Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, volume 4 [Extract: letter O]

              O'BRIEN, ALOYSIUS R   141
OAKLEY, JOHN THORNE (? -1878). Merchant; pol¬ itician; magistrate. Married Mary Smith. The son of Robert Oakley, an agent for the Trinity firm of Lester and Co. at SiUy Cove (Winterton), John Thorne Oakley was likely named after another Trinity Bay agent ofthe firm. In 1808 he was indentured to George Garland qv as a mariner. It is likely that Oakley originally came to Greenspond as an employee of the Greenspond branch of Garland and Co. (successor to the Lester firm). In any case, he was living at Greenspond by 1825 and was Garland's agent there by 1827. Oakley was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1830, and it appears that by the 1840s he was a merchant and vessel-owner on his own account. He served a single term as a Conservative MHA for Bonavista, from 1865 to 1869. In 1874 he was appointed stipendiary magistrate at Greenspond, serving until his death there on April 13, 1878. O.G. Tucker (interview, Sept. 1992), Newfoundlander (July 10, 1834), Maritime History Group (Keith Matthews name file, 056). rhc
OBED, ELLEN BRYAN (1944- ). Author. Born Or¬ ange, New Jersey, daughter of WiUiam L. and Marga¬ ret A. (Bradley) Bryan. Educated Bradford College, Massachusetts; University of Maine. Married Enoch Obed. In 1965 Ellen Bryan went to Labrador as a volunteer with the International Grenfell Association, spending a year in St. Anthony and four summers in Cartwright. Between 1969 and 1988 she taught school in North West River, Sheshatshit and Nain. She has published three child¬ ren's books: Borrowed Black (1979), set on the Labrador coast; Wind in My Pocket (1980), a collection of po¬ etry; and Little Snowshoe (1984), set in northern Lab¬ rador. In 1988 Borrowed Black was reprinted in a second edition and pub¬ lished in eight countries. During her stay in Labrador Obed conducted studies on Labrador's coastal flora. She left Labrador in 1988 and returned to Maine, where she continued her writing career. Ellen Bryan Obed (1979; 1980; 1988; letter, Nov. 1992). LMS
OBERHEIDE, HEIDI (1943- ). Visual artist. Born Germany. Educated Werkkunstschule Art Institute, Wiesbaden, Germany; Northern Illinois University; Illinois State University; University of lUinois; South¬ ern Illinois University. Married Gaylen Hansen. On graduating from Southern Illinois University with an MFA in printmaking and drawing Oberheide came to Newfoundland. She began teaching with Memorial University's Extension Services, and was shortly thereafter chosen to set up a proposed print shop which later became the St. Michael's Printshop on the Avalon's Southern Shore (see PRINTMAKING). Liv¬ ing near the print shop, Oberheide captured her sur-
Ellen Bryan Obed
roundings in prints and drawings which were exhibited in individual and group shows throughout eastern Can¬ ada, including several solo shows at MUN Art Gallery. Her works included graphite drawings of windows in landscape, and multimedia drawings placing photo¬ graphic images — whales, skeletons, fishermen and nets — within misty pools of colour. In 1992 she was living in Palouse, Washington. Frank LaPointe (inter¬ view, Apr. 1992), Atlantic Insight (Jan. 1982), ET (June 16, 1973; Feb. 5, 1975; Mar. 12, 1977), Centre for Newfoundland Studies (Heidi Oberheide). kaw
OBLATE MISSION. The Oblate Order, formally known as Les Peres Oblats de Marie-Immaculee, was founded in the early 1800s by the Roman Cathohc Bishop of Marseilles. After 1844 a few Oblate fathers came to Labrador to establish coastal missions, where they gave instruction in church doctrine, reading, writ¬ ing and singing. In 1867 Father Louis Babel visited North West River (Sheshatshh qv) where he preached to 14 Innu families. A church was built at Sheshatshit by 1872 and was visited by Father Babel, Father Lacasse and Father George Lemoine. The visits ceased in 1895 because of an ecclesiastical dispute over reli¬ gious jurisdiction in Labrador. The mission subse¬ quently came under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Harbour Grace.
In 1946 jurisdiction was assumed by the Oblates, Father Joseph Pirson replacing Father E.J. O'Brien qv, who was later made an honorary Oblate. Father Pirson offered formal schooling in Sheshatshit, teaching in summers from the mission house. A strong believer in the British educational system, he feh that native peo¬ ples should assimilate themselves to the larger Cana¬ dian society. Although dedicated to the welfare of people, he was sometimes criticized for coercive tac¬ tics. In the 1980s Oblate Father James Roche became known as a social activist on behalf of native peoples. As part of a larger campaign against low-level military flights, Roche went on a hunger strike in September of 1988 and was imprisoned briefly for taking part in demonstrations at the Goose Bay air base. Peter Armitage (1989), John McGhee (1961), ET (Oct. 19, 1988), Newfoundland Historical Society (Northwest River), Sunday Express (Sept. 18, 1988). acb
O'BRIEN, ALOYSIUS P. (1915- ). Farmer. Born St. John's, son of Margaret (Enghsh) and Denis O'Brien. Educated St. John's. O'Brien grew up in Freshwater Valley on a 27-acre farm estabhshed around 1820 by his great-graildfather. As a youth he worked with his father in the family's extensive orchard and gardens. He later was employed as assistant to a landscape gardener for the Baird family in St. John's and began to study botany. Most of his working life was spent either in farming or gardening, including seven years at Oxen Pond Botanic Park.
O'Brien has been a lifelong student of the Gaehc language. His grandmother was a native Irish speaker who came to St. John's from County Kilkenny. He and his father together studied the language until his father's death in 1944. In the late 1960s O'Brien