Early Life
Olney was born near the Fox River in frontier Iowa and was raised in abject poverty and with little formal schooling. His family moved often and his education up to the age of 10 consisted of brief stints in log or early frame school houses and from his father who had only briefly attended school himself. Typical of the times, his mother was uneducated. She finally taught herself to read and write so as to communicate with her son during his military service during the Civil war. From the age of 10 through 17 no record has been found to verify whatever education he received. Where and however he got it, he learned his lessons well enough to apply for and receive a position as a teacher in Pella, Iowa. That community was fairly large and modern for the time and desired a thorough and high standard of education for their children. In Pella he was a teacher, superintendent of schools, and a college freshman, oddly enough in that order. During that time, one of the students in his school was to become a famous (or infamous as may be) future western hero, Wyatt Earp. Nothing in Olney's history suggests he was ever aware of or concerned with the connection if any. In 1860 Olney left Pella's Central University (now Central College) to travel to Missouri, a slave state. All that is known about his travels there is that he again taught.
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