Simon Peter Oliver, Jr. was born in 1844 in Ulysses in Tompkins County, New York. His parents were Simon, Sr. and Mary (Wright) Oliver.

By 1850, he was shown as living in Lenawee County, Michigan where he married Sarah Eleanor Williams "Ella" Bombeck in 1882. She had been born in 1844 in Warren, Marion County, Missouri.

In the 1900 census, Simon, Jr. was listed as a gold miner in Portland, Ouray County, Colorado. Also in that year, he and Sarah were divorced on November 15.