OGDEN, (Capt.) J. N., VA., then East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller




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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.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 290.
Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.