Robert Morrison Olyphant was born on September 9, 1824, in New York City. He was the youngest son of David W. C. Olyphant and his wife, Ann. His father was a member of Talbot, Olyphant & Company, merchants in the China trade, whose record of cooperation with missionaries and refusal to engage in the opium trade gained for their office in China the nickname of "Zion's Corners. "
As a child, Robert attended private schools in Troy, New York, Middletown, Connecticut, and New York City. He entered Columbia College with the class of 1843, at the age of fifteen, and graduated in three years (1842).
After his graduation from Columbia College, Robert entered the employ of his father's firm and in 1844 visited China, returning a year later. He was rapidly advanced and soon became a partner. Shortly before 1858 he reorganized his father's old firm, Olyphant & Company, Canton, China, and engaged in a general importing, shipping, commission, and mercantile business with the Orient, being careful to maintain the high standards which had characterized the concern under his father's direction. He resided in China four years and upon his return directed the business from New York until he retired from foreign trade in 1873. During the later years of this period he turned his attention to the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company (later Delaware & Hudson Company), in which members of his family had been interested since 1852. This company was principally engaged in operating railroads and anthracite coal mines, though it also operated a canal, a gravity road, and steamboat lines on Lake Champlain and Lake George. He served as a member of its board of managers, 1867-68, 1873-74, and 1883-1918; was elected assistant president, 1876; vice-president, 1882; acting president, 1884; and president, October 24, 1884. In this last capacity he served until his seventy-ninth year, retiring from active management, May 13, 1903. He was then made chairman of the executive committee, an honorary position.
Olyphant's presidency was a quiet period in which the company reaped the advantages of previous construction and consolidation of its railroad properties. His policy was improvement rather than enlargement. He maintained the property at a high degree of efficiency and substantially increased the assets of the company in spite of sacrifices involved in the abandonment of the canal and gravity road during his administration. He dealt firmly with employees during strikes at the company's mines, and he regarded the award of the anthracite strike commission which followed the strike of 1902 as a concession to humanity and not to the strikers.
Robert Olyphant’s death occurred in New York City in his ninety-fourth year.
Robert Olyphant was a member of the National Academy of Design, he assisted in raising funds for the erection of its first building.
Robert Olyphant liked to consider himself an old-fashioned businessman. In his investments he preferred safety to large returns. He rarely took a vacation, and when he left the city he kept up a constant supervision over his business concerns.
Olyphant was named for the Scottish missionary Robert Morrison, who was a friend of his father from Canton, China.
On October 13, 1846, Robert married Sophia, daughter of William Vernon of Middletown, Rhode Island, and after her death, 1855, he married her sister Anna, August 13, 1857. He had ten children.
He was a member of Talbot, Olyphant & Company, merchants in the China trade, whose record of cooperation with missionaries and refusal to engage in the opium trade gained for their office in China the nickname of "Zion's Corners."
