Josephine E. Marshall was born around 1842 in Mississippi to Levin and Sarah Marshall. Her father was a farmer who owned $35,000 of real estate and $186,000 of personal property by 1860. The family lived in Adams County, Mississippi. She married John R. Ogden on November 19, 1862, and they had at least five children: John, born around 1866; Charlotte, born around 1868; Sarah, born around 1872; Mary, born around 1874; and Josephine, born around 1879. Her husband served as a captain in the Confederate army.
They lived in Adams County, Mississippi, and her husband worked as a farmer. By 1870, they owned $200 of personal property, and they employed a Black cook. The family moved to Westchester County, New York, around 1877, and her husband died in March 1900. By June 1900, she was living in New York City. She died of pneumonia in New York City on January 10, 1926.