Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/610

570 invaluable to those scholars that have studied the origin of the negro nations.

OLDHAM, John, pilgrim, b. in England, about 1600; d. on Block island. R. I., in July, 1636. He came to Plymouth in 1628, and attempted in 1624 to set up a separate manner of worship and alter the form of government, but was driven out of the colony, and went to Nantasket and afterward to Cape Ann. He did not remain long in either place, but engaged in trading between New Eng- land and Virginia. He was an enterprising mer- chant, purchasing a grant of the lands between the Charles and Saugus rivers, and carrying on a large trade with the Indians. He went to England in 1628 to lay a commercial scheme before the Massachusetts" company, but they, fearing that he would interest others in his opinions, refused to treat with him, denied his title to the land that he had purchased, and forbade his trading for beaver with the Indians. He subsequently made Water- town his residence, and was elected a representative in the general court in 1632, when the popular branch was first instituted. In 1633, with three companions, he journeyed from Boston to the Con- necticut river, following the Indian trails and lodging in their cabins. He was re-elected as rep- resentative from Watertown in 1634. Capt. Old- ham traded chiefly with the Narragansett Indians. While visiting Block island he was murdered by
 * some Narragansetts that happened to be among

the Pequots there. The Indians seized his vessel and sailed away, but they were overtaken by Capt. John Gallop (^y. v.), and all were slain except those who leaped overboard and one who was made a captive. The murder of Oldham was a chief inci- dent in bringing on the Pequot war.

OLDHAM, William, soldier, b. in Berkeley county, Va., about 1745 ; d. near the present site of Greenville, Ohio, 4 Nov., 1791. He served as a captain in the Continental army, resigned in 1779, and settled on the Ohio river. He was a leader in the conflicts with the Indians, joined Gen. Arthur St. Clair's expedition at the head of a regiment of Kentucky militia, and was killed at the surprise near the source of the Maumee river.

OLDMIXON, John, English author, b. in Bridgewater. England, in 1673 ; d. in London, Eng- land, 9 July, 1742. He is supposed to have visited this country. Besides plays, poems, and historical and critical writings that display violent party spirit, he published " The British Empire in Amer- ica, Containing the History of the Discovery, Set- tlement, Progress, and Present State of the British Colonies on the Continent and Islands of America " with maps (2 vols., London, 1708).

OLDS, Gamaliel Smith, educator, b. in Tol- land, Mass., 11 Feb., 1777; d. in Circleville, Ohio, 13 June, 1848. He was graduated at Williams in 1801, was tutor there till 1805, and then profes- sor of mathematics and natui-al philosophy till 1808. After studying theology for two years under Dr. Stephen West, at Stockbridge, Mass., he went to Andover seminary, and was graduated with the first class in 1810. He was ordained at Greenfield, Mass., 19 Nov., 1813, preached there for three years, and then resigned in order to accept a professor- ship in Middlebury college, but did not do so, ow- ing to a disagreement with the officers. He was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in the University of Vermont from 1819 till 1821, then in Amherst college till 1825, and afterward for several years in the University of Georgia. In 1841 he settled in Circleville, Ohio, where he preached frequently till his death, which was caused by a carriage accident. He published an " Inaugural Oration " (1806) ; •' The Substance of Several Sermons on Episcopacy and Presbyterian Parity " (1818) ; and " Statement of Facts Relative to the Appointment to the Office of Professor of Chemistry in Middlebury College" (1818).

O'LEARY, Cornelius M., educator, b. in Ire- land about 1840. He was brought to the United States at an early age, and received his education in Montreal, Canada, at Fordham, N. Y., and in the University of Notre Dame du Lac, Ind. He was graduated at the medical department of the Uni- versity of the city of New York in 1864, became professor of logic and metaphysics, and lecturer on physiology in Manhattan college, and afterward filfed the chair of Greek and Latin, besides lec- turing on various scientific subjects. He has writ- ten much on philosophical, economical, and scien- tific topics for the " International Review," the " Catholic Quarterly," and other periodicals, lec- tured before Roman Catholic societies, and read many papers at the annual meetings of the New York state university convocation.

OLID, Cristobal de (o-leed'), Spanish adventu- rer, b. in Saragossa in 1492 ; d. in Naco, Honduras in 1542. He was brought up in the house of Diego Velasquez, governor of Cuba, and was sent by him in 1518 to the relief of Juan de Grijalva, but, hurri- canes having destroyed his ship, he returned to Cuba, and in the following December joined in Trinidad Ilernan Cortes, with whom he sailed on 10 Jan., 1519. He took an active part in the con- quest of New Spain, and maintained Cortes's au- thority over the soldiers at the time of the expedi- tion of Panfilo de Narvaez. He was among the Spaniards that escaped from Mexico in the " Noche triste," 1 July, 1520, and fought gallantly in the battle of Otumba on 8 July. During the siege of Mexico he had a quarrel with Pedro de Alvarado, and refused to assist him in the attack on the causeway of the city, thus defeating the Spanish. He then retired to Coyohuacan, but through the entreaties of Cortes returned to assist him in the siege of Mexico. In 1523 Cortes sent him to con- quer Honduras, but, having entered the harbor of Havana in quest of supplies and horses, he resolved, by the suggestion of Velasquez, to proclaim his in- dependence. Landing at Puerto Caballos, he con- quered Honduras after a short campaign, and" founded, on 3 May, 1524, the establishment of Tri- unfo de la Cruz. Cortes, being informed of his defection, sent Francisco Las Casas against him with two vessels. Olid was defeated, but a storm destroyed Las Casas's vessels, and a part of the latter's soldiers enlisted with the former. But Las Casas finally captured Olid by surprise, and had him beheaded at Naco, according to the version of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of Olid's companions, in his " Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva Espaila." but Herrera, in his " Novus orbis," asserts that Gil Gonzalez de Avila, who with an- other expedition experienced the same fate as Las Casas, excited, together with the latter, a rebellion among the soldiers, and they murdered Olid.

OLIER DE VERNEUIL, Jean Jacques, French clergyman, b. in Paris, 20 Sept., 1608 ; d. there, 2 April, 1657. He was the second son of Jacques Olier, one of the secretaries to the king's council, and in his youth was given the abbey of Pibrac, in Auvergne. Here he sheltered Vincent de Paul, and, at the latter's suggestion, he engaged in missionary work in Auvergne. In 1640 he refused the bishopric of Chalons-sur-Saone, but two years later he accepted the appointment of vicar of the Saint Sulpice parish in Paris, which he thoroughly reformed, founding in 1645 the famous