At an early day General Oliver became interested in military affairs as
an officer of the Salem Light Infantry and in 1844 he was made Adjutant
General of the Commonwealth, by Gov. Briggs, and held this office for
four years. During the war he served with great satisfaction as
Treasurer of the Commonwealth, and performed the most arduous duties in
a very faithful and acceptable manner. From 1869 to 1873 he was chief of
the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and ever after that became interested in
reducing the hours of labor in factories and in the limitation of
factory work by children. From 1876 to 1880 he was mayor of Salem, and
displayed almost the same vivacity and energy in discharging the duties
of this office, as an octogenarian, that he had shown in his youth. He
was master of the theory and history of music, a good bass singer, a
good organist, and the author of several popular compositions. Of these
"Federal Street" seems likely to become permanent in musical literature.
In his youth he sang in the Park street church in Boston and for many
years he led the choir of the North church in Salem. "Oliver's
Collection of Church Music" is one of the results of his labors in this
direction.
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