Joseph Cayton Oliver was born in the Azores Islands, Portugal March 16, 1850. He never saw his father, a sailor who was lost at sea. His ship just sailed away and was never heard from again.

When he was 16 years old, he came to the United States as a stowaway concealed in a barrel on a sailing ship. The ship stopped at the Isthmus of Panama and he and another Portuguese walked across the Isthmus and traveled north to San Francisco. He knew no English but somehow made his way on to Portland, Oregon.

This was in 1866. Gold had just been discovered in Canyon City and J.C. Oliver was swept with the crowd of gold seekers to The Dalles and then walked the rest of the way to Canyon City, some 200 miles. He worked in the mines, cut wood and eventually, in 1878, went to work for a man named August Gregg who had rented a ranch west of John Day from some Chinese miners. Mr. Gregg only lived a few years after J.C. Oliver went to work for him clearing land, tending garden, milking cows, chopping wood or whatever. One day Mr. Gregg choked on a chicken bone and died before anyone knew what was happening.

Mrs. Gregg was a strong young German lady who had worked her way from Germany to San Francisco, met Mr. Gregg and came to Canyon City to seek gold. The Greggs had three children – Will, Henry and Lizzie.

Joseph Cayton Oliver married Mrs. Gregg after Mr. Gregg’s death. J.C., together with his new wife, had three sons: George, Herman and Frank. In 1880 they found another place east of John Day which they were able to buy with a “song and a prayer” for $2,000. That was a lot of money at that time. Thus, with a few cows, the Oliver Bros. Ranch was started.

J.C. entered into a partnership with the three boys and they gradually added land by filing for homesteads and buying some. George Oliver and Will Gregg died in the typhoid epidemic of 1922. Henry Gregg pursued other interests and Lizzie married and moved away. Herman and Frank continued with this partnership until 1948. They ran sheep for the most part until the 1930s, selling them and going to cattle and horses.

Herman had one daughter, Anna who married Sam Keerins and joined the partnership. Frank had a daughter and a son. They were Claire and Joe. Claire married Jim Maple and bought the John Day Hardware. Joe married Arlene Gay and they joined the Oliver Bros. partnership in 1942. In l948 the partnership was divided and Joe and Arlene took over Frank’s half of the Oliver Bros. partnership. It consisted of land on the John Day River and two places in Bear Valley known as the Tebo Place and Bear Creek Place. The Tebo place was sold in 1978 and other properties in John Day were also sold and the Biggs Place in Bear Valley was purchased. Herman, Sam and Anna sold their properties on the John Day River and Bear Valley in 1960s.

Joe and Arlene Oliver had three children: daughters, Margaret Gay Oliver Kuykendall, Barbara Kay Oliver and Joseph Cayton Oliver III. They ran the ranches on the John Day River and in Bear Valley until in the 1970s when J.C. III joined the operation. All the ranches have been incorporated under the name J.C. Oliver, Inc., and are still run under that name. Some of the properties have been sold on the John Day River and other properties purchased in the Bear Valley/Seneca area.

Joe died in 1996 and Arlene lives in John Day, semi-retired and taking care of other properties.

J.C. III and his wife, Tinka, took over the operation of the ranch in 1985 and bought the ranch in 1996. They now live on the ranch and with the help of their children, Kati and Alec, run the daily operations.

J.C. Oliver, Inc. received a Century Ranch Certificate in 2002. Parts of the Bear Valley property have been in the Oliver family since the 1880s.