The Old Field Desk

The old field desk intrigued me the moment my great Aunt mentioned its existence and wondered if I might like to have it.   It belonged, she said, to one of our Revolutionary War ancestors, though she wasn't precisely certain which.  In any case, it was packed away either in the depths of her rent controlled apartment in New York or down at the Jersey Shore where she spent her summers and unavailable for examination.  We were neither of us in any great hurry to track it down, and twenty years would pass before I finally saw the object in question.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, military field desks were used by officers on campaign to store their writing materials, provide a writing surface and keep their regimental records.  Such desks were little more than hinged boxes, often made of mahogany with metal reinforced edges and recessed handles to facilitate storage.  Some had inner compartments and unfolded to create more "desktop".  This one has all of these features, but held another surprise as well.

My great Aunt had thought that this field desk had belonged to one of two people.  One possibility was Matthias Ogden, Colonel of the 1st New Jersey Continentals and the brother of my direct ancestor Aaron Ogden, a captain in the same regiment and also brigade major.  The other was that it had belonged to Francis Barber, their good friend and brother-in-law who was Lt. Colonel of the 3rd New Jersey and a divisional staff officer under Sullivan.  Francis Barber was killed at the very end of the war by a falling tree as he rode toward Washington's New Windsor Headquarters on the Hudson.  Both of these field-grade officers undoubtedly had their own field desks, but it was not clear to me why our branch of the family should have one for them until I saw the nameplate on the top of the desk and my Aunt's uncharacteristic confusion as to its ownership suddenly made sense.

Francis Barber Ogden (1783-1857) was the son of Matthias and Hannah Dayton Ogden, born the same year that his father's comrade-in-arms Francis Barber was killed.  His name is clearly readable on the brass plate recessed and screwed into the cracked mahogany of the field desk cover, though I would need an expert to tell me whether it is original or perhaps replaced an earlier one belonging to his father.  Though finely made, the piece shows the wear and tear of two centuries but its historical value even in its current condition makes any thought of restoration firmly out of the question.

Francis Barber Ogden had a distinguished diplomatic career as US Consul to Liverpool (1829-1840) and Bristol (1840-1857) and was a pioneer in nautical steam engines:

"Mr. Ogden devoted attention to mechanical science, and is credited with having first applied the important principles of the expansive power of steam and the employment of right angular cranks in marine engines. In 1813 he receded a patent for low-pressure condensing engines with two cylinders, the steam working expansively and the cranks being adjusted at right angles, and in 1817 the first engine ever constructed on this principle was built by him in Leeds, Yorkshire. He submitted his plan at Soho to James Watt, who declared at once that it would make "a beautiful engine" and that the combination was certainly original. The first screw propeller that was introduced into practical use and carried into successful operation was brought out by John Ericsson on Thames river in May, 1837, and was called the "Francis B. Ogden." The first propeller in the waters of the United States was the "Robert F. Stockton," an iron boat, which was built at Liverpool under the superintendence of Mr. Ogden."

Ericsson, you will recall, was the inventor who designed the USS Monitor.

Princeton University has in its collections a letter from Sam Houston dated 1843 appointing Francis Barber Ogden consul for the Republic of Texas in Liverpool.

With all his engineering experiments and diplomatic responsibilities, he seems to have had little occasion to use a military field desk.  In fact, his only military service was during the War of 1812, but it was of singularly significance nonetheless.   For Francis Barber Ogden was among General Andrew Jackson's aides-de-camp at the Battle of New Orleans.  In all probability, this is the desk he used during that battle.

As for how the desk came back to our family, I can only speculate.  I do know that Francis Barber Ogden was not the only one in our family with a deep interest in steam-powered vessels.  His uncle and my ancestor Aaron Ogden was deeply engaged in an early steam ferry service between New Jersey and New York.  The US Supreme Court decision that upheld the federal government's ability to regulate interstate commerce, Gibbons v Ogden, ended the monopoly that Aaron had been assigned by steamboat tycoons Robert Livingston and Robert Fulton and cost him his fortune. 

In our family papers I find an indenture for the sale of land, dated October 30, 1815, signed by Aaron Ogden and witnessed by his nephew Francis Barber Ogden.  Perhaps it was then, fresh from victory in Louisiana and before setting out for England, that he gave his uncle the desk.  His own father had died of yellow fever at 36 in 1791, so the relationship between them may have been more like father and son.  However it came about, Francis Barber Ogden's field desk is an extraordinary piece of American history and a treasured part of our family's past.

Comments

[Grace]

I just found this entry while I was reading about field desks online. What a treasure for your family!

"Though finely made, the piece shows the wear and tear of two centuries but its historical value even in its current condition makes any thought of restoration firmly out of the question."

Not all "restoration" is bad. Perhaps you're thinking of people on the Antiques Road Show who say, "This would have been worth $X000 if you hadn't had it restored!" but in those instances, the term "restoration" is used to describe refurbishing something, stripping off the old and making everything look new. However, "conservation" (the preferred term) can be very beneficial to an item like your desk, repairing the cracks and stabilizing any damage to prevent further deterioration. If you search for a furniture conservator who abides by a conservation code of ethics, the treatment should be excellent. Conservation is concern for the physical health of the item rather than just giving it a facelift.

http://aic.stanford.edu/public/index.html

Hope you don't mind my butting in! I couldn't help speaking up for the trade!
-Grace (conservator)

[GreenmanTim]

I received the following communication and thought it and my reply might interest readers of this blog. [Ed]

"Dear Tim,
I was most interested to find your article on the field desk of Francis Barber Ogden as he has a connection with my husband's family. His wife, Louisa Sarah Pownall, was born in Liverpool in 1819 and was the second cousin of my husband's great-grandfather. Since finding the record of her marriage to Francis Barber Ogden in 1837 I have been doing some research on his life and career. I know that Francis died in Bristol on 4 July 1857 but I have so far been unable to establish the date of Louisa's death. The will of her father, William Pownall, was proved at Chester on 27 May 1857 and makes no mention of her, although he does mention his two sons, James and William, another daughter, Frances, and his grandson, Francis Barber Ogden. Do you have any information on this son of Louisa and Francis Barber Ogden? All I know is that he was born in Seacombe, Cheshire, in 1839 and that he died (according to the IGI) on 4 Jan 1891. I have a copy of a passenger list for the 'Baltic', arriving New York from Liverpool on 29 Sep 1856, which contains the name of Francis Barber Ogden Jr, aged 20,who is described as a US Consul, but I do not know what became of him after that. I would be most grateful for any information you might be able to give me.

With best wishes,

Kath Ward (Sheffield, UK)"

And here is my reply:

"Dear Kath; How lovely to hear that my post on Francis Barber Ogden's field desk was of such interest. In William Ogden Wheeler's genealogy; The Ogden Family: Elizabethtown Branch; there are two pages dedicated to Col. Barber and his descendants (252, 253). Of his wife, Louisa S. Pownall, it mentions her father William, of Liverpool, and that her family "are said to be of great antiquity in the County of Chester, England" but little else besides. According to Wheeler, they had but two children, making one suspect she might have died of complications from childbirth and might be buried in Liverpool or perhaps more likely in Seacombe, Chester Co., where her second child was born as you will see, below.

The children were Georgiana Blanche Ogden (b. 1838 d. 1840) and Francis Barber Ogden, Jr. (b. Seacombe, Chester Co., Eng. April 20, 1839 ; d. New York City Jan 20, 1891). This is your Francis Barber Ogden Jr., aged 20, but it was his father who was the US Consul. Andrew Jackson appointed the father Consul of the U.S. to Liverpool in 1829 and he served in that office until 1840. He would have met Louisa S. Pownall while in Liverpool, as her father was from that place. He was subsequently transfered to Bristol by President Van Buren where he served until his death on our Independance Day, 1857.

There is a brief biographical note on the son:

"He was the author of the first Ogden chart, which in a few instances has been found incorrect, yet upon which all subsequent investigations have built. He was prominent in Roman Catholic circles [here I suspect a conversion, as the Ogden family were Episcopalians], and never married. He was Secretary of the Society of the Cincinnati of the State of New Jersey, and one of its leading members. He died suddenly on the morning of Friday, january 20, 1891, in the passage-way to the Recxtor St. Station of the Elevated Railroad, New York City."

And so perhaps you now have answered a question for me: namely, how the field desk came to our branch of the family. If Francis Barber Ogden Sr. did not give it to his Uncle, my ancestor Aaron Ogden, before departing for his long term of service in England, the son would have brought it back with him to the states and reunited with close relatives in the Society of Cincinnati (the first-born sons of Washington's officers and their descendants). Either before his death or after his will was probated in 1891, the desk could have come to my gr-great grandfather, Dayton Ogden, who was second cousin to Francis B. Ogden Jr. and also in the Cincinnati. An intriguing possibility!

I can give you plenty of data on the prior generations in the Ogden Family. Another post at my blog discusses the Revolutionary service of Matthias Ogden, father of Francis Barber Sr. http://greensleeves.typepad.com/berkshires/2007/02/treason_tests_a.html Do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any futher assistance and best of luck with your search.

Sincerely;

Tim Abbott"