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The Ogden family papers consist of letters and legal documents related to members of the Ogden family of New York State, particularly David A. Ogden, Thomas L. Ogden, and Gouverneur Ogden.

The Ogden family papers consist of three fairly discrete groups relating to members of the Ogden family of New York State:

• Papers of David A. Ogden (19 items, 1811-1819)
• Ogden Family Papers (ca. 5000 items, 1790-1850)
• Papers of Gouverneur Ogden (28 items; 1791-1810)

The David A. Ogden group records Ogden's efforts between 1811 and 1819 to persuade the Monroe administration to remove the Seneca Indians from the 200,000 acres in western New York that he and his associates had purchased from the Holland Land Company. Included are the sales agreement, the articles forming the Ogden Land Company, and a long memorial to President Monroe. The David A. Ogden manuscripts include three letters from Lewis Cass and two to John C. Calhoun.

The bulk of the Ogden family series consists of the legal papers of the brothers, David A. and Thomas L. Ogden. Approximately 9 linear feet of materials relate to cases tried by David Ogden in upstate New York, or by his brother Thomas L. Ogden in the vicinity of New York City. The legal records include a complete index of litigants, and a vast quantity of material relating to Indian reservation lands in western New York and other property transactions, as well as the dealings of the Ogden Land Company, the Holland Land Company, and the St. Lawrence Turnpike Company. Personal and family correspondence is made up primarily of letters addressed to David A. and Thomas L. Ogden.

The Holland Land Company (HLC) materials include extensive correspondence between the Ogdens and Paul Busti, general agent for the HLC, as well as legal files from cases in which the company's disputes were adjudicated. Once the HLC decided to sell its three million acres west of the Genesee River to individual landholders rather than to proprietors, the HLC became involved in a wide variety of other pursuits. In order to attract settlers to western New York, the company financed the construction of mills and other crucial commercial ventures; it promoted the construction of the Erie Canal, employing David A. Ogden's political influence in Albany and donating 100,000 acres of land to help pay for the canal's construction; and it tried to facilitate the availability of credit to prospective land owners.

Because he was one of the most prominent lawyers in New York City, Thomas L. Ogden represented some of the city's most powerful merchants and land owners in a variety of court cases that illuminate both the economic arrangements that permitted the rise of commercial capitalism and the legal instruments through which those arrangements were made. Finally, the documents from Thomas L. Ogden's law practice also reveal much about the law's effect on more ordinary matters, from the settlement of estates to the pursuit of actions for defamation of character.

The Gouverneur Ogden manuscripts consist mostly of outgoing correspondence relating to business concerns in western New York and land transactions.

The Suckley family papers provide documentation of family life, mercantile business, and the Methodist Church in antebellum New York City.

This Suckley collection is only a small residuum of a much larger collection, yet what remains provides important documentation of several aspects of nineteenth century life, particularly relating to commercial life in antebellum New York City and the Methodist Church.

Boxes 1 and 2 consists primarily of in-coming correspondence dated between 1791 and 1839, centering on the personal and professional life of George Suckley, with the earliest material originating in the family of his first wife, Miss Lang, in England. The letters contain some information on English Methodism (1:1-6, 16-18). Of particular interest are the letters of the Methodist missionary, Francis Asbury (1:10-11) and of the wife of Richard Reece, who began his itinerant ministry in 1787 (The Christian Advocate and Journal, May 13, 1846, contains a brief sketch of Reece's life). The letters of Catherine Rutsen Suckley and Joseph Holdich include discussions of the Methodist Church in America, and the missionary Freeborn Garretson, is discussed in several letters (1:21-23,25,26,32).

George Suckley's business correspondence includes dealings with the English firm of Holy, Newbould and Suckley (1:33-42,47) and two sets of letters from agents who Suckley retained to manage his vast land holdings, John Reed in upstate New York and John Rangeley in Maine. Among the personal correspondence are several letters from Philadelphia lawyer(?) Cornelius Comegys and letters from three of George Suckley's sons. John Lang Suckley wrote frequently to request money to pay his servants; Rutsen Suckley assisted in managing his father's properties, and Thomas Holy Suckley was a college student.

Box 3 contains family correspondence written after George's death in 1846. Among the family members represented are George's children Rusten, Mary, and Thomas Holy Suckley, and his grandson Dr. George Suckley (1830-1869). George's letters are the most intrinsically interesting, as they were written during a period in the 1850s when he was practicing in Oregon and Washington Territory and considering land investments in California. During this same period, Dr. Suckley was the recipient of several letters from David and Jack Green (apparently cousins of some sort). One item (3:39) relates to George's Civil War service. The later correspondence heavily concerns New York charities. One interesting letter (3:52) is a stableman's apology for drunkenness on Christmas.

Boxes 5 through 9 are arranged in folders by subject. Of particularly interest are materials that document the various New York City rental properties owned by Rutsen Suckley, recording rents collected and upkeep expenses between the 1840s and 1870s. The cost of living in New York can be calculated from bills and receipts for a wide range of products and services.