Biographical Sketch Of William J. Oliver

(Father Of The Knoxville, Sevierville & Eastern Railway)

by Mrs. Lucille Deadrick
An excerpt from Heart Of The Valley, A History Of Knoxville, Tennessee (1976)

Host of U.S. presidents - Mr. Oliver at the height of his prosperity, just after the turn of the century.

OLIVER, WILLIAM JESSE (Jan. 13, 1867 - Mar. 28, 1925), contractor, industrialist, was born in Mishawaka, Ind., son of Henry W. H. and Clara (Pickett) Oliver.  He was educated in the schools of Mishawaka and of South Bend. He began working as a timekeeper for a contracting company in Arizona. By 1905 he was in Knoxville and had organized the William J. Oliver Manufacturing Company, to manufacture railroad, mining, and construction cars and equipment, castings and foundry supplies. Oliver was president and sole owner of the company, the largest of its kind in the South; it was located on Dale Avenue. This company submitted the lowest bid for the construction of the Panama Canal, but the contract was awarded to the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. George R. Dempster (q. v.), who was working for the Oliver company at that time, said the bid was compiled by L. C. Gunter (q. v.), who was vice-president and general manager. However, Oliver was given an order to furnish steel dump cars on the canal constructions. During World War I his company manufactured artillery shells for the Italian government and later for the U. S. Army.

Earlier in his career, when he was in the contracting business, he built the Clinch Avenue viaduct, the first concrete structure of its kind in Knoxville. In 1908 he began building a thirty-mile railroad to Sevierville, called the Knoxville, Sevierville & Eastern (later the Smoky Mountain Railroad), which began operation in 1909. It was used largely as a logging road. As a member of the first state highway commission, seving from 1909 until 1919, he advocated adequate highway connections from Bristol to Memphis.

Several times W. J. Oliver was asked to run for the U. S. Senate, but he declined. His party affiliation was with the "Bull Moose" (Progressive) Party. He entertained at his home Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Oliver was president of the first Appalachian Fair in 1910 when Col. Theodore Roosevelt delivered an address.

"Splendid" citizen - Mr. Oliver in the later years of his life. (Photocopied from his obituary)

In 1903 W. J. Oliver married Blanche O'Brien at Clarksville, Tenn. The Knoxville home was at 2723 Kingston Pike. Surviving W. J. Oliver were his widow, a son, W. I. Oliver, of Miami, and two daughters, Mrs. David Groves Madden and Mrs. Charles Ristine Morgan. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

Gone too soon - The grave of William J. Oliver at Knoxville's Greenwood Cemetery. (Jim Holloway photo)

WEBMASTER'S NOTE: Fans and students, alike, of the "Slow & Easy" may have noticed the considerable criticism some railroad historians have leveled against William J. Oliver. Specifically, writers have lambasted Oliver's stewardship of the KS&E Railway in the face of the company's complex financial and legal wranglings. Also questioned have been Oliver's ethics in founding a bus line, just after his departure from the KS&E, which was in direct competition with his former railroad.

From timekeeper to timepiece - W.J. Oliver Manufacturing Company commemorative pocketwatch. (Courtesy Jerry Dowling)