Olivet Kansas.

Map 1879.
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Olivet, one of the small towns of Osage county, is a station on the .Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., 12 miles south of Lyndon, the county seat. It has banking facilities and is a shipping point for a prosperous farming communit}'. There are telegraph and express offices and a money order postoffice with one rural route. The population according to the census of 1910 was 200.

The town was located in 1869 by Rev. A. J. Bartels, a minister of the Swedenborgian church, who with J. R. Elder and C. P. Loricke were representing a stock company with a capital of $10,000 raised for the purpose of founding a town in Kansas. The first year saw considerable growth. William Haslam opened a store for general merchandise and drugs, H. J. Davis opened a hotel, Bartels & Munger started a sawmill and wagon and blacksmith shops were opened. The town was
incorporated as a city of the third class, and a postoffice was established in 1S70.

Business Men who used Olivet as their PO. address, as of 1883.

JOHN R. ELDER, farmer, Section 3, P. O. Olivet, was born in Union County, Ind., December 22, 1824; is a son of James Elder and Elizabeth Reed. He was brought up on a farm and received a common school education. Came to Kansas in 1869, and settled in Olivet Township. Owns 160 acres, on which he lives and has improved. He was married in Butler County, Ohio, August 9, 1849, to Miss Mary, daughter or Thomas and Sarah Briggs Newport. They have seven children - Sarah E., born July 14, 1850; Julius S., born May 29, 1852; Noble G., born January 7, 1855; Lyman Y., born September 26, 1857; Thomas G., born December 6, 1859; Lulie L., born October 20, 1862; Lettie Annie, born August, 1867. Mr. Elder is a member of the New Jerusalem Church.

LORENZO D. LAFFERTY, farmer, Section 8, P. O. Olivet, was born in Orange County, N. C., December 29, 1829; son of James and Sarah (Cockelrare) Lafferty. When a child his parents took him to Indiana, and there he was brought up on a farm; was educated in the common school. Enlisted February, 1862, in Company K, Fifth-third Regiment Indiana Infantry, and participated in the engagement at Corinth, Jackson, Pittsburg Landing, Vicksburg and Atlanta, where he was wounded, and was discharged in February 1865. He was married in Orange County, Ind., December 4, 1851, to Miss Ona O., daughter of William Felkin and Prudence McDanell. They have six children, viz., Sarah C., born April 22, 1853; Martha E., born May 6, 1854; James C., born December 27, 1855; Lydia A., born December 29, 1859, Mary J., born January 25, 1865, and Charles A., born May 21, 1870. Mr. Lafferty came to Kansas in 1870, and settled in Olivet Township; owns 230 acres, which he has under cultivation from the raw prairie, and good house, barn, etc. Mr. Lafferty is a member of Arvonia Lodge, No. 54, I. O. O. F.

ALBERT M. McCAULEY, farmer, Section 8, P. O. Olivet, was born in Orange County, Ind., May 5, 1839; son of James and Sarah Lafferty McCauley, who were children of Joseph McCauley and Vance Lafferty. Mr. McCauley was brought up on a farm, and received a common school and education. Enlisted August, 1862, in Company F, Eighty-First Regiment Indiana Infantry, served in the band, and was discharged for disability in December, 1862. Came to Kansas in 1871, and settled in Olivet Township; owns 125 acres, which he improved. He was united in marriage in Orange County, Ind., May 10, 1860, to Miss Lucretia A., daughter of James Greggs, Esq. They have two children - Laura E., born August 5, 1861, and James B., born December 16, 1862. Mr. McCauley is a member of Olivet Lodge, No. 22, A., F. & A. M. and postmaster at Olivet. Laura E. is now the wife of William Soddeistum.

William C. Sweezey Ranch, 1879.

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Taken about 1899.

William C. Sweezey, Physician and Surgeon, had a business in the town of Olivet and a ranch out side of town.  He was from Patchogun Long Island New York, came to the county in 1870.

Business men of 1899 who used Olivet as their PO., address.

G. L. Boyd, Farmer.

August Fisher, Farmer.

B. F. Leach, Farmer and Stock Raiser.

Francis Lovell, Farmer.

William C. Sweezey, Physician.