1892 Biography - J. N. Ogden

Capt. J. N. Ogden, Baton Rouge, La., was born in the state of Virginia in 1850, and is a son of Elias and Louisa (Gordon) Ogden, the father a native of New Jersey, and the mother of Lynchburg, Va. The parents immigrated to Missouri in 1850. The fatter was a merchant in Virginia for more than forty years, where he did an extensive and important mercantile business. He and his wife are both deceased. The Ogdens are of English ancestry, and the Gordons are an old Virginia family descended from Scotch colonists. The maternal great-grandfather was a Scott, and was a relative of the old general, Winfleld Scott. Captain Ogden spent a portion of his youth in Missouri, and at the time of the breaking out of the Civil war he had acquired but a limited education. At the age of sixteen years he left Missouri and went to Bossier parish, La. Four of his brothers were in the confederate service, and one of them still survives, namely, E W. Ogden, late speaker of the Louisiana house of representatives. In 1867 J. N. Ogden went to Gilmer, Tex., and thence to Dallas, Tex.; he spent eighteen months in the two places and devoted his time to study. He then returned to his home in Louisiana, but in a few years came back to Texas and located at Dallas. This was in 1874. He was entirely without means and had no outside influences to assist in promoting his interests. Within eighteen months he was assessor and collector of the county and city of Dallas, an office worth $20,000 a year. He amassed a comfortable fortune during the time he occupied this position, but afterward met with reverses which swept it all away. He then went to Mexico, leaving his wife and children in Dallas, and started anew to accumulate some property. He engaged in contracting, and also dealt to some extent in cattle. In 1882 he returned to Louisiana, and began levee contracting on the Mississippi river. He has done a large business in this line, and has been connected with some of the most noted levees along the river. Captain Ogden was married June 7, 1877, to Miss Ida B. Schwing, and five children have been born to them. He is one of the originators of the street railway in Baton Rouge, and has been one of the most active and zealous members of the corporation. He is a member of the Knights of Honor and of the I. O. O. F.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, published in 1892, volume 2, page 290.