Oliver Phelps

Oliver Phelps was early in life a tavern keeper in Granville, Massachusetts. During the Revolution he was Deputy Commissary of the Continental Army and served until the end of the war. After the war ended, he was appointed a judge, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and became a land speculator in western New York state. A depressed real estate market forced him to sell most of his holdings.

Phelps was born in Poquonock, Connecticut. His father died when he was 3, and his mother was left to raise their seventeen children. Phelps took a job at agein a local store to help support his family. He married Mary Seymour, daughter of Zachariah and Sarah Seymour. When he wasin 1770, they moved to Suffield, Connecticut, where he apprenticed to a local merchant, and in 1770 the couple moved to Granville, Massachusetts where he opened his own store. They had a son, Oliver Leicester , and a daughter, Mary .

Source: Wikipedia