Henry Ogle 1824 : Short Biography

The following information has been provided by David Broderick, Author of the book, Finding Ogle.

Henry Ogle was born at Curragh, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway in 1824. His parents Henry and Jane worked an average sized farm and would have been deemed to be a middle-class protestant family.

Henry Ogle is recorded as working an Assistant Master at Ballinasloe Workhouse in 1849. In 1850 he takes up the role of master at Portumna Workhouse. In 1862 he marries the Catholic matron at Portumna, Mary Jane Duffy, and they have three children, John T., Henry Junior and Mary.

The arrival of a missionary priest Fr. Patrick Donnellan, at Portumna, in 1862 exposes the maltreatment of the paupers under Ogles care at the Workhouse. A series of inquests and inquiries start off a trail of events that lead to Henry Ogle absconding from Portumna under a shroud of mystery.

The disappearance of Ogle remained a mystery until 2018 when in depth research was undertaken to finally find Henry Ogle. It was discovered that; Henry Ogle secretly made his way from Portumna to Dublin and next sailed to Liverpool. Before boarding a ship, The Manchester to New York, he wrote to his wife informing her to wait on further instructions. The Liverpool postmark on this letter being the only clue to begin the search.

Ogle arrived through Castle Gardens on June 24th, 1865 just over two weeks after absconding. Six months later Mary Jane and the family joined Henry to begin a new life in New York City.

Henry Ogle is recorded through the city directories and census returns as working as a clerk. The family are recorded as having moved frequently while also edging closer to the more prosperous parts of Manhattan. The family appear to be doing well in New York, but they are dealt a devastating blow in 1877, when Henry junior dies at the young age of 12.

Henry Ogle, while avoiding punishment for his shady dealings in Ireland does not live out his years in comfort in New York. He in fact ends up as a patient in an asylum on Wards Island suffering from senile dementia. Contemporary accounts of conditions in these asylums are strikingly like those endured by the paupers at Portumna Workhouse during Ogles reign. Henry Ogle died on Wards Island on April 9th, 1886.

In May 1906, Mary Jane Ogle died during a funeral workers strike which lead to a huge entourage of over one thousand people following her funeral to St. Agnes Church on forty third street. This extraordinary funeral was reported in the New York Times on May 12th, 1906. The report also stated the place of Mary Jane’s burial as Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. This crucial detail was the last clue needed to finally find the last resting place of the missing workhouse master Henry Ogle.

Further information on this story can be found in the publication Finding Ogle. This book can be purchased by contacting the author David Broderick on findingogle@gmail.com or on www.amazon.co.uk/findingogle.

Image Credit: Illustration by Jenny Wood-Sullivan