Pacific Railroad, work on which was begun here in 1864. Previous to its completion Omaha was the most northerly outfitting place for overland wagon trains to the ‘far West.’ From June 1 to November 1, 1898, the great Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition was held here. Consult: Savage and Bell, History of the City of Omaha (New York, 1894); Sorensen, Early History of Omaha (Omaha, 1876); Powell, Historic Towns of the Western States (New York, 1901).
O'MAHONY, ō̇-mä′ō̇-nē̇, John Francis (1816-77). An Irish politician, born at Kilbeheny, County Limerick. He received a good education at a classical school in Cork and at Trinity College, Dublin, though he never took a degree. Early in his career he became deeply impressed with a sense of the wrongs of Ireland, and practically his whole life was devoted to efforts to free her. He was a ‘repealer,’ but was more radical than O'Connell, and in 1845 seceded with the ‘Young Irelanders.’ He joined in the insurrection of Smith O'Brien in 1848, and after its failure fled to France, where he lived for some years in great poverty. In 1852 he went to New York, and there in 1858 was a member of the committee that sent a delegate to James Stephens in Dublin with proposals for the founding of the secret society later known as the Fenian Brotherhood. O'Mahony was one of the most active and influential promoters of the organization, and was for a time its president. In his later years he had a hard struggle to secure the bare means for subsistence. He died in New York in 1877, and his body was taken back to Ireland and buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, near Dublin, with great honors. In 1857 he published The History of Ireland by Geoffrey Keating, D.D., Translated from the Gaelic and Copiously Annotated. Consult Webb, Irish Biography (Dublin, 1888), and articles in the Celtic Magazine (New York).
OMALIUS D'HALLOY, ō̇′mȧ′lē̇-ụs′ dȧ′lwä′, Jean Baptiste Julien, Baron d' (1783-1875). A Belgian administrator and geologist, born at Liège. He was appointed successively sub-intendant of the Arrondissement of Dinant (1814), general secretary of the Province of Liège (1815), and Governor of the Province of Namur (1815), and in 1848 was elected to the Senate. Geology was his avocation, and in recognition of his scientific work he was elected in 1816 a member of the Academy of Brussels, and in 1842 a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris. In addition to many contributions to the bulletins of the Academy of Brussels and to technical journals, he published a Description géologique des Pays-Bas (1828); Eléments de géologie (1831; 3d ed. 1839); Introduction à la géologie (1833); Coup d'œil sur la géologie de la Belgique (1842); and other volumes.
O'MAL′LEY, Charles. The hero of Charles Lever's novel of the same name. The original of the character was an officer in an Irish regiment, Francis G. Keogh, who came to America after the appearance of the book, and is buried in Toronto, Canada.
O'MALLEY, Grace. An Irish chieftainess. See Grainne Ni-Mhaille.
O'MALLEY, Thadeus (1796-1877). An Irish Roman Catholic priest and political writer, born at Garryowen, near Limerick. After his ordination in 1819 he went to America. In 1827 he was suspended on account of his ecclesiastical views, and returned to Dublin to be assistant priest of the cathedral. The first object of his pamphleteering was to obtain a poor law for Ireland, the second to improve the national school system, of which he published his opinion in A Sketch of the State of Popular Education in Holland, Prussia, Belgium, and France (2d ed. 1840). Founder of the Social Economist (1845), he used a later newspaper which he started, called the Federalist, for the advocacy of his views, which differed from O'Connell's in their disapproval of complete severance from England and belief that recourse to arms was necessary to accomplish the ideal federal union. O'Malley tried unsuccessfully to unite O'Connell's Old Ireland Party with his own Young Irelanders, and after 1870 he was a conspicuous home rule advocate, but, though orthodox in faith, was frequently rebuked by his superiors in the Church for the freedom with which he criticised their discipline in such works as his Harmony in Religion (1870). His last book was Home Rule on the Basis of Federation (1873).
OMAN, ō-män′. An independent sultanate occupying the southeastern end of the peninsula of Arabia. It reaches along the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the Arabian Sea from El Hasa to the Hadramaut region (Map: Asia, E 6). The area is about 80,000 square miles. The boundaries in the interior are very indefinite, the authority of the ruler of Oman being recognized only over a small portion of the territory nominally embraced in the sultanate. The region along the coast is very mountainous, rising in its highest peaks probably to about 10,000 feet. Behind the mountain chains the country gradually passes into the great desert of Arabia. The most favorable part of the country is in the central valleys, which are characterized by a temperate climate and rich vegetation. The chief products are dates, which constitute the main article of export, and other fruits. Pearls and mother-of-pearl and fish are also of some commercial importance. The chief port is Muscat (q.v.). The exports and imports of Oman amounted in 1900-01 to $1,359,893 and $3,365,883, respectively. The imports consist of rice, cotton goods, coffee, sugar, silk, arms, ammunition, etc.
The population is estimated at 1,500,000, and consists of several tribes of Arab origin, partly nomadic. The negro element is very numerous. At present Oman is practically under the protection of Great Britain. A British resident is stationed at Muscat, the capital.
History. Muscat was taken by the Portuguese in 1508 and remained in their hands until the middle of the seventeenth century, when the Arabs of the interior secured possession of it. The imams or sultans of Muscat afterwards made extensive conquests in Eastern Africa, including Zanzibar, Mombasa, and Quiloa. Oman was at the climax of its power and commercial prosperity in the first half of the nineteenth century, when the authority of the imams or sultans of Muscat extended over the Persian territories of Laristan and Mogistan, the islands of Kishm, Bahrein, and Ormuz, the important town of Bender Abbas, part of the coast of Baluchistan, and a long strip of African coastland, including Zanzibar, Mombasa, and Quiloa, together with the
