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.

Sources

Hymns

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

Music

1. All Things Are Ready
2. Bring Them In
3. More Than Conquerors
4. Star in the East
5. There Is Joy