Honest Ogden

Through his struggles before, during, and after the Revolutionary War, the well-respected Judge Ogden of the highly regarded Ogden family had to resolve differences, both in his outward appearance and inside of his head. Trying to be balanced in judging his response to the Stamp Act and leaving his high position in the New Jersey Legislature gave him pause to his usefulness in the oncoming war. Detached from his cherished church and removed from the centuries-old Elizabethtown home of his family to be banished to the wilderness of Sussex County, he became entangled in a life-or-death robbery and a forced oath to keep quiet. With the safety of the lives of his family and his sons fighting in the war remaining in the balance, Ogden finally "did the right thing" in exposing the robbers and perhaps saving lives. After the war, Ogden was a primary agent of the new Sparta Presbyterian Church-devoted in faith from his meeting house to the grand building that is still in use, prospered in Christian blessings, and his family grew in numbers and deeds in the new American journey.