John Oliver was the 10th Island Keeper on Rainsford Island. He began his career on January 1, 1827 taking over from Moses Hobart after the latter lost favor with the Boston City Council. Oliver was 31 years of age at the time of his appointment and brought some of the traditional skills required of this position including sailing and navigational skills. Unlike any of the previous Island Keepers, Oliver was a British citizen who married the daughter of a previous Island Keeper. His connections with the Spear family and his marriage to Sarah Blany Spear certainly could only help his effort to be an island keeper. He served as the city’s Island Keeper for 6 years eventually being replaced by William Marsh. The Boston City Council appointed Marsh on December 17, 1832 and Oliver was then forced to find other employment.[1] During his tenure the city faced one of its greatest threats when the cholera pandemic of 1832 incited panic throughout the eastern seaboard. During this year, the city built a $75 cottage for the Resident Physician, Dr. J.V.C. Smith with the understanding that he would be playing an important role in fighting the anticipated cholera epidemic. While cholera never affected Boston this year, it set a new emphasis on the important role of the Resident Physician, also known as the Port Physician, thereby diminishing the importance of the Island Keeper. John Oliver may not have gotten along with Dr. Smith or his acquiescence in serving of liquor may have alienated the City Council. Whatever, the cause, Oliver lost favor with his supervisors and was terminated.[2]
Oliver was the son of John and Margaret Oliver, born in a farm near Gravesend, County Kent, England on March 9, 1796. [3] Gravesend is a seaport city at the mouth of the Thames River. According to Curt Oliver, his biographer, John Oliver ran away from his family farm at the age of nine and joined the crew of a merchant ship. After his departure from home he went around the world on several eventful voyages that took him to the South Pacific, China and South America before he finally settled in Boston.
According to Curt Oliver, “The British captains were harsh taskmasters, and John and many of his crewmates abandoned their ship off the coast of Africa, ultimately signing on with an American vessel in India. He ever after pretended to be an American. One of the causes of the War of 1812 was British heavy-handedness in searching American ships for such "traitors."
His involvement with the War of 1812 was as colorful as it was unorthodox. He was working on the "Pennsylvania Packet," which was traveling between Canton, China, and the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific. The crew gathered sandalwood in the Marquesas and brought it to China to trade for silk and tea. John Oliver and several other crew members were left behind in the Marquesas to gather sandalwood while the ship sailed back to Canton. To their dismay, the "Pennsylvania Packet" never returned, a victim of the British blockade of Canton in the War of 1812. In the many months that followed, most of the crew members left on the Marquesas were killed by the natives. For some reason, John Oliver was among the few whom the natives decided to adopt.
He learned the native language and was heavily tattooed in Polynesian ritual ceremonies.
In 1813, the American frigate "Essex," led by Capt. David Porter, sailed into the harbor at Nuku Hiva. The native canoes surrounded the ship in traditional Polynesian greeting, and Capt. Porter was quite surprised to hear mooring advice from wild looking "natives" who spoke perfect English.
John Oliver and a friend, Eben Seger, decided to join the crew of the "Essex," which after several weeks of repairs set sail for South America. Their next encounter with the British was in the Valparaiso, Chile, harbor, where John Oliver served as a powder monkey. The Battle of Valparaiso (March 28, 1814) was a major American defeat. John Oliver, Eben Seger, and other crew members were taken prisoner by the British and sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
He managed to escape from the Halifax prison, but was soon recaptured. He and other prisoners of war were then transported on the captured American frigate "Chesapeake" to Dartmoor Prison in England. Life in Dartmoor Prison was severe, and the release of the Americans was delayed long after the Treaty of Ghent. It was in the summer of 1815 that John Oliver and Eben Seger were finally released and sent to New York. He had for several years pretended to be an American, but this was his first footstep on American soil.
His friend Eben Seger was from the Boston area, and the two headed there, recuperating a while on Rainsford Island, a quarantine station in Boston Harbor. The island keeper was Thomas Spear, a veteran of the Boston Tea Party, and John worked with him on the island for several years.” According to Kurt Oliver, on January 6, 1820, he married Sarah Spear, the daughter of his employer, and in 1827, John himself became the keeper of the island. He also learned the navigation of Boston Harbor and soon became a harbor pilot with the title of "Captain."
John and Sarah Oliver bore seven sons and four daughters. Because of his failing eyesight, John retired in 1849 and moved with his entire family to Lakeland, Washington County, Minnesota. Capt. John and several of his sons operated a ferry service on the St. Croix River between Hudson, Wisconsin and Lakeland. Six of his sons served in Minnesota regiments in the Civil War. Capt. John died at his home in Lakeland on July 26, 1869.
[1] Minutes of the Board of Aldermen of the City of Boston, December 17, 1832.
[2] See the August 6, 1832 Minutes of the Board of Aldermen for a discussion of the Board’s prohibition on the use of spirituous liquors to be sold on Rainsford Island while quarantine was performed.
[3] For a complete description of John Oliver’s life, see website on Descendants of John Oliver. Accessed December 30, 2009. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mnwashin/oliver.htm. For even more information on this website contact makremer@msn.com
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