George Tener Oliver was born on January 26, 1848, at Donaghmore, near Dungannon, County Tyrone, Ireland, while his parents, Henry William and Margaret (Brown) Oliver, were on a visit to the latter's old home. The father had been a merchant in Ireland and active in the Liberal party of that day; his emigration to America in 1842 followed the defeat of his party.
George was educated in the public schools of Allegheny (now the Northside of Pittsburgh) and in Pleasant Hill Academy at West Middletown, Pennsylvania. He then attended Bethany College in West Virginia, graduating in 1868. For a short time thereafter Goerge Oliver taught school in Peebles Township (now Hazelwood) but soon began the study of law in Pittsburgh in the office of Hill Burgwin.
George Oliver was admitted to the bar in 1871 and during the ten years which followed Oliver built up a successful law practice in association with William B. Rogers. Against the advice of the latter he gave up this practice to become vice-president and later president of the Oliver Wire Company, organized by his brother Henry William Oliver. During his presidency he exhibited a regard for his employees rarely shown in those days. It was his practice to keep the plants running even though operating without profit in order to give employment to his men. In 1899 the company sold its plants. Between 1889 and 1897 Oliver was also president of the Hainsworth Steel Company. In the last-named year when this company merged with Oliver & Snyder Steel Company, he remained as president of the new company and served until 1901.
At the age of fifty-two Oliver disposed of his manufacturing interests and embarked upon a career, covering the remaining nineteen years of his life, as a newspaper publisher. In June 1900 he purchased the oldest newspaper west of the Allegheny Mountains, the Pittsburgh Gazette, a morning paper. Next he became owner of the Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph, an evening paper. In 1906 he bought the Pittsburg Times which he consolidated with the Gazette and called the Gazette Times. He directed the papers and their policies throughout his ownership, often writing the editorials.
Oliver had long been interested in politics. In 1884 he was a presidential elector on the Blaine-Logan ticket; in 1890, the supervisor of the federal census for his district. In 1904 and again in 1916 he served as a delegate to the Republican National conventions at which Roosevelt and Hughes were nominated. But his larger field of activity was in the United States Senate. Although he refused to fill the unexpired term of Senator Quay in 1904, he consented to step into the place made vacant in 1909 when President Taft appointed Philander C. Knox to the cabinet. After completing two years he was elected for the full term, 1911-17, thus serving during the trying days of American neutrality. His chief activity in the Senate was the support of the protective tariff in general and the iron and steel tariff in particular. He declined a second term and retired to private life on the death of his wife who was his constant companion. He survived her by less than two years. He was buried in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh.
George Oliver was a member of the Republican party, the United States Senate from Pennsylvania (1909-1917).
On December 19, 1871, George Oliver married Mary D. Kountze of Omaha, Nebraska.
He was a merchant in Ireland and active in the Liberal party of that day.
