THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST

September 13, 1990

 

WHEN THEN WAS NOW

By Wayne A. Guyant

 

            Caleb S. Ogden led a most interesting life.  He was a farmer, businessman, lawyer, judge and newspaper.

            Born August 2, 1819, near Cannonville, Delaware County, New York, he was the son of Abraham and Mary Smith Ogden. 

            On February 23, 1845, he was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Hoag, who was born in Montgomery County, New York.  They became the parents of 11 children, one dying in infancy.  Five sons and five daughters lived to adulthood.

            In 1848 – the year Wisconsin became a state – Caleb S. Ogden moved to the Township of Plover, Portage County, Wisconsin and engaged in the mercantile and lumbering pursuits.  A couple of years later, he added farming.

            In 1854, he came to Waupaca County, settling on the site of Ogdensburg which later was named in his honor.  Here he built a sawmill, constructed new roads and purchased a large stock of merchandise.  He built a large machine shop in Waupaca which was destroyed by fire a short time later at a loss of $30,000 to him.

            In 1857 or 1858, he was elected district attorney, and in 1861 became judge, a position he held until 1894, except for one term when he chose not to run because of other commitments.

            In 1865, he moved to Waupaca and in 1868, launched into existence the Waupaca Republican.  He also founded the New London Times, and later with the aid of his sons, four of whom were printers, formed the Waupaca Post in 1877.

            In the early county plat books you can find extensive land holdings that Caleb S. Ogden had purchased; possibly he was in a position to see good deals when they came up.

            I will not dwell on the early life of Judge Ogden, or his family life before he became a newspaperman in Waupaca.  This all can be found on page 316 of the Commemorative Biographical Record of Upper Wisconsin.

            Judge Ogden’s five sons all grew to manhood, four of them followed in newspaper work:  Francis E., who first helped with the Waupaca Post but died at the early age of 43; William C., who was a newspaper publisher in Rhinelander; John, who also was a judge and purchased the Antigo Republican in 1886; and Charles.

            John Ogden married Alida Randall of Waupaca in 1879.  They had two sons: Caleb and Howard.  Young Caleb was only 20 years old in 1902 when he was accidently killed while sawing wood on his father’s farm north of Anitgo.

            All of John Ogden’s family are buried in the Antigo City Cemetery.

            Charles W. Ogden was a part owner in the Waupaca Post before he left the paper to embark on an adventurous life as a showman with his own traveling tent show which headquartered in Waupaca.  After some years of this life, he went to Saquache, Colorado, where he purchased the Saquache Crescent and ran it until his death in 1935.

            In some later article, I would like to relate to you some of the interesting accounts of his life with his traveling tent show days until his death and burial here in Waupaca.