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Waters” (1859); “The Career, Last Voyage, and Fate of Sir John Franklin” (1860); “The Past and Future of British Relations in China” (1860); and “Japanese Fragments” (1860).
OSBORNE, a N. county of Kansas, intersected by the S. fork of Solomon river; area, 900 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 33. The surface is rolling and consists mostly of prairies; the soil is good. Capital, Osborne.
OSBORNE, Lord Sydney Godolphin, an English philanthropist, born Feb. 5, 1808, died in 1873. He was the third son of the first Lord Godolphin, and brother of the present duke of Leeds. He graduated at Oxford in 1830, and became rector of Stoke Pogis, and in 1841 of Durweston, Dorsetshire. He has published “Gleanings in the West of Ireland” (London, 1850), the result of a visit to Ireland during the famine of 1847; “Lady Eva, her Last Days, a Tale” (1851); “Scutari and its Hospitals” (1855), which he visited and aided in improving; and many brief essays for the promotion of various charities.
OSCANS. See Italic Races and Languages.
OSCAR I., Joseph Francis, king of Sweden and Norway, born in Paris, July 4, 1799, died in Stockholm, July 8, 1859. He was a son of the French general Bernadotte, afterward king of Sweden, his mother being Désirée Clary, the sister of Mme. Joseph Bonaparte. He began his education at the Louis le Grand college, and was but 11 years old when his father was elected by the Riksdag of Sweden crown prince, as future successor of Charles XIII. He soon acquired a perfect command of the Swedish language, and showed remarkable proficiency in literature, science, and the fine arts, especially music. Some of his songs, hymns, and marches are still performed in Sweden. He gave particular attention to politics and the military art, and in 1818 entered the university of Upsal, on which occasion he was elected its chancellor. He had renounced Roman Catholicism to embrace the national or Lutheran creed. He published, besides various essays, a work “On Penal Laws and Establishments” (1841), which had a large circulation throughout Europe. On his accession to the throne, March 8, 1844, he adopted liberal measures, and caused bills to be presented to the Riksdag for the removal of the civil disabilities of the Jews, the freedom of manufactures and commerce, and parliamentary reform. The latter project led to violent and repeated discussions, and was baffled by the opposition of the nobility. He was more successful in his exertions for religious and temperance reforms and the improvement of the social condition of women. On the outbreak of the eastern war, in concert with the king of Denmark, he issued a declaration of armed neutrality; and on Nov. 21, 1855, he concluded a defensive treaty with France and England. Constitutional disease, increased by grief for the death of his second son Gustavus in 1852, led him, on Sept. 25, 1857, to resign his authority into the hands of his eldest son, Charles, as regent. Oscar married in 1823 Josephine Maximilienne Eugénie, daughter of Eugène Beauharnais, the son of the empress Josephine. Besides Charles XV., who succeeded him, he left two sons, Oscar Frederick, duke of Ostrogothia, and Augustus, duke of Dalecarlia, and two grandsons.
OSCAR II., king of Sweden and Norway, third son of the preceding, born Jan. 21, 1829. He succeeded his brother Charles XV. on Sept. 18, 1872. He has continued the policy of his predecessors, endeavoring to enlarge the liberty and increase the prosperity of all classes of the people. He has carried out measures of reform pending at the time of his brother's death, especially the law abolishing stamp duties on journals. He married, June 6, 1857, Sophia, daughter of William, duke of Nassau, and has four children: Gustavus, Oscar, Charles, and Eugene.
OSCEOLA. I. A N. W. central county of the S. peninsula of Michigan, drained by Muskegon river and branches of the Manistee; area, 576 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 2,093. The surface is level, and along the streams swampy; the soil is fertile. It is traversed by the Flint and Père Marquette and the Grand Rapids and Indiana railroads. The chief productions in 1870 were 4,763 bushels of wheat, 1,127 of rye, 6,087 of Indian corn, 9,532 of oats, 653 of barley, 37,467 of potatoes, 16,490 lbs. of butter, and 2,532 tons of hay. The value of live stock was $65,767. Capital, Hersey. II. A N. W. county of Iowa, bordering on Minnesota, and watered by Rock river, a tributary of the Big Sioux, and by the Little Sioux; area, 432 sq. m.; returned as having no population in 1870. The surface consists of undulating and fertile prairies. It is traversed by the Sioux City and St. Paul railroad.
OSCEOLA (Seminole, As-se-he-ho-lar), a chief of the Seminole Indians, born in Georgia in 1804, died at Fort Moultrie, near Charleston, Jan. 30, 1838. He was the son of an Indian trader, an Englishman named Powell, and his mother was the daughter of a chief. In 1808 he removed with his mother to Florida, where he became influential among the Seminoles. In 1835, while on a visit to Fort King, his wife was claimed as a slave, and carried off as such. Osceola, angry because of this and other injuries, made use of threatening expressions, and was seized by order of Gen. Thompson, the United States Indian agent, and put in irons, but released after a very short imprisonment. He lay in wait for Gen. Thompson for weeks and months, and at length finding him outside of the fort, Dec. 28, killed him and four other whites. This was the beginning of the second Seminole war. Osceola immediately took command of a band of Indians and fugitive slaves, who on the same day had surprised and massacred Major Dade and a detachment of 110 soldiers. On Dec. 31, with 200 followers, he encountered Gen. Clinch and 600 Americans
