David A. Ogden

David A. Ogden, New York Congressman

David A. Ogden (January 10, 1770 – June 9, 1829) was a U.S. Representative from New York.

Born in Morristown, New Jersey, he was the son of Sarah Frances (Ludlow) and Abraham Ogden. Ogden attended King's College (now Columbia University), New York City. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in November of 1791, beginning practice in Newark, New Jersey. He became counselor at law in New Jersey in 1796. He was concerned in the negotiations as to whether Aaron Burr, also from Newark and an executor of his grandfather's will, or Thomas Jefferson became president after the election of 1800, and was widely thought to have tried to get Burr become president. Alexander Hamilton was for a time a legal partner with Ogden and his brother Thomas Ludlow.

Ogden with his brothers Thomas Ludlow and Gouverneur developed through the Ogden Land Company huge tracts of northern New York state. Through their position as counsel to the Holland Land Company, David and Thomas Ogden influenced the settlement of western New York, the construction of the Erie Canal, the determination of property law in New York, even political competition in the Republican party.

Ogden moved to Hamilton (now Waddington), St. Lawrence County, New York, and built a large mansion on Ogden Island. He served as associate judge of the court of common pleas from 1811 to 1815. He also was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1814–15.

Ogden was elected as a Federalist to the Fifteenth Congress (March 4, 1817 – March 3, 1819). He was First Judge of the St. Lawrence County Court from 1820 to 1824, and from 1825 to 1829, and was one of the commissioners to settle the boundary between Canada and the United States.

Ogden died in Montreal, Canada, on June 9, 1829 and was interred in Brookside Cemetery, Waddington, New York.

References

• David A. Ogden at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• David A. Ogden at Find a Grave
• Ogden papers on land development in William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan