[ O ] - Pig's Eye's Notepad - [ O ]
OAKES, CHARLES H. - A resident in St. Paul in 1850. [WM269]
OAKES, DAVID - A resident in St. Paul in 1850. [WM269]
OAKES, GEORGE - Born in 1833 in Wisconsin. A clerk in St. Paul in 1850. [MN50]
ODELL, THOMAS S. - A native of New York, he came to Fort Snelling in 1841 as a soldier in the 1st Infantry. He mustered out
of service in 1845, and the following year he settled in St. Paul. He was a chainman to the surveyor who laid out the town plat in 1847. In 1850, he moved to what is now West St. Paul, and built what he claimed was the first house built on that side of the river. He was married to Elizabeth Williams of Red Rock. His real estate holdings were valued at $1,000 in 1850. Living in his household in 1850 were Mary S. (1833 MN), and Elizabeth (1836 MN). [WM158, MN49, MN50]
O'LARY, THOMAS - Born in 1814 in Ireland. A laborer in St. Paul in 1850. [MN50]
OLD BETS - A full blooded Sioux of the M'dewakontonwan tribe, her Sioux name was "Aza-ya-man-ka-wan" ("Berry Picker").
She was born near Mendota in 1788, and at the time of her death was only 75, although she was supposed to be 100. She was married to "Ma-za-sa-gia"
("Iron Sword") who died a few years later at Mendota. She had several children, including Ta-opi. She was a sister of One-Legged Jim and He-in-da-koo.
Old Bets lived her entire life in the St. Paul area, and was much photographed by tourists. She was very proud that her picture was seen all over the world in the albums of St. Paul visitors. She subsisted on a small charge for taking her picture, and by begging food from settlers who all knew her as a cheerful and kind woman, and who always obliged. During the Sioux war, she was especially kind to white prisoners, and was converted to Christianity shortly before her death. Her many friends in the community paid for a Christian burial when she passed away in 1873. [WM252-4]
OLDHAM, FRANCIS - He was married 14 July 1849 at St. Paul to Miss Betsey Jackson. [MPv1#16]
OLFALT, HENRY I. [HARVEY J.] - Born in 1826 in Kentucky. A St. Paul resident in 1850. His real estate holdings were valued at $1,000 in 1850. He and his wife Hannah (1828 OH) had at least one child: Oscar (Mar 1850 IL). [MN50]
OLIVIER, FREDERICK - A Canadian by birth, he came to St. Paul as a clerk and agent for Louis Robert. He served in 1850 on the first grand jury called in Ramsey County. He married Adele DeLord in Little Canada in 1863. [WM168, LR2311]
OLIVIER, LOUIS M. - Born in 1825 in Canada. A clerk in St. Paul in 1850. He was married on 16 Sep 1850 at St. Paul to Alphonsine LaChapelle. [MPv2#22]
OLMSTED, DAVID - Born in 1822 in Fairfax, VT, in 1822, and came west to the mineral region of Wisconsin at the age of 16, where he worked at mining. In 1840, he and his brother, Page, moved to northern Iowa, and settled among the Winnebago at a place called Monona. They lived there until 1844, when he sold the claim and embarked on the Indian trade near Fort Atkinson, where he was a clerk for Ewing & Ewing. At the age of 24, in 1845, he was elected to the convention to frame a constitution for Iowa. In 1847, he entered into partnership with Henry Rhodes to purchase the business of the Ewings, and when the Winnebagos were removed to Long Prairie in 1848, they moved the business to St. Paul.
In 1849, Olmsted was elected a member of the first Territorial Council of Minnesota, and was subsequently elected by that body as its President. He was reelected to a second term in 1851. In 1853, he abandoned the Indian trade and purchased the Minnesota Democrat newspaper from Daniel Robertson, and he edited that paper until September of 1854. In that year, he was elected as first Mayor of St. Paul, but moved, the following year, to Winona, where his health soon declined. He died in 1861. Olmsted County was named in his honor. [WM190-1]
ONE-LEGGED JIM - A M'dewakontonwan Sioux and brother of Old Bets, he had lost a leg in a skirmish in the spring of 1842 after a war party of Chippewa Indians attacked Little Crow's band of Sioux at Kaposia. The Chippewas were pursued as far as Stillwater, and a battle took place upon the grounds where the old prison on north Main Street stood in 1900. In this fight Jim, lost his leg. It was broken below the knee and hung by a fragment. He took his knife, and cut it off himself, and thus became his own surgeon, He used to, and used to peg around on a wooden stump which he made for himself. He was well known to most of the settlers and was never backward about begging. In one incident in 1853, Old Bets, Jim, and another sister were attacked by Chippewas in the streets of St. Paul. The sister fell mortally wounded, and residents of the town chased the retreating Chippewas, who suddenly stopped, turned on their pursuers, and asked why the white men were chasing them, as it was none of their affair, and that whites had no right to interfere in their rights. The whites didn't know how to answer them, and were about to let them go when Jim, from the shelter of a nearby store picked up a rifle and shot at them, wounding their leader. He then stumped back, defiantly yelling a war whoop. He was also known as "Wooden-Legged Jim" and Techa, his Indian name.[WM252,336-8]
O'NEILL, ROBERT - Born in 1813 in Ireland. A lumberman in St. Paul in 1850. He and his wife Catharine (1822 Canada) had at least four children: Mary (1840 Canada), Catharine (1842 Canada), Laura (1846 Canada), and John (1848 Canada). Also living in this household in 1850 was Agnes (age either 4 or 21 born in Canada). [MPv1#16]
ORLANDAIS, JOHN - Born in 1790 in Canada. A farmer in St. Paul in 1850. His real estate holdings were valued at $250 in 1850. Living in his household in 1850 was Baptiste (1837 Canada). [MN50]
ORTIBESE See HEURTUBISE.
OWENS, JOHN PHILLIPS - Born near Dayton, OH, in 1818, his father died when John was only 7 years old. He spent his youth working on a farm, with only occasional schooling. He then attended Woodward College in Cincinnati for two years, and resolved to learn the printing business. He had already read much about the newly settling areas in the northwest, and was very interested when he was asked by Dr. A. Randall to enter into a partnership to publish a newspaper in St. Paul. Randall soon sold his interest in the venture to Major Nathaniel McLean, and the resulting firm became known as McLean & Owens. Owens continued in the
newspaper business for some 12 or 13 years, being seven years the editor of the Minnesotan, a leading journal of the Territory. As a political writer, he always wielded great influence.
In 1862, he was commissioned Quartermaster of the Ninth Minnesota, and served until 1865, having been breveted Colonel. In 1869, Owens was appointed Registrar of the land office at Taylor's Falls. His real estate holdings were valued at $400 in 1850. He and his wife Helen (1829 NY) had at least one child: Mary [McClean][McCan] (Mar 1850 MN). [WM208-9, MN50]
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