Family-histories and genealogies : containing a series of ...

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Judge Ogden may be said to have commenced life at sixteen years of age.
It was about that age that he rode from the neighbourhood of Franklin to
the town of Opelousas, in order to secure a place which had been adver-
tised as teacher ;
and,
finding it had been filled, was still so much of a boy
that he yielded to the feeling of despair, and sitting under a large tree in
the outskirts of the town wept over his misfortunes. His surrender to this
feeling was only momentary, and he recorded there a courageous resolution
which he acted up to through life. The next time he saw that tree was in
the year 1853, when, as one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of
Louisiana, he passed under it on his way to hold the annual session of that
tribunal in the town of Opelousas. He studied law under Gen. Quitman
and Mr. M'^Murran, in the city of Natchez, and received his license to
practice in Mississippi at the early age of eighteen. With that Hcense he
came immediately to New Orleans, and was examined for admission to this
Bar by Judge Alexander Porter. Under our law he could not have been
admitted to practice, as an original applicant here, while under twenty-one
years of age, but, coming from another State, as a licensed lawyer, the case
was different ; and
the Supreme Court admitted him without hesitation.
He commenced practice in the office of Mr. Alfred Hennen, as an assistant
to that venerable lawyer, and in a short time afterwards was sent by him to
Baton Rouge, in full charge and management of an important suit then
pending before the Courts of that place. His employment in this matter
may account, in part, for the fact that within a few months he changed his
place of residence from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, and almost imme-
diately formed a partnership with Mr. Lawrence, a leading lawyer of that
city, and was thereby thrown into a full and lucrative practice. Not long
after this Mr. Lawrence was appointed to the judgeship of the United
States Court for this district, and the whole of his practice thus fell into
the hands of his young partner. He continued the practice of his profes-
sion, with great success, in the country-parishes until about the year 1838,
when he returned to New Orleans. In the year 1841, upon the death of
Judge Lawrence, without any consultation with him, the representatives of
Louisiana in the United States Senate procured his nomination and con-
firmation as Judge of the United States Court for this district. The first
intimation he had of the appointment was the receipt, through the Post
Office, of his commission, accompanied by an official letter from Mr.
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