O. C. French Explained

Obediah Crew French was a state legislator in Mississippi.^[1] He was a Republican.^[2] He and other Republican legislators were ridiculed in the Natchez Democrat.^[3] Z. P. Landrum, a fellow legislator, called him a low-bred carpet bag cur. He served as Mississippi's commissioner for the U.S. Centennial.^[4]

He was from Ohio and served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He represented Adams County, Mississippi in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1870 to 1875, serving with John R. Lynch.^[5]

He lost a state senate election to T. P. Gore in Oklahoma.^[6]

He married Mary Carey Fowler May 1, 1856 in Ravenna, Ohio.^[7]

Notes and References

1. Book: A History of Mississippi: From the Discovery of the Great River by Hernando DeSoto, Including the Earliest Settlement Made by the French Under Iberville, to the Death of Jefferson Davis. Robert. Lowry. William H.. McCardle. March 10, 1891. AMS Press. 9780404046101. Google Books.
2. News: 1870 State Representative. The Weekly Mississippi Pilot. March 12, 1870. 3. newspapers.com.
3. Web site: Vicksburg Herald, July 31, 1875 – Against All Odds.
4. Book: Noe, Jack D.. Contesting Commemoration: The 1876 Centennial, Independence Day, and the Reconstruction-Era South. October 6, 2021. LSU Press. 9780807176160. Google Books.
5. Book: A History of Mississippi: From the Discovery of the Great River by Hernando DeSoto, Including the Earliest Settlement Made by the French Under Iberville, to the Death of Jefferson Davis. Robert. Lowry. William H.. McCardle. March 11, 1891. R.H. Henry & Company. 9780788448218. Google Books.
6. Web site: Genealogy of the Descendants of Thomas French: Who Came to America from Nether Heyford, Northamptonshire, England and Settled in Berlinton (Burlington), in the Province and Country of West New Jersey, of which He was One of the Original Proprietors, Together with William Penn, Edward Byllynge, Thomas Olive, Gauen Laurie and Others .... March 10, 1913. Higginson Book Company. Google Books.
7. Web site: Genealogy of the Descendants of Thomas French: Who Came to America from Nether Heyford, Northamptonshire, England and Settled in Berlinton, Burlington, in the Province and Country of West New Jersey, of which He was One of the Original Proprietors, Together with William Penn, Edward Byllynge, Thomas Olive, Gauen Laurie and Others. 1913.