Oberly was born in Ohio in 1839 or 1840 and lived in Memphis, Tennessee, and Cairo, Illinois, before coming to Houston, Texas, in 1859 or 1860.
[1] At the beginning of the U.S. Civil War, Oberly was one of the first men in Harris County, Texas, to volunteer for service.
[1] Postwar, he returned to Texas, where he worked for the Galveston News, "off and on for some years."
[1] A funeral service was held at Shearn Memorial Church in Galveston, but the weather being so disagreeable, the funeral cortege was composed of streetcars because "the fearful condition of the streets" made it "impossible to get a hearse and carriages to the cemetery."
The local newspaper called it "a novel sight indeed" as they moved through the rain to the cemetery.