Olin Family Society

John OLIN, our progenitor.

John Olin, the first of his name and race in America, settled in the vicinity of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, about the year 1700. He was a native of Wales, and is said to have come to this country when but 14 years of age. We may never become familiar with the circumstances that attended him on his arrival here, or the object that induced him to leave home and native land, and seek one among strangers, in a new and strange country, which at that time was but little known.
Of his personal appearance tradition tells us that he was of medium stature and had red hair. Like the great majority of his posterity, he was a tiller of the soil. He selected his home near the headwaters of the beautiful Narragansett, and in sight of its surrounding groves and pleasant prospects he lived and reared his family. He was married in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, to Susanah Spencer, October 4, 1708, by Thomas Fry, Justice. She was a daughter of John and Susanah Spencer, who emigrated from Wales. The genealogy of two of their children, John and Henry, come down to us with unvarying accuracy. How many other children they had is not known for a certainty, or that he was ever married more than once.
John Olin the first, died at Newport, Rhode Island, June 10, 1725, aged 61 years, which makes his birth occurring in the year 1664.
Biographical Sketches and Records of the Ezra OLIN Family (1892) by George NYE