This just in!!! George Robinson had a very small tintype photograph of Oliver P. McCuistion. Mary Isabelle had it when she died. This is a real treasure.

His son, Alvin James, writes in 1885 "My mother told me that my Father was one of a large family, the names of which I never learned, save it was Robert" (Oliver's brother)

Oliver appears in Hancock County, Ill on the 1850 census.  There he is listed as a merchant, age 22 born in Tenn. There is an Eveline (Chamberlain) McCuistion also listed.  This is his wife, whom he marries on 6 Oct 1850 as noted on the Illinois marriage index.

For some reason, he leaves Illinois (and Eveline) and goes to California, where he meets Elizabeth "Betsy" Robbins Cranson.  They marry on 28 May 1854 at White Oak Township, Calif.

They have a son Franklin born 30 Apr 1855.  Franklin dies two years later.

Oliver gets the gold bug. According to his granddaughter Bertha McCuistion, he went into the gold fields with a son Philip from a previous marriage.  Apparently he disappears from Betsy's life

Their second son Alvin James is born 24 Jan 1956 in Carson City NV while Betsy is on her way back to Tooele Utah.

In a letter (probably from Lydia Ann Cranson) to her sister Betsy dated 25 Sept 1864: "I was up to Placerville last summer and I saw ... Mr files ... and he told me that Porter was Dead and had been Dead one year when I saw him  He told me that he Died not far from there He had been sick for some time."