Oliver Ewing Herbert

by Ernest Mae Seaholm
January 2004

Oliver Ewing Herbert was the son of Nathaniel Herbert and his 2nd wife Mrs. Frances O. Pettus Herbert. He was born about 1838 in Alabama or Mississippi. In 1860 he was living with his half-brother William J. Herbert in Colorado County. The Herbert family was an influential family in Colorado County and Texas. His half-brother C. C. Herbert was one of the Texas representatives to the Confederate Congress. C. C. Herbert recorded his return to Texas after the fall of the Confederacy recounting his narrow escapes from being captured by Union forces. This document is in the University of Texas archives. Oliver was also the half-brother of James T. Pettus who kept a diary of his days in Company F, of Terry’s Texas Rangers. Pettus referred to Oliver five times in the diary and gave the number of Oliver’s pistol. It was probably Oliver Herbert who brought the diary back to Texas where it remained with descendents of the Herbert family until it was donated to Nesbitt Memorial Library by descendents. (See Pettus Diary on Nesbitt Memorial Library website.)

Oliver Herbert enlisted in Co. F, 8th Tex Cav. on Sept. 10, 1861. According to his service record he was ill in Nashville, TN on Nov 7, 1862.

After the war, Oliver Herbert returned to Colorado County where he married Lydia Alice Harbert, the daughter of William Harbert and Mary Waddill Harbert. Four children were born in Texas: Lamar Herbert, Earle Herbert, Oliver Ewing Herbert, Jr., and James Pettus Herbert. Oliver Herbert was listed as a doctor and owned land in the J. Haddon Survey in Colorado County. In the 1870’s Oliver Herbert sold his land in Colorado County and moved to Jeffersonville, Tazewell Co., VA. Three more children were born in Virginia: Thomas Hicks Herbert, Web Harcourt Herbert (Daniel Webster Harcourt Herbert) and Wilmer Lancaster Herbert.

According to the Colorado Citizen of August 23, 1883, Dr. Oliver Herbert died of Bright’s Disease in Jeffersonville on Aug. 10, 1883 and was buried there.

Sources: 1860 Census and 1880 Census; Deed Records of Colorado County, TX—Volumes Q, O, H, and U; probate record of Nathaniel Herbert in Colorado County, TX; Family File in Nesbitt Memorial Library; service record from National Archives