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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
Newspaperman Herschel Coombs Ogden (January 12, 1869-March 31, 1943) was born near Fairmont. In 1888, with a bachelor of arts degree from West Virginia University, he relocated to Wheeling and entered the newspaper business. Ogden founded the Wheeling Daily News in 1890, which in 1935 merged with the Wheeling Register to become the present Wheeling News-Register. He purchased the historic Wheeling Intelligencer in 1904 and began to build the largest and most influential newspaper chain in West Virginia, today’s Ogden Newspapers, Inc.
Ogden was an influential citizen of Wheeling and West Virginia. He led the state’s tax reform fight of 1932 and helped in the adoption of the Workmen’s Compensation Act and the West Virginia Child Labor Law. H. C. Ogden encouraged Wheeling to establish its first public high school and a school for vocational education. He also led the movement to create Oglebay Park and Oglebay Institute.
H. C. Ogden married Mary Frances Moorehouse in 1890 and they had two daughters and five grandchildren. Grandson George Ogden Nutting (1935-2023) and, later, great-grandson Bob Nutting later headed the family company, which currently owns newspapers in West Virginia and other states, as well as Mother Earth News, Grit, Outdoor Times, and other magazines. H. C. Ogden is buried at Greenwood Cemetery.
Written by Margaret Brennan
Wheeling News-Register, 2/1-3/1943.
DeFrancis, Robert. H. C. Ogden. 1994