OLSHAUSEN, JUSTUS. — Renowned Orientalist, brother of Hermann, b. at Hohenfelde (Holstein) on 9 May 1800, d. at Berlin on 28 Dec. 1882.
In 1814 he began the study of Hebrew under the direction of his father, who was then first pastor at Glückstadt. At Kiel (1816–19) J. F. Kleuker taught him Arabic and Syriac. J. L. Ideler at Berlin (Feb. 1820) initiated him into
a population (1950) of 543,656 inhabitants, of whom 126,221 are Catholic. There are 202 diocesan priests and 116 religious from 6 different congregations. There are also 162 parishes, 16 chapels, 1 seminary, 3 colleges and a university (Creighton University run by the Jesuits), 7 hospitals and 1 orphanage.
The first Jesuit missionaries came to the diocese around 1838 to work among the indigenous people. In 1851 the territory was separated from St. Louis and erected as an apostolic vicariate of the Rocky Mountains, with the Rev. John B. Miège appointed as its first apostolic vicar. On 6 Jan. 1857, the vicariate was divided a second time and took the name of apostolic vicariate of Nebraska, which included the present State of Nebraska, the two Dakotas west of the Missouri River, Wyoming and Montana west of the Rockies. The first apostolic vicar, Msgr. James Miles O’Gorman, found there, in 1859, 300 white families and several thousand indigenous people. On 2 Oct. 1885 the vicariate was elevated to a diocese. With the apostolic constitution Universi dominici gregis of Pius XII, dated 7 Apr. 1945, the diocese of Omaha was elevated to an archdiocese. The diocese of Omaha was separated from Dubuque. The dioceses of Lincoln and Grand Island, also separated from Dubuque, form the ecclesiastical province.