Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/596

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ODELL
ODENHEIMER

his 10,000 warriors. At last the nation dethroned Oconostota. and elected in his place the peace-loving Rayetayah. This broke the spirit of the old monarch, and he sought oblivion in drink, which soon robbed him of his manhood. For nearly thirty more years he is known to have wandered about, a homeless, weak, besotted, and despised old man, begging a measure of meal or a gallon of whiskey from the “white brother” he so intensely hated, and he did not sink into the grave until he had seen that his own evil policy had brought about the entire subjugation of his country. The last recorded account of him is in the letters of Return J. Meigs, U. S. agent among the Cherokees. He writes in 1809 that his study of the classics was often interrupted by the intrusion into his tent of the “greasy old Oconostota,” who would wail for hours over his departed greatness.


ODELL, Jacob, soldier, b. in Greenburg, N, Y., 25 July, 1756 : d. in Yonkers, N. Y., in 1846. He was a brigadier-general in the Continental army during the war of the Revolution, and afterward a member of the New York state assembly, representing Westchester county in 1812-'13, and a member of the presidential electoral college in 1820 and 1828. — His cousin, John, b. in Greenburg, 25 Oct., 1756 ; d. 26 Oct., 1835, held a colonel's commission from the Continental congress. — Jackson, son of Col. John, b. in Greenburg, 3 May, 1792; d. 18 July, 1849, was graduated at Columbia in 1814, and was an officer in the war of 1812, with a major's commission, on the staff of Maj.-Gen. Pierre Van Cortlandt. — His cousin, Moses Fowler, b. in Tarrytown, N. Y., 24 Feb., 1818 ; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 13 June, 1866, was a mem.ber of congress in l861-'5, having been elected as a Fusion Democrat and then as a War Democrat from the district of Brooklyn, and in 1865 was appointed naval officer of the port of New York.


ODELL, Jonathan, clergyman, b. in Newark, N. J., 25 Sept., 1737; d. in Fredericton, New Brunswick, 25 Nov., 1818. He was the son of John Odell and Temperance, daughter of Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, first president of Princeton college. The first of the family in this country was William Odell, who was at Concord, Mass., as early as 1639, and afterward removed to Fairfield, Conn. Jonathan Odell was graduated at the College of New Jersey, then at Newark, in the class of 1754. studied medicine, and served as surgeon in the British army. He subsequently resigned and went to England, where he prepared for the ministry and was ordained deacon, 21 Dec, 1766, in the Chapel royai of St. James palace. In the following year he was advanced to priest's orders. Returning to this country in 1767, he became rector of St. Ann's (now St. Mary's) church in Burlington, N. J. During the Revolution, Dr Odell became conspicuous through his devotion to the royal cause, and was frequently in conflict with the American forces. When he was pursued he often sought safety in a secret chamber in the house of Margaret Morris, a Quakeress, who lived in the homestead of Gov. William Franklin, which she had purchased from him on his removal to Perth Amboy. About this time Jonathan Odell became joint author of a publication called " Loyal Verses of Stansbury and Odell," which obtained considerable popularity among adherents of the crown. His ode on the king's birthday, 4 June, 1776, beginning "O'er Britannia's happy land," is said to have suggested the words of "Hail, Columbia." In 1782 Dr. Odell delivered an address at the presentation of standards to the king's American dragoons — an imposing ceremony, at which many distinguished officers of the English army and navy were present, including Prince William Henry (afterward William IV.), who was then a midshipman in the fleet of Admiral Digby. After the evacuation of New York city by Sir Guy Carleton in 1783, Dr. Odell returned to England, but he afterward revisited this country and received a seat in the executive council of the province of New Brunswick, where for more than thirty years he filled the offices of secretary, registrar of records, and clerk of the council. — His only son, William Franklin, b. in Burlington, N. J., 19 Oct., 1774; d. in Fredericton, N. B., 25 Dec, 1844, succeeded his father as provincial secretary of New Brunswick in 1812, which portfolio he held till his death. He was employed under the British commissioners in 1817-'18 in charge of the survey and location of the boundary between New Brunswick and the United States under the treaty of Ghent. — William Franklin's son, William Hunter, b. in New Brunswick, 26 Nov., 1811, was educated at King's college, Fredericton, where he was graduated in 1832. He was admitted to the bar in 1838 and appointed clerk of the supreme court of New Brunswick, which office he resigned in the same year on being appointed deputy provincial secretary, registrar, and clerk of the executive council. He was a judge of the court of common pleas in 1847, and a member of the legislative council of New Brunswick by royal warrant in 1850, where he sat till the union. He was a member of the executive council of New Brunswick and postmaster-general from 1865 until the resignation of the government in 1866. In May, 1867, he was called to the Dominion senate by royal proclamation. He is Conservative in his politics.


ODENHEIMER, William Henry, P. E. bishop, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 11 Aug., 1817; d. in Burlington, N. J., 14 Aug., 1879. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1835 and at the General theological seminary, New York city, in 1838. In the latter year he was made deacon, and in 1841 he was ordained priest. In 1840 he was appointed assistant rector of St. Peter's church, Philadelphia, and when the rector, William H. De Lancey, was elected bishop of western New York in 1839, Mr. Odenheimer was appointed to be his successor. During his rectorship he became intimate with Bishop Doane, of New Jersey, and when the latter was on his death-bed he requested his friend to preach his funeral sermon. In 1859 Mr. Odenheimer was elected to succeed Bishop Doane in the diocese of New Jersey. His duties were performed at times amid great physical suffering, as about 1869 he broke one of his knee-caps, and three years afterward, while he was attending a confirmation at South Amboy, N. J., he fractured the other. This interfered greatly with his work, but he always insisted on preaching standing and on climbing the pulpit-stairs alone. During the first fifteen years of his episcopate he confirmed nearly 16,000 persons, and it is estimated that the number reached 20,000 before his death. He resided in Burlington until 1874, when the state of New Jersey was divided into two dioceses. It being considered that the parishes of northern New Jersey were more accessible than those of the southern part of the state, he chose that see and changed his residence to Newark. About this time he visited England for his health. Although he was never perfectly well and had the care of a large diocese, Bishop Odenheimer found time to write frequently for the press, and published many valuable works. Among them are “The Origin and Compilation of the Prayer-Book” and “The