A Minister, a Machine, and a Midwestern Town
Thomas Oliver was born in Woodstock, Ontario, a fact that lent a touch of fate to what came next. By the 1880s, his work as a Methodist minister had brought him to Iowa, where he grew frustrated with the typewriters of the day. Known as "blind-writing" machines, they struck the ribbon from beneath the paper, making it impossible for typists to see their work in progress.
With no formal mechanical training, Oliver began experimenting, fashioning early prototypes from strips of tin cans. After years of trial and error, the breakthrough came to him in a dream: the U-shaped downstrike typebar, the innovation that would define the Oliver typewriter for decades. His first patent was awarded in 1891; a second followed in 1894, establishing the machine's iconic look.
Chicago investors soon bought out Oliver's original Iowa backers, and the company began searching for a factory location. They found their answer in Woodstock, Illinois, which happened to share its name with Oliver's hometown. The city offered an abandoned brick plant, originally built in 1893 for the short-lived Wheeler and Tappan Pump Company, on one condition: Oliver Typewriter would stay for at least five years.
They stayed for thirty.