Background
Samuel Ogden was born on December 9, 1746, in Newark, New Jersey, the son of David and Gertrude (Gouverneur) Ogden.
Samuel Ogden was born on December 9, 1746, in Newark, New Jersey, the son of David and Gertrude (Gouverneur) Ogden.
While two brothers of Samuel adopted the profession of law and gained position, he engaged in business, chiefly the manufacture of iron. In the War of Independence his iron works at Boonton, Morris County, figured with other prominent concerns as affording supplies of ammunition for the American troops and material for the fortifications on the Hudson River. In 1781 he advertised nail manufacture "in all its branches"; and later, he built the forge at Hopewell, New Jersey.
In the period following the war Samuel Ogden had important land transactions in Northern New York. Most of the area of the state was forest, held by the Six Nations. By a series of treaties from 1789 to 1795 aboriginal titles were extinguished and lands thrown open in northern New York. Ogden made his first investment on the St. Lawrence River in 1792, obtaining a tract in "mile squares, " which was to become the town of Oswegatchie, St. Lawrence County. Immediate settlement was impossible because the frontier posts from Niagara to Oswegatchie were retained by the British. Persons in Canada procured leases within Ogden's tract from Oswegatchie Indians and under the guns of the fort stripped the trees from the soil.
Ogden was soon in York (now Toronto) and in Quebec, protesting to Lord Dorchester, the governor-general, and to Simcoe, the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, in behalf of his property rights. He appointed as a resident agent Nathan Ford, a man who counts largely in the pioneer history of the region. The strife did not cease however until British troops were withdrawn from the posts by the Jay treaty, and one more treaty was framed to settle Indian claims. The activity in sales and improvements which ensued was impressive.
The foundation of the city of Ogdensburg at the mouth of the Oswegatchie River was laid by Samuel Ogden. Samuel's brother, Abraham, had purchased with others of the family a tract that later became the town of Madrid; and along the river enterprising communities sprang up during the first three decades of the nineteenth century. The latter years of his life were spent in New York City.
Samuel Ogden married Euphemia Morris, sister of Gouverneur and Lewis Morris, on February 5, 1775. They had twelve children, one of whom was David Bayard Ogden.