Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/600

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OUDEN
OGDEN

native country after two years' residence on that continent. The results of his studies were made known to the public in a well-written and extensive report. In 1810 he was sent by Santiago as a repre- sentative to the Spanish cortes at Cadiz. He was elected secretary and afterward chairman of that body, and was one of the signers of the famous liberal constitution of 1812, which established in Spain the representative form of government. He returned to Cuba in 1815. after the restoration of absolutism by Ferdinand VII. In 1820 he was made canon of the Havana cathedral, and in the same year chosen as a representative for Cuba to the cortes, after the revolution that restored the Liberal party to power, but he could not occupy his seat, as his election had been annulled by the government on technicalities. In Madrid he pub- lished an extensive " Memoir on the Condition of African Slaves in the West Indies." He declined the dignity of archbishop of Santiago, and on his return to Cuba was imprisoned on account of his liberal ideas, but he was soon set at liberty, and dedicated all his energy to the improvement of methods of education and the extension of public instruction in the island. He wrote many pam- phlets on these matters.


OGDEN, David, jurist, b. in Newark, K J., about 1707; d. in Whitestone, K Y.. in June, 1800. He was graduated at Yale in 1728, and then studied law in Newark, becoming perhaps the first thoroughly educated lawyer in the province. His ability and social position soon gained for him a lucrative practice, and he stood confessedly at the head of the bar in New Jersey, also frequently conducting important cases in New York. In April, 1751, he was made a member of the royal council for the province, and, after serving as a judge of the superior court, he was appointed in 1772 a judge of the supreme court, and held that office until the beginning of the war of the Revo- lution. His sympathy with the mother country obliged him in January, 1777, to go to England, where he became in 1779 an efficient member of the board of refugees, composed of delegates from the several colonies, and drew up an outline of a plan for their gov^ernment in the event of their submission to Great Britain. He went again to England in 1783 as agent for the New Jersey loyal- ists in prosecuting their claims for compensation, and secured an allowance for his own estates, which were valued at .$100,000. In 1789 he returned to the United States and settled in Whitestone, N. Y., where he spent the remainder of his days. At his death he had been for three years the oldest living graduate of Yale. Judge Ogden had the reputa- tion of being " one of the giants of the law in New Jersey." — His brother, Jacob, physician, b. in Newark, N. J., in 1721 ; d. in Jamaica, L. I., 3 Sept., 1780, was educated at Yale, but not gradu- ated. He studied medicine, and followed his pro- fession with success in Jamaica, L. I., for nearly forty years. Dr. Ogden was an able supporter of the practice of inoculation for the small-pox. The first introduction of the mercurial treatment for inflammatory disorders in the United States is credited to him by Dr. John W. Francis. He pub- lished letters to Hugh Gaine on the " Malignant Sore-Throat Distemper," 28 Oct., 1769, and 14 Sept., 1774. — David's son, Abraham, lawyer, b. in Morristown, N. J., 30 Dec, 1743; d. inNewark, N. J., in 1798, studied law, became a member of the New Jersey bar, and as a jury lawyer is said to have been unrivalled. In his office at Morristown, N. J., some of the most celebrated lawyers of that state acquired their early legal training, among whom were Richard Stockton, Gabriel Ford, and Josiah Ogden Hoffman. He was deemed of doubt- ful politics, and as such was denounced to Gen. Washington, who. in order to avert from him any suspicion, made his home the headquarters of the- army while in Morristown. In a fencing-bout with Thomas Ludlow Ogden, one of the sons of his host, the button of the latter's foil dropped off, and Washington was scratched in the wrist, thus receiving what is believed to have been his only wound. Mr. Ogden was a member of the legisla- ture in 1790, and from the adoption of the present state constitution until his death was district attorney for New Jersey. Washington appointed him a commissioner to obtain the extinguishment of a title that the Iroquois nation of Indians had to a portion of the northern part of New York. This brought to him a local knowledge of St. Lawrence county, and resulted in the purchase of a large tract by himself and others, and in the founding of the present city of Ogdensburg. — Abraham's son. Thomas Ludlow, lawyer, b. in Morristown, N. J., 12 Dec. 1773; d. in New York city, 17 Dec, 1844, was graduated at Columbia in 1791. and then studied under his father, completing his legal edu- cation in the office of Richard Harison. In 1796- he was admitted to the New York bar, and later he was associated with Alexander Hamilton, having- charge of the latter's law business during his oc- cupations elsewhere. Subsequently Mr. Ogden was legal adviser of many important corporations,, notably the Holland land company when it held 3,000,000 acres of land in the western part of New York ; also one of the trustees of the Indian reser- vation lands and sole trustee of Sackett's Harbor. He was law officer of the corporation of Trinity church, for thirty-five years clerk and member of its vestry, and at the time of his death senior warden. Mr. Ogden was an early patron of the- General theological seminary and one of the origi- nal trustees under the act of incorporation, also one of the founders of the Protestant Episcopal society for promoting religion and learning in the state of New York, of which at the time of his death he was vice-president. From 1817 till his death he was trustee of Columbia college.


OGDEN, Frederick Nash, soldier, b. in Baton Rouge, La., 25 Jan., 1837 ; d. in New Orleans, La., 25 May, 1886. He entered mercantile life as a boy, and continued so engaged until the beginning of the civil war, when he volunteered as a private in the Confederate army, and was elected color-bearer. In this capacity he served through the peninsular campaign and then returned to New Orleans, when he was made major of heavy artillery. After the surrender of the forts at New Orleans he was in command of the 8th Louisiana battalion, and served in charge of a battery at Vicksburg, where he was taken prisoner. On being exchanged, he was placed on Gen. Leonidas Polk's staff, but later entered the cavalry as lieutenant-colonel, and was surrendered at the close of the war with Gen. Nathan B. Forrest's command in northern Alabama. He then returned to New Orleans and re-entered commercial life. In 1868 he organized and became president of the Crescent City Democratic club, the largest and most powerful political organization in New Orleans, and subsequently he organized the Crescent City white league, which took an active part in the contests for the state government in 1873-'4. He also commanded the local forces as major-general of militia. Gen. Ogden was president of the Red Cross association of Louisiana and vice-president of the Howard association during the yellow-fever