Col Josiah Ogden

Col. Josiah Ogden was a leading member of the community, a pillar of the First Church. He was a man of energy, wealth and influence. His father was David Ogden, who came from Elizabethtown and settled in Newark about the year 1676. Col. Josiah’s mother was the noted Elizabeth Swaine, whose first husband, the gallant Josiah Ward, died soon after the settlement of the town, leaving her a comely widow. From 1716 to 1721 the colonel represented the town in the General Assembly. He appears to have been a man of strong individuality, holding positive and decided views regarding things spiritual as well as things temporal. On a certain Sunday in the fall of some year close to 1733, Col. Ogden, contrary to a rule of the First Church, went into his field and saved his wheat, which was exposed to serious loss from long-continued rains. En passant, it may be remarked that Col. Josiah seems to have been, like many truly good and worthy Christian people of the present day, a firm believer in the new dispensation which says the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. For his daring conduct he was subjected to the discipline of the church, accused of having violated the sanctity of the Lord’s Day, and publicly censured. The Presbytery reversed the decision of the church, righteously deeming the act of Col. Ogden one of imperative necessity, and tried to pour oil on the troubled waters. It was too late. Around Col. Ogden rallied a considerable body, who openly began to declare themselves dissatisfied with the Presbyterian form of church government. A bitter controversy ensued. Col. Ogden carried the matter to the Philadelphia Synod. For several years an animated correspondence took place. Jonathan Dickinson, the distinguished Presbyterian divine, was called to the pulpit to controvert certain strong points in Episcopacy, and controversial pamphlets passed between him and Rev. John Beach, a Connecticut Episcopalian. "Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth!" Out of this trivial matter sprang the Episcopal Church in Newark, and a conflagration of local feeling which it took nearly half a century to entirely extinguish. "This separation," says Dr. McWhorter, "was the origin of the greatest animosity and alienation between friends, townsmen, Christians, neighbors and relatives that the town ever beheld. The storm of religious separation and rigor wrought tumultuously. The openly-declared Episcopalians were few in comparison to the Presbyterians; yet there were two leaders, one on each side, who were pretty equally poised in point of abilities, wealth, connections and ambition. This religious brand," adds the doctor, "kindled a flame which was not extinguished till the conclusion of the late war," the Revolutionary war. During the Ogden excitement Pastor Webb seems to have had small influence, either as a controversialist or as a pacificator. We are told that he possessed no gifts for controversy, and was hated and contemned by the new party, while sinking into neglect and disrespect with the other. Upon application of a majority of the congregation, he was dismissed by the Presbytery in 1736. Mr. Webb appears, however, to have been a good, faithful, painstaking pastor. In 1731, while visiting friends in Connecticut in company with his son, both were drowned in crossing Saybrook Ferry, on Connecticut River. Col. Ogden, the founder of Trinity Church, died in 1763, at a ripe old age. He was buried somewhere in the old burying ground.