"COUNTIES OF MORGAN, MONROE & BROWN, INDIANA. HISTORICAL AND
 BIOGRAPHICAL."  
CHARLES BLANCHARD, EDITOR. CHICAGO: F. A. BATTEY 
& CO. PUBLISHERS. 1884.  
F. A. BATTEY. F. W. TEPPLE

MORGAN COUNTY, INDIANA
MADISON TOWNSHIP
PAGE 355

EZRA A. OLLEMAN was born in Mercer County, Ky., October 6, 1828, and is 
the eldest of four children born to James and Mary (Tisinger) Olleman, natives res-
pectively of Virginia and North Carolina.  At the age of fourteen, Ezra lost his father;
he was then employed at drivng cattle from Indianapolis to New York, at $6.50 per
month;  was thus engaged, alternating with farming, until 1846, when he began a
three years' apprenticeship at cabinet-making in Cincinnati.  In 1849, he came to
Mooresville, and for three years conducted business as cabinet-maker, then sold
out and engaged in merchandising at Waverly until 1858;  he next purchased 320
acres of land in this township, on which he has since resided, with the exception of
three years, when he was employed as associate editor of the Indiana Farmer at
Indianapolis.  During this period he also established, in company with James Buch-
anan, the Sun, the first paper ever published in the interests of the Greenback Nation-
al party, of which party he was the first Chairman of the State Central Committee,
and also first Chairman of the State Executive Committee.   Through the regular ses-
sion of the Legislature of 1863-64, and the called session of 1864-65, he served as
a Republican, having been elected from a district that usually gave 700 Democratic
majority.  In the spirng of 1863, he enlised in Company D, Seventieth Indiana Vol-
unteer Infantry, but was discharged on account of physical disability.  August 16, 1849,
he was married  to Amanda M. Kelley, daughter of James S. and Eliza (Whetsel) 
Kelley, natives of Harrisburg, Penn., and Wheeling, Va.  Her father was a soldier in
the war of 1812, and the Whetsel family came to Indiana in 1819, and settled on the 
banks of the White River, in Harrison Township, this county.  Mr. and Mrs. Kelley 
were married in December, 1826;  were the parents of four children, and died respect-
ively in 1862 and 1852, members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  Mr. and Mrs.
Olleman are the parents of five children--Orlando A., Alma Belle, Flora E., Laura E.
and Edward L., and are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  Mr. O. is also
a member of the Mooresville Masonic Lodge, No. 78.

Data Entry Volunteer:  Diana Flynn 

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