John Oberly spent his boyhood days on the farm his father inherited from his father, and after the death of his father he and his brother George Henry inherited the farm of about three hundred and sixty acres in Bethlehem Township. John Oberly lived in the new buildings on the northern part of the place, and took charge of the working of the northern half of the estate. This section was a portion of what has been known since the days of the first settlers as the dry lands; it was entirely devoid of springs, and consequently the question of water supply became at once a serious question. Three large cisterns were built for the storage water caught from roofs of buildings, and a well one hundred and forty feet deep was dug and equipped with a bucket and windlass for hoisting the water. He was a man of industrious and economical habits, and made the very best efforts to give his children a good start in life.