Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/634

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620 OLLIVIER OLMSTED its odor and flavor become highly offensive. It is commonly used, like pot pourri, metaphor- ically to denote a medley. OLLIVIER, Emile, a French politician, born in Marseilles, July 2, 1825. He is the son of Demosthene Ollivier, who was a member of the constituent assembly in 1848, and was in exile from Dec. 2, 1851, to 1860, on account of his opposition to the second empire. Smile was beginning to practise law in Paris at the outbreak of the revolution of 1848, when Ledru- Rollin appointed him commissary general at Marseilles, and he repressed the disorders in that city. Oavaignac made him prefect there, but he was subsequently transferred to the much less important department of Haute- Marne. He resumed practice as an advocate at Paris in 1849. In 185V he was returned to the legislative body as an opposition member for Paris, and was reflected in 1863. Early in 1867 he deserted his former political friends, declaring himself a liberal Bonapartist ; he was consequently defeated at the general election in Paris in 1869, but was returned for the depart- ment of Var. In December of the same year he was chosen by Napoleon to preside as min- ister of justice over the administration formed according to the new constitutional programme of the empire, and his official career began on Jan. 2, 1870. He incurred odium by his sub- serviency to the emperor, and by declaring (July 15), in reply to the opposition of Thiers to the projected war against Germany, that his administration assumed the responsibility of it " with a light heart ;" and he was often ridiculed on account of his pompous preten- sions to statesmanship and eloquence. He was obliged to resign on Aug. 9, after the first re- verses of the French, being succeeded by Pali- kao, and retired to the village of Pallone in northern Italy. Owing to his official position, he had been elected to the academy, April 7, 1870, as successor of Lamartine. In February, 1874, he returned to Paris to read to a com- mittee his opening speech, in which he extolled the fallen emperor and disparaged his oppo- nents. Guizot rebuked his language, and he was not allowed to take his seat in the acad- emy ; but after the death of Guizot in Septem- ber, he was not only admitted but actually made chancellor of the academy. His first wife, a daughter of Liszt the pianist, died in 1862. OLMSTED, a S. E. county of Minnesota, drained by the Zumbro and Root rivers and other streams; area, 720 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 19,793. The surface is uneven and the soil productive. It is traversed by the "Winona and St. Peter railroad. The chief productions in 1870 were 2,117,074 bushels of wheat, 340,223 of Indian corn, 996,364 of oats, 114,- 056 of barley, 126,668 of potatoes, 18,082 Ibs. of wool, 20,700 of hops, 654,455 of butter, and 31,319 tons of hay. There were 7,576 horses, 6,496 milch cows, 9,463 other cattle, 4,918 sheep, and 7,298 swine ; 2 manufactories of boots and shoes, 6 of carriages and wagons, 3 of cooperage, 1 of iron castings, 1 of curried leather, 1 of engines and boilers, 5 of saddlery and harness, 1 of sash and blinds, 3 of tin, cop- per, and sheet-iron ware, 3 breweries, 3 flour mills, and 3 saw mills. Capital, Rochester. OLMSTED, Denison, an American natural phi- losopher, born in East Hartford, Conn., June 18, 1791, died in New Haven, May 13, 1859. He graduated at Yale college in 1809, and almost immediately took charge of the union school at New London. In 1815 he became a tutor in Yale college, and in 1817 was appointed professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and geolo- gy in the university of North Carolina. Here he proposed and executed the first state geo- logical survey ever attempted in this country, the report of which was published in 1824 and 1825. In the latter year he was appointed professor of mathematics and natural philoso- phy in Yale college; in 1836 the professorship was divided at his request, and he retained the department of natural philosophy. Between 1831 and 1843 he published several text books on natural philosophy and astronomy, which were widely used. As early as 1830 he had published an elaborate theory of hail storms, which called forth much discussion, but finally received the general approbation of meteor- ologists. After the shower of shooting stars which fell in November, 1833, he investigated their history and phenomena for many years, till he had demonstrated their cosmical origin. He made a series of observations on the aurora borealis, the results of which are given in vol. viii. of the " Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge." He made numerous mechanical inventions, very few of which were secured by patent. One was the Olmsted stove. OLMSTED, Frederick Law, an American land- scape gardener, born in Hartford, Conn., April 26, 1822. He studied engineering and agricul- tural science at Yale college, and subsequently followed farming and horticulture as a busi- ness. In 1850 he made a pedestrian journey through Great Britain and portions of the continent, some of the results of which were embodied in " Walks and Talks of an Ameri- can Farmer in England" (New York, 1852). In 1852-'3 he travelled in the southern and southwestern states, examining the slave sys- tem of labor from the economical point of view, after which he published " A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States " (New York, 1856), " A Journey through Texas" (1857), and "A Journey in the Back Country" (1860). A resume of these works was issued in London under the title of " The Cotton Kingdom " (2 vols., 1861). In 1855 he made another tour through France, Italy, and Germany, during which he paid especial attention to parks and rural arts. In 1857 premiums were offered for the best plans for laying out the Central park of New York, and of 34 designs sent in the highest prize was awarded to that prepared by Mr. Olmsted in conjunction with Mr. Cal- vert Vaux. Mr. Olmsted was engaged during