Biography - John G. Ogden

JOHN G. OGDEN has resided on his present farm of 270 acres, Anchorage plantation, since 1881, and is one of the thrifty planters of this section. He was born in Warrensburg, Mo., in 1856, being the younger of two sons born to John G. and Jane (White) Ogden, both of whom were born, reared and married at Abingdon, Va., from which place they moved to Warrensburg, Mo., in 1851, in which State the mother's death occurred seven years later, an earnest Christian and a worthy member of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Ogden served with Gen. Price's army all through the war as an officer, and in 1865 came to Shreveport, and some years later to Bossier Parish, where he died in 1876, his occupation through life having been that of a merchant. His father, Elias Odgen, was born in New Jersey, but was left an orphan at an early age, and was reared by an uncle at Abingdon, Va., where he was married and followed merchandising. At an early day he removed to Missouri, and after the war came to Bossier Parish, where he died in 1874. He was of Scotch-Irish descent. The mother's father, James L. White, was born and spent his life in Virginia, where he was a wealthy merchant and salt manufacturer. John G. Odgen received his early schooling in Abingdon, Va., and at the early age of fourteen years began earning his own living, and for some time was employed in feeding his uncle's mules, receiving for her services $150 a year. The following three years were spent as a clerk in a store, after which he acted as his uncle's foreman for three years longer. He is doing well as a planter, and raises about 150 bales of cotton annually.

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Contributed 29 Aug 2020 by Norma Hass, extracted from Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana, published in 1890, pages 141-142.

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