Ogden Bodey
While researching Civil War era veterans from the 150th New York Infantry Regiment, I stumbled across Ogden Bodey. His family story is so incomprehensible and tragic that I felt the need to share it with you.
It features war, the California Gold Rush, a sudden disappearance, a Wild West boomtown and its demise, and an unfortunate litany of random deaths within one brood that is brutal in its magnitude.
Ogden Bodey was born in Poughkeepsie on June 1, 1846, to Waterman S. Bodey and Sarah Wolcock Bodey. In 1862, Ogden enlisted into the 150th Regiment as a musician/drummer. He lied about his age to enter the Civil War at 16.
During his three year tenure as a Union soldier, he participated in some of the most monumental events of the war, including the Battle of Gettysburg and Sherman’s March to the Sea. When the conflict ended in 1865, he was in Washington, D.C. and decided to leave the military. When he returned home, he found work as a tinsmith in Poughkeepsie, and then in Newark, New Jersey.
On January 3, 1871, five and a half years after fighting valiantly in the bloodiest struggle in our nation’s history, Ogden fell to his death from the rooftop of a building he was working on.
Ogden’s fate is just one chapter in the tragic saga of the Bodey family. His mother gave birth to five children from 1839 to 1848. After Ogden’s fall, all five were dead. The fate of the father, known to many as W.S. Bodie, was just as calamitous.
New York City Origins
Waterman Sipple Bodey was born on Friday the 13, 1814 on Duane Street in New York City, just a few blocks west of City Hall. As a young man in the late 1830’s, W.S. went into business as a co-proprietor of a bar named Bodey & Lewis Porterhouse, just on the outskirts of New York City’s infamous Five Points District.1
W.S Bodey’s future wife, Sarah Wolcock, was born in New York City on June 22, 1820. Her father, Thomas Wolcock, emigrated from England to New York before she was born. He was a tinsmith and coach lamp maker by profession. Thomas committed suicide during the Panic of 1839, an early US economic crisis.2
It’s unclear when W.S. and Sarah were married. However, their first son, Philip, was born on April 29, 1839. In 1840, W.S. also decided to leave his porterhouse establishment to become a tinsmith, joining the same trade as his father in-law & brother-in-law.3
Philip A. Bodey’s Death
On March 15, 1841, Philip, the Bodey’s first born child, died a month before his second birthday. Their second son, George, was born a month earlier, on February 14, 1841.
Poughkeepsie
W.S. and Sarah Bodey moved to Poughkeepsie in either 1841 or 1842. W.S. integrated into the community by joining the Poughkeepsie Fire Department. He also became a member of the Local Odd Fellow’s Union. Sarah joined the Poughkeepsie Baptist Church in 1843.
The Poughkeepsie Village Directory of July 1843 lists Waterman S. Bodey as working as a tinsmith on Cannon Street. Between 1845 and 1848, W.S. worked for the Stove and Plow Store at 354 Main Street.4, 5
W.S. was heavily into politics. He vied for several local seats on the Native American Party ticket. The Native American Party in Poughkeepsie ran on an anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic platform that believed immigrants shouldn’t vote until they’ve lived in the country for 21 years. The Native American Party changed to the American Party, which later became known as the anti-immigration Know Nothing Party.6
W.S. Bodey Sails for California
In 1848, the California Gold Rush began to gain great attention among the Eastern population. A small group from Poughkeepsie were excited enough to create their own party to go west. One of this group included W.S. Bodey. The crew fitted out a 118-ton schooner ship named the Matthew Vassar, and began their perilous months-long trip around Cape Horn, and up toward California.
An article on the ships preparation for the voyage to California is listed in the Poughkeepsie Eagle on September 1, 1849.
The “Matthew Vassar” sailed from Poughkeepsie on October 11, 1849, to pick up lumber and dry goods from a merchant named Patrick Raleigh in New York City. After a seven month voyage the ship arrived in San Francisco in May of 1850.
When the crew disembarked in San Francisco, the shipmates decided to go their separate ways to seek fortune. Bodey settled in San Francisco for a short time, opening up a dry goods store. The business eventually went bust. It was then he decided to seek gold in the mountain districts of El Dorado.
In 1859, Bodey, leading a group of fellow miners, struck a surface vein with massive quantities of gold. The mine was secured and named after him. In November of that year, Bodey decided to winter near his find with a companion, only to be caught in a raging blizzard. The two tried to find shelter in a nearby settlement. The companion survived but Bodey disappeared.
For 20 years there was no trace of him, dead or alive.
It’s difficult to describe in words what befell the lives of W.S. and the rest of his family members. Come back next time for Part 2 of the Bodey’s of Poughkeepsie Saga!
References
1) Gariaeff, Nick. Discovering Bodie. Nick Gariaeff, 2020.
2) Gariaeff, Nick. Discovering Bodie. Nick Gariaeff, 2020.
3) Gariaeff, Nick. Discovering Bodie. Nick Gariaeff, 2020.
4) Luyster, Cornelius.P. C.P. Luyster’s Directory For The Village of Poughkeepsie; July 1843. Isaac Platt, 1843. 5) Gariaeff, Nick. Discovering Bodie. Nick Gariaeff, 2020.
6) Gariaeff, Nick. Discovering Bodie. Nick Gariaeff, 2020.
Images
“Recruiting.” Newspapers.Com, The Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, 27 Aug. 1862, newscomny.newspapers.com/image/113925701/.
newscomny.newspapers.com/image/115233713/?terms=Matthew%20Vassar&pqsid=21HqZ_84x WzBvAtDRbm1Sg%3A86408%3A1276720332&match=1 . Accessed 30 Nov. 2023.
1 Sep 1849; pg. 2
“Recruiting.” Newspapers.Com, The Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, 27 Aug. 1862, newscomny.newspapers.com/image/113925701/.
newscomny.newspapers.com/image/115233713/?terms=Matthew%20Vassar&pqsid=21HqZ_84x WzBvAtDRbm1Sg%3A86408%3A1276720332&match=1 . Accessed 30 Nov. 2023.
1 Sep 1849; pg. 2