Revolutionary War Soldiers Series: Remembering Stephen D. Ogden
By Betty F. Crum and Pat Young
Waw-wil-a-way Chapter Daughters
of the American Revolution, 250 Project
Note: This year, the United States of America will celebrate its semiquincentennial, its 250th anniversary. The semiquincentennial marks the first nationwide celebration of America's birth since the bicentennial in 1976. Of course, America's independence cannot be celebrated without also honoring the efforts of the Revolutionary War soldiers that led to independence. The Waw-wil-a-way Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, along with the Southern Ohio Genealogical Society, is presenting a series of articles featuring Revolutionary War soldiers who lived and died within the borders of Highland County.
Stephen D. Ogden was born Sept. 13, 1756 in Morris County, New Jersey. He died Oct. 17, 1841 in Highland County, Ohio. The gravesite is not known.
In reading the court records for this patriot, we get a sense of the struggles Stephen Ogden and his daughter, Phebe, encountered trying to prove that he was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and entitled to a pension for his service.
In 1832 at the age of 76, he went before the court in Highland County and made the declaration that he was a Revolutionary Soldier. The court certified to that effect. Order Book No. 5, 1829-34, Page 282, Aug. 22, 1832. His pension was denied due to lack of proof for the officers under whom he said he served.
Then, later in January 1853, his daughter, Phebe Hand, filed a claim for any pension money owed to Stephen Ogden. There is no evidence that she received any money.
Fold3.com has those original letters. In those letters, we learn that Stephen and his young family lived in Virginia for about 20 years before coming to Ohio. We know only that he had one daughter. There may have been other adult children who remained in Virginia. We know he arrived in Highland County before 1812.
Descendants of daughter Phebe Ogden (Smith) Hand (Keyes) lived in Ross County. Phebe’s second husband, Dr. Jasper Hand, was the son of General Edward Hand, adjunct to General George Washington. Phebe and Jasper married in Highland County in 1812. They raised six children in the area before his death in 1828.
The Recorder’s Office records show that Dr. Jasper was part of the group that established the “Hillsborough Lancasterian School” and Library in 1819. Her third husband, William Keyes, was a Justice of the Peace in Chillicothe.
Many descendants of Stephen Ogden have become members of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
– Patricia Young, Waw-wil-a-way Chapter NSDAR