Oliver P. Ramsey. Claiming at the close of the year 1915 a population of about 2,000, the Town of Kiefer, Creek County, is one of the vigorous and thriving little municipalities of this section of the state, and one of its most loyal, progressive and popular citizens is ifs efficient postmaster, Oliver Perry Ramsey, who was named in honor of the hero of Lake Erie’s naval conflict in the war of 1812.

Mr. Ramsey is a scion of a sterling pioneer family of Ohio, is a native of Indiana, and was reared in Illinois and Kansas, so that, being now a resident of still another state, there are a number of the sovereign commonwealths of the Union that have special significance to him. He was born at Cicero, Hamilton County, Indiana, on the 5th of February, 1850, and is a son of Daniel and Eliza (Cooper) Ramsey, both of whom were born and reared in the fine old Buckeye State, within whose borders the respective families were founded in an early day. After their marriage the parents of Mr. Ramsey removed to Indiana and established their residence in Hamilton County, and when he was seven years of age removal was made to Vermilion County, Illinois, where he was reared to the age of sixteen years and where he made good use of the advantages afforded in the public schools of the period. In 1866 Daniel Ramsey removed with his family and became one of the pioneer settlers in Greenwood County, Kansas, where he entered claim to government land and where he reclaimed a farm from the virgin prairie. He was one of the influential men in the public and industrial affairs of the pioneer community and continued his residence on his homestead until his death, in 1871, at which time he was fifty-six years of age. His widow survived him by more than thirty years and passed the closing period of her life in Cloud County, Kansas, where she died in 1905, at the venerable age of eighty-six years. Daniel Ramsey was a carpenter by trade and prior to his removal to Kansas had been a successful contractor and builder, besides which he found much demand for his services at his trade after he had established his home in the Sunflower State. He served many years as justice of the peace, having held this office both in Illinois and Kansas, and as a man of sterling character and fine mentality he ever commanded the confidence and high regard of his fellow men. He was unswerving in his allegiance to the democratic party and was an effective worker in its ranks. He served as a member of the Illinois Legislature and held minor official positions within the period of his residence in that state. Both he and his wife were zealous and consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They became the parents of four sons and two daughters, of whom the subject of this review was the third in order of birth. All of the children are living except one son and one daughter.

The present postmaster of Kiefer, Oklahoma, contributed his quota to the development and general work of the pioneer farm in Kansas and attained to his legal majority in the year that marked the death of his honored father. Thereafter he continued to be identified with agricultural pursuits a few years, and he then removed to a town in Kansas, thereafter continuing an urban citizen until the time of his removal to Oklahoma, having in the meanwhile been concerned with various lines of business enterprise, but his principal vocation having been that of contractor and builder, as he had learned the trade of carpenter under the effective direction of his father and had become a skilled artisan.

In 1901 Mr. Ramsey came to Creek County, Oklahoma, and established his residence in Kiefer, and engaged in the work of his trade. He became one of the leading contractors and builders of the town and continued his activities at his trade until February, 1908, when he was appointed by the county commissioners to the office of justice of the peace, being one of the first to occupy this office in the county after Oklahoma had become a state, in 1907. Under the original appointment he continued his service in this magisterial position for three years, and by reappointment he served an additional two years, at the expiration of which he was retained in office by popular election, his tenure of the position continuing until he was appointed to his present office, that of postmaster, on the 6th of June, 1913. The Kiefer postoffice is of the third class and gives a salary of $1,500 a year. Mr. Ramsey is giving a most efficient and acceptable administration and has done much to systematize and improve the service in the various departments of the office over which he has charge.

Mr. Ramsey was reared in the political faith of the democratic party, and his allegiance thereto has never abated by one jot or tittle. While a resident of Galena, Cherokee County, Kansas, he served as chief of the city’s police department and later, while a resident of Corry, Missouri, he held similar official preferment, besides having served also as deputy sheriff of Dade County. , His party fealty and effective campaign service have made him influential in political affairs in Creek County, Oklahoma, and he was appointed postmaster of Kiefer without his own solicitation, Hon. James S. Davenport, representative of this district in the United States Congress, having twice written to him and urged his acceptance of the office. During the first decade of his residence in Oklahoma Mr. Ramsey was actively concerned with practical work on the cattle range, and he has otherwise been familiar with life on the frontier, in his youth having frequently hunted buffalo through the section in Southern Kansas in which the family home was maintained. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is an alert and broad-minded citizen who takes lively interest in all that touches the civic and material wellbeing of his home town and county.

The first marriage of Mr. Ramsey was solemnized in 1871, when Miss Mary Wamick became his wife. She was summoned to the life eternal in 1882, and is survived by two sons: Alvis, who is a resident of Los Angeles, California, and Homer, who maintains his residence at Concordia, Kansas. In 1884 Mr. Ramsey wedded Miss Cynthia Goodall, and their devoted companionship was terminated about a decade later, by her death, in 1895. She is survived by three daughters: May is the wife of . Dr. Willard Johnson, of Aline, Alfalfa County, Oklahoma ; Ruby is the wife of William Dobson, of Concordia, Kansas; and Lena is the wife of George Timmons, of Shawnee, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma. In 1898 Mr. Ramsey contracted a third marriage, when Miss Alice Clark became his wife, and they have six children: Vera, Orville, Maurice, Pansy and Pearl (twins), and Dorothy.