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Rh 1816. During this period he wrote " Overton's Reports," which include the time from 1791 to 1817, and are of great value as a repository of the land laws of Tennessee. After his retirement from the bench he devoted himself principally to the care of his estate, which at the time of his death was the largest in the state. Judge Overton and Gen. Jackson were warm personal friends, and the lat- ter held the judge's opinion in such high regard that he seldom took any important step without consulting him. Overton's large landed interests often brought him in conflict with others, but no suspicion ever sullied his integrity.

OVIEDO, Juan Antonio (o-ve-ay'-do). South American clergvman, b. in New (iranada, 25 June, 1670 ; d. in the city of Mexico, 2 April, 1757. He studied in the University of Guatemala, where he was graduated with the degree of doctor in theolo- gy, and shortly afterward appointed professor of philosophy. He became a member of the Society of Jesus in Tepozatlan on 7 Jan., 1690. He taught philosophy in Mexico and theology in Guatemala, was procurator at Rome and Madrid, visitor of Manila, rector of Mexico, and twice provincial of the Jesuits of Mexico. Oviedo was a very volumi- nous writer on religious and theological subjects both in Spanish and Latin, and he left a great num- ber of unpublished manuscripts, which are in the library of the University of Mexico. His principal works bearing on the ecclesiastical history of Mexico and California are " Vida y virtudes hero- icas del Apostolico y Ven. P. Antonio Nunez" (Mexico, 1702); "Menologio de los Varones ilustres en Santidad de ia Provincia de la Compania de Jesus de la Nueva Espaila " (1727) ; "' Vida admir- able del Ven. P. Jose Vidal " (1753) ; " Vida y afanes Apostolicos del Ven. P. Juan de Ugarte, Misionero Apostolico de las Californias " (175:3) ; " El Apostol Mariano : Vida del Ven. P. Juan Maria Salvatierra de la Compaiiia de Jesus, Conquistador espiritual de las Californias " (1754) ; " Elogios de muchos Her- manos Coadjutores de la Compania de Jesus, que han florecido en las cuatro partes del Mundo " (2 vols., 1755); and "Vida y virtudes del P. Pedro Speciali, Jesuita de la Provincia de Mexico " (1727).

OVIEDO Y VALDEZ, Gonzalo Fernandez de (o-ve-ay'-do), Spanish historian, b. in Madrid in 1478 ; d. in Valladolid in 1557. In early life he was a page of John, the son of Ferdinand and Isabella, and as such accompanied the monarchs to the siege of Granada. After the infante's death in 1497 he entered the service of Frederic of Aragon, king of Naples, and in 1513 was appointed royal warden of the gold-mines of Castilla de Oro on the isth- mus. He was also a member of the comicil of Santa Maria la Antigua, but in 1515 returned to Spain to give the government information about the political and economical conditions of the American colonies, and, although he was appointed in 1526 governor of La Antigua, he returned soon again to Spain, where he contiimed to labor on the great historical work that he had begun in 1515. In 1535 he was appointed commander of the castle of Santo Domingo, which place he occupied till 1545, when he returned to Spain with the appoint- ment of historian of the Spanish Indies. He now gave himself to the completion of his history, of which a summary had appeared under the title of " La Historia de las cosas sucedidas en mi tiempo en America " (Toledo, 1526), and its first part ap- peared as " Historia general y natural de las Indias Occidentales " (Seville, 1535), while the revision of the entire work was finished in 1548. Its publica- tion, begun in VaUadolid in 1550, was interrupted by the author's death, and the first complete edi- tion was printed by order of the Royal historical academy (Madrid, 1851). This work has not gen- erally been judged correctly, on account of many inaccuracies in the historical part, and a strong prejudice against Columbus. But since its recent publication it became evident that it is one of the profoundest, and certainly the first, work on the natural history of America, for the treatment of which the author was specially qualified. It is embellished by illustrations that were drawn by the author, and some of his descriptions might serve as an example to modern naturalists. Par- tial translations of this work appeared in Italian by Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1550), and in Eng- lish by Richard P]den (1577). Two works, also translated by Ramusio without giving the author's name, " Tratado del palo Guayacan y del palo Santo como antidoto contra la sifilis" and " Navegacion del rio Maranon,'" are also attributed to Oviedo.

OWEN, Abraham, soldier, b. in Prince Edward county, Va., in 1769 ; d. in Tippecanoe county, Ind., 7 Nov., 1811. He emigrated to Kentucky in 1785, served in the Indian campaigns under Gen. James Wilkinson and Gen. Arthur St. Clair in 1791, and was with Col. John Hardin on the expedition to White river. He was surveyor of Shelby county in 1796, subsequently a magistrate, and colonel of the first militia regiment raised in Kentucky. He was in the legislature in 1798, a member of the State constitutional convention the next year, and state senator in 1810. He was the first to join Gen. William H. Harrison at Vincennes to resist the Indians under Tecumseh, was aide-de-camp to that officer, and was killed at Tippecanoe. A county in Kentucky is named in his honor.

OWEN, Goronwy, poet, b. in Llanfair Mathafarn Eithaf, Anglesea, North Wales, 13 Jan., 1723 ; d. at St. Andrews parish. Brunswick co., Va., between 1770 and 1780. His father, Owen Gronow, had some poetic taste, and his mother, Sian Parri, trained her son in his childhood. He was sent to a school not far from his home, and the celebrated Lewis Morris, having met him, sent him to Beaumaris, where he was a zealous scholar. When he was nineteen years of age his mother died, and, leaving home, he became one of the masters of the grammar-school at Pwllheli, in Caernarvonshire. Soon after this Mr. Morris and his brothers sent him to Jesus college, Oxford, where he made rapid progress in Greek and Latin and gave proof of poetical talent in Welsh to such, a degree that he was even then regarded as a rising Welsh bard. In 1745 he was ordained as a minister in the Church of England and obtained a small curacy in his native parish, but soon had to give way to a favorite of the bishop of Bangor. The next seven years of his life were full of cruel disappointments. His grand wish was to obtain a parish in Wales, but he was unsuccessful, and took a place at Oswestry, and then at Uppington in Shropshire. While there he wrote his celebrated poem, called "Cywydd y Farn " (the Day of Judgment), which is regarded as his masterpiece. Sub- sequently he served as curate at Walton in Lancashire, and then at Northolt near London. But his salary was so small that he could scarcely supply the wants of his family. Still he continued to write poems full of genius, which he sent to his generous patrons, the Morris brothers. While he was at Northolt he accepted an offer to go to the College of William and Mary in Virginia at a salary of £200 a year, and in the latter part of 1757 he sailed for this country. He married for his second wife Mrs. Clayton, a sister of Rev. Thomas Dawson, president of the college. Of his career