively interest
in its prosperity. In all the issues perculiar to a new country constantly springing up, he displayed a clear judgment
and great thought in forming his conclusions. As a farmer he was active, enterprising and successful. His farm
was a model of enterprise. Always ready to encounter the risk of the adoption of modern appliances and methods,
he kept pace with the great progress in agricultural pursuits. In the raising of fruit and culture of the grapes,
he displayed great art, and brought to bear a knowledge of botany that only intense observation and study can supply,
and in whatever direction he turned his attention in the raising of staple productions, the introduction of improved
quality of cereals, the raising of stock or culture of fruit of every character, he was not satisfied to tread
the trodden path, but sought from observation and science, and treatises upon the subject that knowledge which
would enable him to keep fully up with the greatest advance of science. His dwelling,
surrounded by plants and flowers, indigenous and exotic, displayed his culture and taste and rendered his home
a bower of beauty which a Shenstone or a Rogers might have envied. Amidst all his busy and active pursuits he still
retained his love of the muses. Every department of knowledge received his attention. Mathematics never palled
upon his taste, and in their varied applications, he took intense interest. Surveyor of the county in which he
resided for a number of years, and subsequently undertaking large contracts of surveying under the government of
the United States in the territory of Kansas, he made himself thoroughly master of the most complicated instruments
and system of surveying used in surveying large tracts of country. He made a specialty of chemistry, ornithology
and pyrotechny. He had a rare and valuable collection of birds of the various species peculiar to the west, and
studied with care their habits and peculiarities. A devoted lover of chemistry, he spent a portion of his time
in its experiments and applications; and pyrotechny furnished a means for some of its most striking illustrations
as well as amusement for his leisure hours. Turning from severer pursuits, music would relax his overstrained faculties,
and as the airs adapted to ballads and lyrics familiar to his youth welled from his favorite instrument, he would
live over his life again and roam amidst the forests, and hills, and mountains and lakes of his native land. Mr.
Oliphant graduated at Edinburgh College. He possessed a mind thoroughly disciplined by the most laborious and intense
study. Possessing a fine natural capacity, and aided by every facility for acquiring information, he explored a
wide field of science and stored up a vast amount of knowledge. He was gifted with a memory strong, vigorous and
grasping, which retained, even in his old age, a tenacity of retention truly wonderful. His conversation was a
rich and varied feast. Mr. Oliphant was member of the Episcopalian Church, enjoying full membership until the day
of his death. He was distinguished for his social qualities. His society was sought by all. All would leave his
social reunions not only feeling they had been pleased and entertained, but instructed. He was a kind friend, a
devoted husband and an affectionate father; and his family mourn him as one whose place can never be filled.
1881 Ray County, Missouri History Pages 584 - 585 |
