My Genealogy Hound

HON. ANDREW W. ROGERS, one of the most worthy representatives of the Johnson County Bar, has been engaged in legal practice in Warrensburg for the past thirty years. He was elected to the State Legislature in the fall of 1882, and did effective work on many of the committees. In 1875 he was made Prosecuting Attorney and held the position two years. The cause of education finds in him a sincere friend; for six or seven years he has been a member of the Board of Regents of the State Normal School, and served on the Public-school Board about eight years previous, during which time he was President of both bodies.

Col. Thomas Rogers, the father of our subject, was born in Loudoun County, Va., in 1782, and while he was still a mere child emigrated with his father, William Rogers, to Woodford County, Ky. Later he was a resident of Bourbon County, and about 1800 settled near Chillicothe, Ohio, when that city was composed of only a few cabins. When the War of 1812 broke out Col. Thomas Rogers served as Lieutenant under General McArthur, and was a part of the army which Hull surrendered at Detroit. He was three times married, Andrew W. being a child of his second union. At an early day he became one of the pioneers of Highland County, Ohio, where he owned a large tract of land, and his death occurred in Greenfield, Ohio, in 1872. He was a very active worker in the campaign of 1840 as a Whig, but later was a Free-soiler and a strong anti-slavery man. He voted for Fremont in 1856, and before his death saw the final destruction of slavery. Religiously he was a Presbyterian, being an Elder for many years, and was also a strong temperance man. About 1820 he married Nancy Watts, the mother of our subject, who bore him eight children.

Andrew W. Rogers was born about four miles south of Greenfield, Ohio, March 12, 1825, and in his boyhood received good training and a fair common-school education. He remained on the home farm until reaching his majority, and in 1846 entered the preparatory department of the Miami University of Oxford, Ohio. After graduating from the classical course in the year 1851 he went South, where he taught school. February 6, 1852, he married Sallie J., daughter of Prof. Thomas and Isabella (Brown) Mathews. Her father was Professor of Mathematics in Oxford, Ohio, and was a man of superior attainments.

While having charge of the County Academy at Raleigh, Tenn., ten miles from Memphis, Mr. Rogers finished the preparatory study of law, and was admitted to the Bar in the spring of 1853, in Memphis. The same year he moved to Bloomington, Ill., where he opened an office for practice, and there he continued to dwell for the next five years. Then, going to Carbondale, Ill., he practiced there until 1862, and canvassed on behalf of the Union for nearly a year. He aided in raising the Eighty-first Regiment of Infantry in 1862, and was elected its Major. After serving on post duty at Cairo, Ill., he was sent with the regiment to Humboldt, Tenn., and was held there with the reserve force while the battle of Corinth was fought. Next the regiment was sent to La Grange, Tenn., and was assigned to the Third Division, Seventeenth Army Corps, General Grant Commander-in-Chief. Prior to the Vicksburg campaign, he, with his regiment, was engaged in various skirmishes. May 1, 1863, he was in the battle of Ft. Gibson; May 12, at Raymond, Miss.; May 14, Jackson; May 16, Baker’s Creek; and May 17, Big Black; then in the investment and siege of Vicksburg, which ended July 4, 1863.

While in the service our subject served as President of several courts-martial. May 22, 1863, his Colonel having been killed in an assault on the works at Vicksburg, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and in March, 1864, he was given command of the regiment, which was assigned to duty on the Red River campaign under Gen. A. J. Smith, the campaign lasting over seventy days. After taking Ft. De Russy they went by boat to Alexandria, then by land to Grand Ecore, or Natchitoches, and there were assigned to the river fleet. After reaching the mouth of Loggy Bayou, with the intelligence of the defeat of the main army the fleet received orders to retreat down the river. They had to fight their way back to Grand Ecore, where they again met the main army.

Subsequently our subject was in the fight with Forrest at Guntown, Miss., after which, August 20, 1864, he was commissioned Colonel of the Eighty-first, and took part in the campaign against Price in Missouri. From St. Louis he was sent to Nashville, at the time of the siege by Hood, and thence went to New Orleans. In the spring of 1865 he was placed in the Sixteenth Army Corps, Third Brigade, Third Division. From New Orleans he went by steamer to Dauphin Island, then by boat up Fish River, thence across the country, and with his regiment opened the fight in the investment and siege of Spanish Fort, March 27, 1865. The fort was taken April 8, and on the 25th of the month the army arrived in Montgomery, Ala., where they first learned of Lee’s surrender and the assassination of President Lincoln. With his regiment our subject was mustered out at Vicksburg, and was finally discharged in Chicago, August 11, 1865.

The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Rogers was blessed with four children, all of whom are living: Isabella C., who married W. T. Urie, of Kansas City, manufacturer of dredging machinery; Stanley T., an attorney-at-law of Kansas City; Anna G., wife of Arthur W. Fish, who is in the employ of Appleton & Co., of Chicago; and Elizabeth F., who is still at home. The parents are members of the Episcopal Church, with which they have been identified since the year 1884, previous to which time they were connected with the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Rogers is a member of the Masonic fraternity, having joined the order while in the army, and has also filled all the principal chairs in Corinthian Lodge No. 265, A. F. & A. M., and of De Mola Lodge No. 26, R. A. C. For three years he was Commander of Colonel Grover Post No. 78, G. A. R., and while at college was one of the founders of the Greek-letter society. Phi Delta Theta, which has since spread all over the United States.