arriving there at evening. The man who had accomplished their ransom and who stood anxiously at the gate of the Fort to receive them was Peter Skene Ogden, then the ranking Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company at the Columbia river headquarters, Vancouver, who, immediately upon hearing of the massacre, had hurried up the Columbia over two hundred miles to the rescue. What wonder that the name of Mr. Ogden has been held in kind remembrance by the survivors of this massacre and their descendants, and the pioneers of Oregon! The story of his life must be somewhat incomplete, but such facts as have been gathered together reveal a man of unusual force and character who was intimately connected with many stirring events of the early history of "Old Oregon" and British Columbia; and a leader whose responsibilities were often great because he was the field officer chosen to execute the most difficult tasks and command the most perilous expeditions. The telling of that,story will fix definitely the dates of extensive explorations in the "Old Oregon" country, and the origin of some of its names, and will include mention of many people prominent during the period of the Hudson's Bay Company's supremacy on the Columbia.
The name Ogden is an honored one in both England and America. It is of Saxon origin, derived from the words Ock and Dean, meaning Oak Vale or Valley, and suggestive of length of years, sturdiness of frame and strength of character. There are in America two prominent branches of the family: the Fairfield Branch of Connecticut, and the Elizabethtown Branch of New Jersey; and it is to the seventh generation of the latter Branch that Peter Skene Ogden belonged. He was descended from, John Ogden, known as The Pilgrim John Ogden, who came from England about the year 1642 and settled first at the easterly end of Long Island, where he founded the present city of Southampton, but about 1668 removed to New Jersey, and there he and his descendants acquired estates where the cities of Elizabethtown and
