Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/248

206 OATES, William Calvin, soldier, b. in Pike (now Bullock) county, Ala., 30 Nov., 1837. He is self-educated, and was admitted to [jractiee in 1858, becoming a successful lawyer. He entered the Confederate army as captain of the 15th Ala- bama infantry in July, 1861, was appointed colonel in May, 1803, and assigned to the command of his old regiment, and subsequently the 48th Ala- bama infantry was placed under his command. During the war he was repeatedly wounded, los- ing his right arm in front of Richmond, in August, 1864. Col. Gates was a delegate to the na- tional Democratic convention in 1868, was a mem- ber of the hoHse of representatives of Alabama in 1870-'l, and a member of the amstitutional con- vention of the state in 1875, being chairman of the judiciary committee. He was a member of the 47th and six succeeding congresses, and subse- quently was elected governor of Alabama for three terms. He was appointed brigadier-general of vol- unteers in Mav. 1898, in the war with Spain.

OCHILTREE, Thomas Peck, lawyer, b. in Nacogdoches, Tex., 36 Oct., 1845. He was edu- cated at the university of his native town, and was admitted to the Te.xas bar. lie served as a private in the Confederate army, and before the close of the war he was a member of Gen. Longstreet's staff. At the battle of Sailor's Creek he was wounded and taken prisoner. He was commissioner of emi- gration for Te.xas in Europe in 1870-3, U. S. marshal for three years, and a member of the house in the 48th congress, having been elected in 1882 as a Republican by a large majority. Col. Ochiltree has spent much time in Europe, and is well known in society and on the race- courses of England and the United States.

O'CONNOR, Denis, R. C. bishop, b. at Picker- ing, Ontario, 28 March, 1841. In 1852 he entered St. Michael's college, Toronto, the very year the college was started, and when a two-story brick house was the pioneer building of the present flue .structures of St. Michael's and Assumption colleges, under the Basilian fathers. He was the first student to enter St. Michael's. He also studied at the Basilian college at Annonay, Prance, and was ordained a priest at Toronto in 1863. He was pastor at Sandwich and Aniherst- burg, and at the same time professor and presi- dent of Assumption college at Sandwich for twen- ty years prior to 1890. He was appointed bishop of London, Ontario, in 1890, and was consecrated at Ontario, 19 Oct., 1890, succeeding Dr. Walsh, who was appointed archbishop of Toronto.

O'CONNOR, Richard Alphonsus, R. C. bishop, b. in Listowel, Ireland, on Easter Sunday, 1838. lie immigrated to Canada in 1841. In 1852 his father sent him to St. Michael's college, Toronto, to prepare for the |)riesthood in accordance with his own choice, where he remained until 1858, studying the classics and philosophy, pursuing his theological studies at the Grand seminary of Mont- real. In 1861 he was ordained a priest by Arch- bishop Lynch, and was appointed assistant priest at Toronto Gore and pastor there in 1862. In 1865 he was appointed pastor of St. Patrick's church at Niagara Falls, and in 1868 of St. James's church at Adjala. In 1870 he became dean of Bar- rie, where he labored for eighteen years and built the fine church and convent in that town. In January, 1889, he was appointed bishop of Pe- terborough, and was consecrated in May. Dr. O'Connor was an assi-stant at the ecclesiastical council of Quebec in 1868 ; also that of Toronto in 1875 ; and has been a member of the diocesan council of Toronto since 1870.

O'CONOR, John Francis Xavier, clergy- man, b. in New York city, 1 Aug., 1852. He was graduated at the College of St. Francis Xavier in 1872, and became a member of the.Society of Jesus the same year. He went to Europe to finish his studies in 1874, and returned in 1879 to assume the duties of professor successively in West Park college, Georgetown university, and Boston col- lege. Father O'Conor delivered lectures on cunei- form Assyrian in Boston before any school of that language had been established in the United States. In 1884 he secured a cast of the cuneiform Baby- lonian cylinder of Nebuchadnezzar in the New York museum, and a year later he published a work containing a fac-simile of the cylinder, its history, and the cuneiform text, with a transcrip- tion and a translation (1885). He has also pub- lished "Something to Read" (Georgetown, 1880); "Lyric and Dramatic Poetry" (Boston, 1883); "Reading and the Mind " (Woodstock, 1884; en- larged ed., 1885) : " Garrueci's History of Christian Art "(1886); "Visits to Holy Places," continued in the series of the " Messenger of the Sacred Heart" (Philadelphia, 1885-8): and "The Prac- tice of Humility" (New Yoik, 1888).

O'GARA, Mantin, Canadian lawyer, b. at Kil- more, Ireland, 28 Oct., 1836, where he was edu- cated. Removing to Canada in 1857, he entered the University of Toronto, where he graduated LL. B. Called to the bar in 1861 he began prac- tice at Ottawa, and speedily attained a good posi- tion in all branches of his profession. Since 1863 he has held the office of police magistrate at Ot- tawa. Appointed a queen's counsel in 1880. he was elected a bencher of the Law society in 1893. In 1892, on the organization of a law faculty by the University of Ottawa, Mr. O'Gara was called to a chair therein, and later received from the univcrsitv the degree of LL. D.

O'GORMAN, Thomas, R. C. bishop, b. in Bos- ton, 1 Jlay, 1843. His family moved first to Chi- cago and then to St. Paul, and from the latter place, after studying the classics, he was sent by Bishop Cretin of St. Paul to France, where he en- tered the ecclesiastical seminary of Meximeux. at Ain. Returning to St. Paul, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Grace in 186.5. His first pa- rochial work was done as assistant priest at the cathedral of St. Paul, and next at Rochester, Minn., from 1866 to 1885. In the latter year he went to New York and joined the missionary Congregation of St. Paul tlie Apostle, founded by Father Hecker. Returning to St. Paul, he became rector of the College of St, Paul from 1885 to 1890. In the latter year he was appointed professor of church history in the Catholic university of America at Washington, D. C, and served there until 1896, when he was made bishop of Sioux Falls, S. Dak. Bishop O'Gorman was consecrated at St. Patrick's church, Washington, in April, 1896, by the papal delegate. Cardinal SatoUi,

OLMSTED, Marlin Edgar, congressman, b. in Potter county. Pa., in 1853, and was educated in the commcm schools. After serving as a clerk for sev- eral years in the auditor-general's office of his na- tive state he studied law, was admitted to the bar of Dauphin county in 1878, and later to practice in