Oliver

The crossroads at Oliver owes its name to the post office, which first opened in 1876, apparently in large part due to the efforts of Thomas Oliver, the Member of Parliament for that area before and after Confederation (1866-1880). Being at the corner of Cobble Hills Road where Zorra’s Road 88 meets East Nissouri’s Oliver Road, Oliver is claimed in the history of both townships (and Counties – Oxford & Middlesex). In fact, the post office started in a house in West Zorra and, in 1903, moved across the road into the neighbouring municipality to be situated in the general store. Although the population was said to be 50 in 1889, there seemed to have been little business activity other than a creamery, which later became a chopping mill and The Oliver Cheese Factory, which was created in the early 1890s 's, providing very successful means of living in Oliver. It operated as the Oliver Cheese and Butter Factory from 1926 until 1952, selling cheese to Swifts in Stratford packaged in round cheese boxes manufactured by Kintore Boxes. The factory fluid milk depot for Carnation in St. Marys until the early 1970s. The factory and equipment were removed from the site in the mid-1980s.