OGDENSBURG, DIOCESE OF. – A city and diocese in the State of New York (U.S.A.). The diocese, suffragan of New York, has an area of 12,036 square miles and a total population (1950) of 344,053, of whom 124,433 are Catholics; 215 diocesan and religious priests from 8 different congregations exercise the sacred ministry in the diocese’s 113 parishes, 21 chapels, and 41 missions. There is the diocesan seminary, 5 religious seminaries or schools, 2 orphanages, and 4 hospitals; 16 female congregations work in the schools, hospitals, and orphanages.
In 1749, the Sulpician François Picquet established Fort de la Présentation to protect the Christian Mohawks. The first white inhabitants of the territory were Protestants. Around 1700, the Acadians settled on the shore of Lake Champlain and were visited by missionaries from Canada. In 1838, following the Papineau Rebellion in Canada, many Canadian Catholics settled there, and many Irish, driven by the famine then afflicting Ireland.