MAX L. AND JEAN OLIVER
Max: Growing Up Years

I was born May 23, 1926, while my parents, Herman and Nellie Oliver, lived on a rented farm about four miles south of Woodburn. They had four children: Gerald, myself, Donna Oliver Cheek, and Carolyn Oliver Holdridge. I was five years younger than Gerald, and when the girls came along, we were taught by our parents we were their protectors. We were to guard them. Carolyn was our baby sister and we never let her forget that. She was on a pedestal. To this day, we still remind her. I teased Gerald unmercifully and one day he'd had enough. He picked me up, turned me upside down, and stuck my head in the water tank. Mother happened to be watching and came with a broom to chase him away.

For the early stage of my life I lived in the home where I was born, which was a quarter mile south of my two uncles and they are some of the first relatives I remember as I grew up. In those days everyone moved often and March 1st each year was moving day. Readers will have to remember back, if they lived that long ago, or try to imagine what it was like long, long before U-Hauls or movers to be hired. We moved by horse and wagon and drove the cattle. It was before graveled or paved roads so the first of March there was mud to contend with, when it often happened the frost was going out of the ground. Depending on the distance, we sometimes had to depend on friends to take us in and we'd sleep over.

From my first home, my parents moved to a farm near Russell, Iowa. At that time Dad was working on highway 34 with a team of horses and a dirt scoop. It was a piece of equipment that had handles for the operator to hold onto and guide the scoop to move the dirt where it needed to be. I was three years old at that time and one of the first things I remember was getting my first pony. Just across the road, east from where we lived, was a filling station, run by Mr. Dixon. I would go across the road every afternoon and he would give me a piece of candy. That really stayed in my mind.

Our next move from Russell was west of Chariton, south of where the Chariton airport is now. I was probably about six years old at that time. From there we moved to a farm west of Derby and from that place the next move was south of Woodburn, in the Smyrna area. While we were there I was approximately ten years old. Dad worked for a neighbor, Jim Mitchell, and they would hire me to do lots of little jobs for them. They paid me 25¢, and that was when I learned I could work and earn money for doing it.

From there we moved south of Musselman's corner, south of the John Frizzell farm and our next move was in 1939, to a farm at the northeast corner of Murray, Iowa. The momentous part of that move was the use of a truck — the first time a motor vehicle was involved in our moving. I was about 13 years old at that time and I attended the Murray school. While we lived at Murray, I remember helping the two Bosserman brothers, who had a large farm. They lived in town, north of the railroad tracks, on the west side of the street. Darrell and Vicky Mateer live there now but at that time everybody knew it as the Bosserman house.

In 1941, my parents bought a farm east of Weldon. That was our final move. My folks lived on that farm until they retired and moved to Osceola. One of the things I remember about that location at that time was that the mail carrier had a vehicle — it was probably a Model A Ford. On the corner south of our home was a T-intersection where the county road ran north off the county road line. In the spring, when the frost went out and rains came, a huge mud hole developed. It would be axle-deep, and if the mail carrier's car dropped into it, he would come to the house to get me. We had a big horse that was a puller, and I would hitch a single tree behind him and with a log chain fastened to it, we would pull him out of the mud hole.

Even though we still farmed with horses, at that time I went to school at Leroy, and had my first automobile. It was then I started working for different farmers in the area, especially in the wintertime. I picked corn — by hand, of course, and when the corn was out near where we lived, I drove north of Des Moines and got a job picking corn for the farmers' use. That was how I spent the balance of the winter, until we got the corn out.

About 1941, when I was about 15 or 16, still living on the farm with my folks, I had friends that I had lots of fun with — Bill Audlehelm, Jack Nish, Winston Woods, Dale Chidester, and Britton Wells. One thing in particular that stands out in my mind is from 1941, when Bill Audlehelm's father bought a new Ford two-door sedan that he was pretty proud of. Bill finally talked his father into letting him drive it once in awhile, and on a Sunday evening Bill picked me up, we got our two girl-friends and went to a show.

It was in the spring, the mud roads had thawed on top and were slick. Bill was a fast driver, the car got to sliding, went over the bank and rolled over. It didn't hurt any of us or break any glass, but it mashed the top. Russell Tolly lived close by so we talked him into bringing his tractor to pull us out and get us back on the road. We went to the show, took our girlfriends home, Bill took the car home, put it in the garage, shut the doors, and went in the house to bed. He didn't tell his folks anything about it. It wasn't until the next morning when Bill's dad, Walter, went to get something in the garage, that he saw his new car with the top smashed in. He woke Bill up and asked him what he'd done to his car, but the evidence was pretty clear.

I also remember while I was still at home in the season when the sows were having pigs, I slept in the hog house every night. It was a long farrowing hog house with pens on each side for the sows, and an alley down the center. I would put a lot of straw at one end of the alley-way for my bed. If I heard a newborn pig squeal, I'd get up to make sure the sow wasn't lying on a baby pig. I really liked those nights. My dad always said the hogs paid for the farm.

We continued to farm with horses and I used to hitch five or six head to drive to the field and work all day. That was quite different from when we got our first tractor. I pestered Dad a long time before he bought our first one. But I was always around horses a lot and always admired them. We always kept a saddle horse as well as the work horses we used in the field. I became close to horses when I was small and had a feeling for horses all my life.

Around 1946, while we were living east of Weldon, I drove a school bus for a year. I had 13 miles of dirt road, and had mud to contend with whenever it rained. It was a small school bus but it had dual wheels, and whenever we had a night when the roads were frozen, I would have to get up early and take off the outside rear duals so I could follow the tracks I had made the night before. The kids were dismissed 4:00, and when I took them home, the roads would be thawed, so I'd leave deep ruts with a lot of mud rolled out to the sides of the tracks. To navigate the roads, in the morning I had to go back to singles.

Unlike it is now, I am told, the kids gave me no trouble. They were not allowed to stand up in the buses or make any kind of loud noises. If one of them did stand up, I would look in my rear-view mirror and tell him or her to sit down and they immediately did. The reason for that rule was that on mud roads the bus would swing back and forth following the old tracks. If they were standing, it could throw them down and they could get hurt.

Business Years

When I began working in Osceola, my first job was for Cliff Coyle in his Mobil Station at the southeast corner of the square. He was a popular operator. Everybody liked Cliff Coyle. I worked for him several months then got a job at Charlie Easton's body shop east of the four-way stop at the intersection of highways 34 and 69. My job was to wash and wax cars, compound new paint jobs, and assist body shop fellows with whatever they needed to have done. I did a lot of sanding and rubbing for them and that is where I started my body shop career. My salary was $13 a week.

I worked for Charlie approximately two years, and from there I went to the Chevrolet garage to work in their body shop for Darrell Shepherd and "Slats" Simpson. It was originally owned by Roy Lewis, their father-in-law, until he became too old to handle it. Darrell married his daughter, Bernice, and Slats married Willene, who was a popular teacher of the second grade at West Ward School.

I worked there about two years and at that time Junior Goodrich and I went into the body shop business in the Toad Mumper building north of City Hall. I had come to know Junior when we both went to school at Leroy. We were in partnership in that garage for two years, then Ben and Zerilla Cole, who had the Oldsmobile dealership, hired me to run their body shop in the former Charlie Easton building. I operated it until 1960, when Ben came to me and said they were going to downsize and close the body shop. He offered to help me find a building so I could open a shop of my own and continue to do the work he had to be done. I did that, renting the building owned by Lloyd Thurston, north of Allison's Drug Store. I was there until 1962.

1960 Photo of the first Oliver Body and Glass Shop on
North Main Street

When I went into business, I made a proposition to Clifford Underwood in Underwood Auto Supply, telling him I intended to buy everything from him and asked that he charge to me, with my guarantee that I would pay him promptly on the first of the following month. He thanked me but suggested we make it once a week, which I agreed to do. It wasn't very long until he realized I was as good as my word, so once a month sufficed. That was always the way I did business, I was honest with my customers and paid my bills on time.

From that building, I rented the former International Machinery, Pontiac, Buick, and Cadillac garage from "Mac" McPherson on the west side of the square. I moved to that building in 1962, and operated the body shop, then in 1965, Chrysler representatives from Chicago came to town and stayed a week trying to find a Chrysler and Dodge dealer. They visited with me about it every day and by the weekend, I had decided to take the franchise. That was in 1965 and the first cars on my showroom floor were a Plymouth Belvedere and a Barracuda. I told them at the time that might be the only two I'd want for the year, but when we had our Grand Opening a few months later, we had sold and ordered 17 cars. At the time we took the franchise, there were only five Chrysler products registered in Clarke County.

Max Oliver with 1967 Dodge Monaco at the Oliver
Chrysler, Plymouth and Dodge dealership by the Lyric
Theatre.

One of my body shop fellows who acquired body shop knowledge like I did mine was Darrell Morris. He started coming in to watch and once in awhile I'd ask him if he wanted to help me with a certain project. He started sanding and rubbing, and doing the things I did when I first started. He stayed with me for years — one of better body men and painters in this area. He did it all to perfection, then he had me look at it to see if it suited me. If it didn't, he would do it over until it did. He was a really good body man. I had so many good employees I wouldn't be able to name them all, but they made work a pleasure and contributed to our success.

In 1974, we started to outgrow our building on the west side of the square. Eddy Saylor came to me one day and told me he had some land at the west edge of town that was ready to be sold for someone to build on. At that time, the American State Bank and the liquor store were about the only businesses out there. He picked me up one day and took me out to what is now Jeffreys Drive. We did some measuring, and I decided to call in a building contractor to see if it would be feasible to put a building there for a dealership for Chrysler and Dodge. It seemed to be, and I bought the land where the present building is, between where McDonalds and Pamida are now. We moved in 1975, and I changed the name of our business from Oliver Body and Glass to Oliver Motors. Approximately a year later, McDonalds acquired the lot on the corner, and started the building where they still are. In addition to Chrysler and Dodge, I picked up Ford when Dwayne Fletcher closed his business where German Machine Shop is.

I learned about work when I was young and in my business I worked eight hour days and sometimes until midnight, six days a week. I ran a 24-hour wrecker service, which I began doing when I worked for Ben Cole. Darrell Morris and I ran it together, and regardless of weather conditions or anything else, we never turned down a call. He was as dependable as they come. I could call on him day or night, in all kinds of weather, and he never said, "No, I don't want to go." He started working with me in the 1960s and stayed until he began having health problems.

I retired in September 1997, and sold the dealership to Anchor Motors.

Family

During the years I was working at the Chevrolet Garage, I met Jean Johnson from Murray. She had worked in the office for Dr. Harken, but when I became acquainted with her, she was working for the law firm of Bob Killmar and Ward Reynoldson, whose offices were upstairs on the east side of the square. The door to the stairs is still there, just north of where Redman's Cafe is now. They were both good attorneys, and Bob particularly was a bearcat for the opposing party. Gretta Crosby was Killmar's secretary, Jean was Ward Reynoldson's. We became better acquainted when I had something to consult them about. In later years, Jean was employed by the State in the Welfare Department and was there 23 years.

Jean and I were married in 1950, and the first home I bought was in Murray, a two-story house that I believe we paid $5,000 for. It was on North Main. In 1960, we bought a plot of ground from Mrs. Ada Black. It was a clover field on East Clay Street in Osceola. We built our present home on that spot. We purchased five acres originally and another five acres from her, west of our first plot. We bought 60-some acres from Tom and Ethel Twombley when they retired and moved to Arkansas. I bought an additional 11 acres to the south from Joe Ramsey. For it I traded a new Dodge pickup.

I raised cattle on our acreage and put up hay. It is mostly pasture and cattle, but anyone who knows about Jean and me knows that horses are an important part of our lives. I acquired my love for them when I was small and I never forgot it. Mickey Thomas wrote in his column "Tales from the Aisles" in the Osceola Sentinel tribune: "Because of Jean Oliver's love for horses, a horse barn was build on the acreage. Jean's passion for horses was acquired from her father, Aubrey Johnson, who raised horses on his farm near Murray. Jean excelled in harness driving. She owned two champion harness horses, Yukon Jack and Ridgefield Windstorm, who were named by their previous owners. She also owned Captain Tango and D.A.

"Yukon Jack was driven by Jean Oliver in the Pleasure Class competition. He was Grand Champion at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, two years in a row and won two Grand Championships at the Iowa State Fair. With this horse, Jean also placed fifth in the National Pleasure Horse Show in Kansas City against horses from across the nation. Ridgeway Windstorm competed in the Fine Harness Class pulling a four wheel cart. He won the Grand Champion Fine Harness Class two years in a row at Sioux Falls and was a three time Grand Champion at the Iowa State Fair."

Max resumes: Jean had shown horses all her life and I got deeply involved with them. We had a number of horses — American Saddle horses are our preference because they have real high action. Jean can take a large amount of the credit for the many awards they won. Through the years, whenever they became sick, I was the one who spent the night with them in the barn, and I was the one who was with them when they passed on. That affects me a lot.

Jean and I have one daughter, Janet, now Janet Rhea Adair, who lives in Memphis. Her husband worked for me in the dealership while he was in college in Lamoni. When he finished his classes in the afternoons, he would come and work in the front end of my dealership in sales. I trained him in the car business hoping they would take it over, but they had close friends who moved from Osceola to Tennessee. They visited, liked the area, and chose to make their home there. Their two daughters are now in college, and we are glad that through the years they have liked coming to Iowa to visit. They have enjoyed the horses and we have given them riding lessons. We have had and still have a great life.

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Last Revised November 6, 2013