Background
William Butler Ogden was born on June 15, 1805, in Walton, Delaware County, New York, the son of Abraham and Abigail (Weed) Ogden and a descendant of John Ogden who settled in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, in 1664.
William Butler Ogden was born on June 15, 1805, in Walton, Delaware County, New York, the son of Abraham and Abigail (Weed) Ogden and a descendant of John Ogden who settled in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, in 1664.
William Ogden was educated in the public schools and planned to study law, but when he was only fifteen his father suffered a paralytic stroke and the boy was compelled to devote himself to the management of his father's interests, which consisted of property in what was then an undeveloped country. William devoted himself to the improvement and sale of this land, and in this work showed the executive and financial ability which marked his later career.
In 1834 William Ogden was elected to the New York legislature on a platform advocating the construction of the New York & Erie Railroad by state aid, which was obtained in 1835. In that year, Charles Butler, a New York capitalist, who had married Ogden's sister, urged his brother-in-law to move to Chicago to take charge of his real-estate interests there. Accordingly, Ogden went to Chicago and laid out a tract for subdivision. With characteristic energy he held an auction at which he sold one-third of the property for more than one hundred thousand dollars or enough to cover the original cost. He then established a land and trust agency and made purchases of land on his own account; in 1843 he formed a partnership with William E. Jones. His success in business and the rise in the value of his real estate later created for him a large fortune.
When Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 Ogden was elected its first mayor on the Democratic ticket. The population of the town was only 4, 179, and the first problem was the improvement of the streets, which were in a bad condition, and the building of bridges to connect the three parts of the city. After his term as mayor Ogden served many years on the city council and was instrumental in having bridges and many miles of improved streets built. He next devoted himself to the construction of railways east and west from Chicago. One of the first roads projected was the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad which was to run to the then important lead mines. A charter was obtained in 1836 but the panic of the following year prevented the continuation of work, though the charter was kept alive. In 1846 Ogden was elected president of the company. By 1849 the road was built with strap rails to the Des Plaines River, a distance of ten miles, and in April of that year the first locomotive started west from Chicago on the line. Thereafter Ogden devoted himself entirely to railroad development.
In 1853 he was chosen one of the directors of the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railroad Company, and when the road was made insolvent by the panic of 1857 he was appointed general receiver in 1859 and restored it. He presided over the National Pacific Railway Convention of 1850, held to advocate the building of a transcontinental railroad. In 1857 he became president of the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond-du-Lac Railroad, which later became part of the Chicago & Northwestern. He logically became president of the latter road in 1859 and continued in that office until 1868. When the Union Pacific was organized Ogden was elected its first president in 1862 in order to give prestige to the project. But subscriptions to the needed $2, 000, 000 capital were not forthcoming until Congress doubled the land grant, when the military character of the road was emphasized by the election in 1863 of Gen. J. A. Dix to the presidency. Ogden also served as president of the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad, of the Buffalo & Mississippi, and of the Wisconsin & Superior Land Grant Railroad. Ogden's executive ability was called into service in many lines of civic enterprise. He was the first president of Rush Medical College, a charter member of the Chicago Historical Society, and president of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago. When the Merchants Loan & Trust Company was organized in 1857 he was one of its first directors.
When the slavery question arose he allied himself with the Free-Soil party and in 1860 was elected by the Republicans to the Illinois Senate, but he split with the party over the Emancipation Proclamation and retired from politics. In 1866 he purchased an estate at Fordham Heights, just outside of New York City, where he made his home until his death.
William Ogden was elected the first Mayor of Chicago (1837). He worked on improvement of streets and building of bridges. Ogden Avenue was named after him. Ogden was one of the directors of the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railroad Company (1853-1859); president of the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond-du-Lac Railroad (1857); the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad, the Buffalo & Mississippi Railroad; the Wisconsin & Superior Land Grant Railroad. He was the first president of Rush Medical College, and president of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago, and one of the first directors of the Merchants Loan & Trust Company. In his honor was named the Ogden Graduate School of Science at the University of Chicago which a bequest from his estate helped to found.
William Ogden was a member of the Democratic party, the New York State Assembly (1835), and a charter member of the Chicago Historical Society.
William Ogden was a man of commanding presence, whose most striking characteristic was his self-reliance.
On February 9, 1875, William Ogden married Maryanne Arnot, daughter of John and Mary (Tuttle) Arnot, of Elmira, New York.
