Family background
Alexander Ralph Ogden was born on 6 March 1864, on the south coast of NSW, the second son of Frederic Ogden and Mary Ann Phelan, who were from Derbyshire, England. Frederic Ogden was a painter and the family lived at Sussex Street, Sydney.
In 1883 Alexander Ogden married Amy Mullens (or Mullins) in Sydney. They had four children, a son and three daughters. In the early 1890s they lived in Redfern and Surry Hills – at Melrose Terrace, Young Street and Baptist Street, Redfern and at Cleveland Street, Surry Hills.
Ogden died suddenly on 2 March 1923, aged 59 years, a ‘well known’ contractor and property owner, then living in Waratah Street, Rushcutters Bay. He was buried at Waverley Cemetery.
Occupation & interests
Alexander Ogden was a builder and contractor in and around Redfern in the 1880s and early 1890s. In November 1891 his partnership with Ferdinand Hamburger, a timber merchant in Pyrmont, was dissolved while, at the same time, Ogden sold a sawmill, with its plant and machinery, also located in Pyrmont. In December that year his workshop and stores, consisting of two floors 33ft by 22ft, in Young Lane, Redfern were damaged by fire. In 1894 he was declared bankrupt.
Local government service
Ogden was elected as an alderman for the Surry Hills Ward, Redfern Council, for three years, in February 1890. He stood for election again in 1893, being defeated by Henry Vernon, whose election he then challenged in court. His challenge – that two married women and two ‘aliens’ had illegally voted in the election – was upheld but he was defeated by Vernon in the subsequent poll for the extraordinary vacancy.
References
‘Borough of Redfern’, NSW Government Gazette, 11 February 1890 (No.75), p. 1251, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/223596066
‘Advertising’, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 November 1891, p. 1, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13848361
‘Advertising’, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 November 1891, p. 4, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13852800
‘General News’, Daily Telegraph, 31 December 1891, p. 4, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/235944538
‘An Aldermanic Election Upset’, Daily Telegraph, 18 March 1893, p. 3, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/235951890
‘The Position of Fiji’, Daily Telegraph, 11 April 1893, p. 4, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/235946357
‘In Bankruptcy’, NSW Government Gazette, 21 September 1894 (No.623), p. 5999, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/220937762
‘Mr A.R. Ogden’, Sydney Morning Herald, 5 March 1923, p.10, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16063671
‘Probate Jurisdiction’, Government Gazette of the State of NSW, 18 May 1923 (No. 59), p. 2371, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/225019084
NSW State Archives, Bankruptcy Index 1888-1929: File No: 8765; NSW State Archives, Deceased Estates Index 1880-1939: Item No: [19/10261]
Baptism, Burial, Confirmation, Marriage and Composite Registers, Sydney Diocesan Archives, Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney