THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST

November 1, 1990

 

WHEN THEN WAS NOW

By Wayne A. Guyant

 

            Charles W. Ogden was one of five sons of Caleb and Catherine E. (Hoag) Ogden.  There were also five daughters in the family.

            Charles W., for a short time, was a partner with his father in the Waupaca newspaper business, until he decided to try a more adventurous life.

            Charles Ogden was born in Ogdensburg, Wis., December 16, 1862.  In 1866, the family moved to Waupaca.  When he was 13 years of age, he started work in the office of his brother, John Ogden, at the Waupaca Post, to learn the newspaper business.

            In 1881, he went on his own and opened the first music store in Waupaca.  It was about 1883 that he sold out to try the hotel business at the Lewis House.  This was the same location on which the Delavan Hotel was later built.  It is now the site of Bank One.

            Not content with the hotel life, he ventured into the dramatic profession under Harry L. Seymore. After a couple of years of character acting, he was convinced that he was not cut out to be an actor.

            It was sometime in this part of his life that he married Carrie Scoville.  I cannot find any marriage or death record for her, but there is a death record in the Register of Deeds office for a two-day-old-infant daughter who was born to Charles Ogden and Carrie Scoville.  The infant was born July 19, 1883 and died July 21, 1883. She was buried in the Waupaca cemetery.

            In 1886, he started out as a foreman at the Mining Record in Ironwood, Mich., when the Gogebic Range was in its infancy.  Mr. Ogden remained there for 18 months before he became engaged as a manager of the Iron Journal, a paper devoted to the interests of mining of the Vermilion Range, located in Tower, Minn.  He once again felt foot-loose and fancy free, so in February of 1888, he resigned his position with the Iron Journal and left for San Diego, Calif., where he met and married Miss Sylvia Sherman.

            It was in June of 1889 that the newlyweds returned to Waupaca, and in the fall, he went into partnership with John L. Sturtevant in buying the Waupaca-Post.  John M. Ware, a farmer and livestock dealer living two miles north of Waupaca, also had a financial interest in the venture.  This was known as Sturtevant-Ogden and Ware.  It has been written that there is no reliable record of the transitions in several years, but John L. Sturtevant sold out to D. F. Burnham back in about 1907.

            Let us turn back a few years in time to 1888 when Charles Ogden married Sylvai Sherman and returned to Waupaca to live.  She was born in 1872.

            It was here in Waupaca that they became the parents of five children, one of these died in infancy.  This was a daughter born June 6, 1891 and died June 7, 1891.  She was buried in the Waupaca cemetery.  This left four children to live and enjoy a full life.  There were:  Ray, Francis, Ethel and Mary. Sylvia Ogden died on June 2, 1907 in Dalton, Wis., and is also buried in the Waupaca cemetery, the only grave with a marker.  It is presumed that she died while the stock show of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was on the road.  Charles W. Ogden had a traveling show, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” for several years before the death of his wife.

            The following is taken from an ad that appeared in the Waupaca Record dated May 11, 1905:

            “Ogden’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin Company will open the season’s work with a performance on May 13, under a large, waterproof canvas.  Ogden’s Company has grown more popular each year under the capable management of Chas. Ogden.  The cast is:

                        Uncle Tom                                          George Miltimore

                        St. Claire                                             Hal Lawrence

                        Geo. Harris                                          W. L. Holmes

                        Marks                                                  Otis Knight

                        Simon Legree                                     Willys L. Holmes

                        Phineas Fletcher                                 Harry Janette

                        Geo. Shelby                                        Ray Ogden

                        Haley                                                   Harry Bye

                        Gumption Cute                                    Ralph Nowell

                        Harry Harris                                         Master Sherman

                        Sambo                                                            Al. G. Frost

                        Quimbo                                               Wm. Lark

                        Eliza                                                    Bessie Knight 

                        Orphelia                                              Myrtle LaPaloma

                        Marie                                                   Flossie Gates

                        Chloe                                                   Allie Thorn      

                        Emiline                                                Marie Bell

                        Topsy                                                  Ethel Ogden

                        Eva                                                      Francis Ogden

            “Specialties during each wait, ‘Biff Bang’ from the raise of the front drop until the closing.  We can only mention a few to be featured:  Jenette, the Mexican Juggler; Wiggins, contotionist; Knight and Miss Bessie, a sketch team; the Holmes Entertainers; the Hayseed Quartette; Ethel Ogden, in coon songs and King Sherman, the five-year-old wonder, in a new line.  Ask your leading musician in regard to Frank E. Rose and his slip horn.  The prices remain the same, 15 and 25¢.  Parade at 11:30, concert 7:15.”

 

            I did not find when Charles Ogden dispersed his show, but in 1910, he went to Colorado to live, and he disappeared from the Waupaca scene.  The rest of his life in Colorado came to light in 1935, when his obituary appeared in the Waupaca County Post.  This is only the start of a burial mystery to follow:

            It was in 1976, while I was doing some research at the Holly Funeral Home, that in the course of a conversation with Tom Holly, he mentioned receiving the ashes of Charles W. Ogden with a note that said “hold for further burial instructions.”  This was in 1935, and it was now 1976 – 41 years later – and as of yet, no instructions had been forthcoming.  As a result, his ashes were still on a shelf in the basement of Holly’s Funeral Home in a metal container bearing the name of Charles W. Ogden, register #6002, December 18, 1935, Denver Crematory, Denver, Colorado.

            It was at this point that I thought that his ashes should be buried in the Lakeside Memorial Park beside Sylvia, his second wife.  His funeral had been held in Saquache, Colo., prior to his cremation in Denver.  I knew from his obituary that the family still ran the Saquache Crescent, so I wrote a letter to that address in hope of finding someone to see if they were aware that his ashes were never buried.  To my surprise, I received a nice letter from Mrs. Jack K. (Irene) Gray, who is a daughter of Mr. Ogden by his third wife.

            The first letter I received from Irene Gray stated that she was surprised to hear that her father’s ashes were never buried.  The family never realized that they had never sent the final instructions for burial.  To my knowledge, no instructions have ever been sent.

            Irene Gray went on to say that, “at the time of his death, the family never appreciated the colorful life he led.  In fact, I think we took it for granted as we grew up with the stories of the shows, etc.  In looking back, we realize his life was indeed an adventuresome one.”

            Mr. Ogden ran a paper in Moffat, Colo., where Irene was born right on press day.  Shortly after, he sold the paper and moved to Albuquerque, NM, where her sister, Marie, was born.  They lived in Albuquerque about four years where she said that “her daddy worked on a newspaper there in the mailing department.”

            In 1917, it was learned through a lawyer friend that the Saquache Crescent was for sale. After the down payment was made, he had only a nickel left in his pocket.

            By now; Charles W. Ogden had a fourth wife, Mary Elizabeth, but her last name was not given.  Irene Gray went on to say that “Mom worked as a typesetter in the office and they hired another typesetter for $18 a month.  When Marie and I were teenagers, Dad purchased a dance hall, and the family ran it along with the printing office.  Marie and I both learned to set type, both by hand and to run a Linotype which dad purchased in 1925.  I remember that Francis Ogden came to help set it up and ran it for about a year.  Francis then married and moved to Albuquerque where he worked on a newspaper until his death on August 7, 1950, at the age of 53.”

            In the obituary for Charles W. Ogden, it states that the “Ogden family now publishes the only newspaper in Saquache, the county seat, and the paper bears a striking resemblance to the old Waupaca Post as it was published by Sturtevant, Ogden and Ware 40 years ago.”

            Ray Ogden followed the circus route all his life, and played in various bands in and around Dallas, Texas.  He died July 25, 1965 in Fort Smith, Arizona, at the age of 66.  Ethel married and moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where she lived until her death on Ma 19, 1958, at the age of 67.  Mary never married and was a private secretary to the head of the veterans’ hospital, first in Oklahoma City, and later in Muskogee, Oklahoma.  She died on August 16, 1963.

            I recently contacted Roman Jungers of Holly Funeral Home.  It was agreed that since the ashes of Charles W. Ogden had been held for nearly 55 years with no instructions for burial, they could be buried with his second wife, Sylvia, in Lakeside Memorial Park.

            I contacted Rick Martin, the sexton at the cemetery, and he told me that there would be no problem and that he would take care of it.

            On October 17, 1990, the Holly Funeral Home delivered the ashes to Mr. Martin for burial.

            Now the curtain has fallen on the final act in the life of Charles W. Ogden and his families throughout the years.