James C. Oliver

Who was James C. Oliver?

James Churchill Oliver was a U.S. Representative from Maine.

Born in South Portland, Maine, Oliver attended the public schools. Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, A.B., 1917. During the First World War enlisted on June 4, 1917, attended the Plattsburg Barracks Training Camp, and was commissioned a captain on November 27, 1917. He was promoted to major of Infantry on October 9, 1918, and transferred to the Inspector General's Department until honorably discharged on July 22, 1919. He engaged in the general insurance business in Portland, Maine from 1930 to 1937. He served as member of the board of aldermen of South Portland, Maine, in 1932 and 1933.

Oliver was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-fifth, Seventy-sixth, and Seventy-seventh Congresses. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1942. He served as lieutenant commander in the United States Coast Guard from January 26, 1943, to April 23, 1946. In 1946 engaged in the real estate and insurance business in Maine and California. He was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor in 1952. He was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Congress in 1954 and 1956. He unsuccessfully contested the election of Robert Hale to the Eighty-fifth Congress in 1956.