Denna C. Ogden

DENNA C. OGDEN, an attorney of the city of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, March 16, 1860, the second son of Lieutenant John B. Ogden and wife Bella J. (McDowell) Ogden. He is the fifth in line of descent from Joseph Ogden, who was a brother of the eminent jurist, David Ogden, born 1707; a graduate of Yale College, 1728, admitted to the bar, and in 1772 appointed judge of the supreme court of New Jersey. He died in 1800.

Joseph Ogden, grandfather of Denna C. Ogden, was born in New Jersey in 1710, and died in the same state in 1772. He had a son Joseph, born in 1735; came to Fairfield township, Westmoreland county in 1755 and there died in 1815. He was among the pioneer band who settled the county. Among his children was one son named James Ogden, born in 1785, died in 1858. He had a son, John B. Ogden, born July 16, 1825, and died December 19, 1889. He was lieutenant of Company D, Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment Cavalry, during the Civil war. He aided in raising the regiment and was commissioned first lieutenant. He served under Colonel George H. Covode. He was twice wounded and disabled while in the Army of the Potomac. He married, in 1854, Bella J. McDowell, by whom three children were born. Bella J. (McDowell) Ogden was the daughter of Jacob McDowell, the youngest of a family of sixteen children, and whose father, Robert McDowell, was of Scotch-Irish descent, and located on eighteen hundred acres of land in Ligonier township, Westmoreland county. He was married in Fort Ligonier, which he and his wife helped defend against the Indian attacks in 1763.

Denna C. Ogden was educated in the common schools and at Blairsville Academy. He read law with Stewart and Marlin, of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, where he was admitted to the bar in 1882 and the following year admitted to practice in Westmoreland county, locating at Greensburg. He was nominated on the Democratic ticket for the office of district attorney in 1886, conducted a remarkable campaign and was elected by a large majority, polling more votes than any of the sixteen Democratic candidates and was the youngest man ever elected to that time, to such a position in the county, he being only twenty-six years of age. Throughout his term of three years he acquitted himself manfully and treated all with fairness. He refused to become a candidate again. Since that date he has built up a lucrative practice and enjoys a good reputation for being an honorable legal adviser. He married, April 5, 1888, Anna W. McCullough, daughter of John McCullough, and wife, and the sister of Hon. Welty McCullough, deceased.

Source: Page(s) 132-133, History of Westmoreland County, Volume II, Pennsylvania by John N Boucher. New York, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906.
Transcribed February 2006 by Nathan Zipfel for the Westmoreland County History Project
Contributed for use by the Westmoreland County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/westmoreland/)

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