Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/593

Rh consecrated bishop of Flaviopolis inpartihus mfide- lium in the College of All Hallows on 3 Feb., and sailed for the United States in March. For his vicariate, which embraced the territory of Nevada and the upper half of California, he had only four priests, but he soon increased the number. Two churches were built in Virginia City, and subse- quently others in Downieville, Forest Hill, Grass Valley, Mendocino, and Weaverville. In August, 1863, he founded convents of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Marysville, and of the Sisters of Mercy in Grass Valley. In 1868 he was made bishop of Grass Valley, a new see that was formed out of his vicariate, but he resigned in 1884.

O'CONNELL, Jeremiah Joseph, clergyman, b. in County Cork, Ireland, 21 Nov., 1821. After studying in Cork he entered the Seminary of Charleston, S. C, in 1840. He was ordained priest in 1844, stationed in Savannah, and after- ward transferred to Beaufort, and then to Co- lumbia, S. C. His mission embraced half the state. In 1857 he erected St. Mary's college and obtained a charter for it, and it flourished many years until it was destroyed in the burning of Co- lumbia in 1865. He lectured throughout the state during his pastorate of twenty-three years, and received more than 300 converts into his church, acting at the same time as president of St. Mary's college. In 1858 he began to organize missions in the interior of the state, beginning with Anderson, where he built a church and parsonage and opened a school. He established a temperance society and wrought a change for the better in the habits of the rougher elements among his people. In 1871 his health failed, and he was transferred to the missions in western North Carolina. In 1872 he purchased a large estate between Charlotte and Dallas and conveyed it to Bishop (now Cardinal) Gibbons, for the establishment of a religious and educational institution ; and he was instrumental in founding the Benedictine monastery and College of St. Mary of Help. Father O'Connell is a member of the Benedictine order. He is the author ot " Catholicity in the Carolinas and Georgia, Leaves of its History " (New York, 1878).

O'CONNOR, John, Canadian statesman, b. in Boston, Mass., in January, 1824; d. in Cobourg, Ont., 3 Nov., 1887. His parents came from Ireland to the United States in 1823 and resided in Boston till 1828, when they removed to Maidstone, Essex, Ont. Their son received his early education there, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1854. He was also a member of the Michigan bar, and was appointed a queen's counsel in 1873. He was reeve of the town of Windsor, warden of Essex for three years, and for twelve years chairman of the board of education of Windsor. He was an un- successful candidate for the legislative assembly of Canada in 1861, but was elected and sat for a short period in 1863. He was sent from Essex to the Dominion parliament in 1867 and 1872, and was elected for Russell at the general election in 1878. Mr. O'Connor was president of the council in Sir John A. Macdonald's administration from 2 July, 1872, till 4 March, 1873, minister of inland revenue from 4 March till 1 July, 1873, and post- master-general from the latter date until the res- ignation of the government on 5 Nov., 1873. He was again appointed president of the council, 17 Oct., 1878, which portfolio he held till his resigna- tion, 15 Jan., 1880, when he became postmaster- general. He was appointed secretary of state, 8 Nov., 1880, postmaster-general again, 20 May, 1881, and resigned in May, 1882. He became a commis- sioner to revise the statutes of Canada, 13 Nov., , judge of the high court of justice of Ontario, 11 Sept., 1884, and a connnissioner for revising the statutes of that province in 1885.

O'CONNOR, Michael, R. C. bishop, b. near Cork, Ireland, 27 Sept., 1810; d. in Woodstock, Md., 18 Oct., 1872. He received his preparatory education in Qiieenstown, was sent in 1824 to an ecclesiastical semi- nary in France, and finished his theo- logical course in the College of the prop- aganda. Rome. He won his doctor's cap in a public disputa- tion that was long remembered for its brilliancy, and Car- dinal Wiseman.who was then in Rome, predicted a great career for him. He was ordained priest on 1 June, 1833, and appointed professor of sacred scripture in the Irish college, of which he was subsequently vice-rector. In 1834 he returned to Ireland and was made pastor of Fermoy. He was invited by Bishop Kenrick to Philadelphia in 1839 and appointed professor in the ecclesiastical semi- nary of St. Charles Boromeo, of which he was made president soon afterward. While he discharged the duties of this office he attended the missions of Norristown and West Chester, Pa., and built the church of St. Francis Xavier in Fairmount. In 1841 he was transferred to Pittsburg and made vicar-general of the western part of the diocese of Philadelphia. He established schools and reading- rooms, organized the Catholic institute in the parish of St. Paul, of which he was pastor, and built several churches. He had long desired to become a mem- ber of the Society of Jesus, but as a student of the Propaganda he could not take such a step without the consent of the pope. He set out for Rome in 1843 to get the required permission. Meanwhile the diocese of Pittsburg had been created, his name had been sent forward, and when he knelt before Gregory XVI. he was forbidden to rise un- til he consented to become bishop of the new see, the pope at the same time saying : " You shall be bishop first and Jesuit after." Pie was consecrated by Cardinal Fransoni on 15 Aug.. went to Ireland, and returned to Pittsburg in December, bringing with him some candidates for the priesthood and Sisters of INIercy. His diocese had a Roman Catho- lic population of 25,000 and fourteen priests with only two religious institutions. He held his first diocesan synod in 1844, and the same year opened a church for colored Roman Catholics, established a boys' academy and a seminary for young ladies under the care of the Sisters of Mercy, founded two temperance societies, began to publish the " Catholic," and founded St. Michael's seminary for the education of candidates for the ministry. In 1846 he made his first episcopal visitation and introduced the oi'der of St. Benedict for the first time into the United States. In 1852 he again visited Europe and persuaded a colony of Passion- ists to return with him, who opened their first house in the United States in Pittsburg. In 1853 he published a series of letters to the governor of Pennsylvania on the common-school system. The same year the see of Pittsburg was di^'ided and