OGDEN, FREDERICK W. (ca. 1808–ca. 1859). Frederick W. Ogden, lawyer and political figure, was born in Kentucky about 1808. He had arrived in Texas by 1839, and ultimately settled in San Augustine, where he became the district attorney of the First Judicial District. He later moved to Jefferson County; there he secured a land certificate in 1842. Voters from that county elected him to the House of the Eighth Congress of the Republic of Texas, 1843–44. During that assembly Ogden was known as an advocate of annexation. He returned to Jefferson County and was appointed a notary public on February 1, 1850. Although trained in both medicine and law, he practiced only the latter while in Texas. He and his wife, Mary, a native of New York, had at least five children. According to the 1850 census Ogden's real estate was valued at just over $1,500. A brother, James Ogden, was killed on the Mier expedition after drawing a black bean. Frederick Ogden died in Beaumont about 1859.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: W. T. Block, A History of Jefferson County, Texas, from Wilderness to Reconstruction (M.A. thesis, Lamar University, 1974; Nederland, Texas: Nederland Publishing, 1976). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832–1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941).
