1841-1897
William A. Ogden (1841-1897)

Oc­to­ber 10, 1841, Frank­lin Coun­ty, Ohio.

Oc­to­ber 14, 1897, To­le­do, Ohio.

When Ogden was six years old, his fam­i­ly moved to In­di­a­na. He be­gan stu­dy­ing mu­sic in lo­cal sing­ing schools at age 8, and could read church mu­sic fair­ly well by age 10. A lit­tle la­ter, he could write a mel­o­dy by hear­ing it sung or played. When he was 18, he be­came a chor­ist­er in his home church.

At the out­break of the Amer­i­can ci­vil war, Og­den en­list­ed in the 30th In­di­a­na Vol­un­teer In­fant­ry. Dur­ing the war he or­gan­ized a male choir, which be­came well known throug­hout the Ar­my of the Cum­ber­land.

After the war, Og­den re­turned home and re­sumed his mu­sic­al stu­dies. Among his teach­ers were Low­ell Ma­son, Tho­mas Hast­ings, E. E. Bai­ly, and B. F. Bak­er, pres­i­dent of the Bos­ton Mu­sic School. As his skills de­vel­oped, Ogden is­sued his first song book, The Sil­ver Song, in 1870; it be­came im­mense­ly pop­u­lar, sell­ing 500,000 co­pies. He went on to pub­lish num­er­ous other song books.

In ad­di­tion to com­pos­ing, Og­den taught at ma­ny schools in the Unit­ed States and Ca­na­da. In 1887, he be­came sup­er­in­tend­ent of mu­sic in the pub­lic schools of To­le­do, Ohio. His works in­clude:

  1. Baptize Us Anew
  2. Everlasting Life
  3. He Is Able to De­li­ver Thee
  4. I’ve a Mess­age from the Lord
  5. On a Christ­mas Morn­ing
  6. Ring Out the Bells for Christ­mas
  7. Scattering Pre­cious Seed
  8. Seeking the Lost
  9. Where He Leads I’ll Fol­low
  10. Working, O Christ, with Thee
  1. All Things Are Rea­dy
  2. Bright For­ev­er­more, The
  3. Bring Them In
  4. Clark’s Grove
  5. Come to the Feast
  6. Eye of Faith, The
  7. Gathering Home
  8. Gracious Re­deem­er, The
  9. More Than Con­quer­ors
  10. Star in the East
  11. Steer To­ward the Light
  12. There Is Joy
  13. We’ll Work
Og­den’s bur­i­al place