Search this site

Susan (Rogers) Martin Story

NOTE: Susan (Rogers) Martin who wrote the following account of "the Rogers family" was born 15 January 1861 in Tarrant Co., Texas. She was the daughter of William McKendree (Mack) Rogers and his second wife, Susan Catherine Bowles. William M. Rogers was the son of Jesse Rogers who was born 3 March 1791 in Tennessee. Jesse is the son of John Rogers who was born 1 June 1757 in Virginia. At the time Susan wrote this letter, she was 75 years old. She lived to be 91. One of the most interesting aspects of this account is that some of the events she describes actually took place long before she was born even though she describes some of them in the first person as if she was really there.

I have attempted to type the letter just as it was written, as I believe you would want to see it that way, but I have made some footnotes for clarification and to provide additional information. The (sic) annotations are to let the reader know that was the way Susan Martin wrote it and not a typing error by me. I did not use this for the many capitalization "errors" as many of what appears as capitalization errors today may have been the style of the day when written. The intent of my notes is certainly not to criticize this wonderful account, but simply to add clarity and correct obvious errors of fact. My notes are to a large extent based on information provided to me by a descendent of Susan Martin, Martha Crabb, from whom I also obtained this fascinating letter and to whom I am most grateful. I am sure we are all most grateful to Susan Rogers Martin for giving us this wonderful account of life in those early days and some personal information about our ancestors.

Jerry Rogers
Thalkirchdorf, Germany
15 July 1999

The Rogers Family

By Susan Serene Rogers Martin

December 1936

At the request of my children to write the story of my Father’s family I am going to tell the happenings that was told to me, and the things that took place in my life as I remember them.

I am not intending this for publication but it is subject to criticism. If any of my family remembers the few Things that I will mention, I will gladly except their information. I have no Notes to refer to, all that I will write will be from memory.

My grandfather was Jesse Evans Rogers ¹. He was borned (sic) in the state of Tennessee near the City of Chattanooga ²He was of Irish decent and when I first saw him, he looked to be about 5 ft. 7 or 8 inches and would weigh at least 180 at the age of 90 ³. Grand Father’s young and middle life was spent in TN (where he) married and (had) a family of 4 Sons and 3 Daughters. Pap as he was called by his children, was a trader and would rather fish and hunt than to do farm work. Yet they had a Farm and horses and cattle. Corn, Tobacco, potatoes, and vegetables were grown. Now the vegetables seemed to grow easily, but the trouble was there was no bacon to cook with them. Wild turkey and Deer meat wouldn’t take the place of bacon when it come (sic) to seasoning turnip greens.

The bread the family used was made of meal ground from the Corn that was raised on the farm and ground on a water mill built on a small stream that emptied in to the Tennessee River ⁴. The family……wore shoes……made of Bark tanned leather made at home by Pap. The feet protection was moccasin made of deerskin and without a sole.

There were no public schools in the Country for the Children to attend and very little money that could be spared to employ a private teacher, but where there is a will there is always a way. Now and then a subscription school would be taught a few months at a time and by this Method, the youngsters all got a practical education. Two of the Sons were Licensed Ministers and one was a Licensed Doctor. A subscription school is supported by the families that patronize the school.

Grand Pap was unsettled, and had a roving disposition. He loved to see Things, go where there were (sic) plenty of game to be Killed, and would go in Camp for several months at a time and Kill and Cure wild Meat for the family. He always Managed to Keep the wagons and teams and when hunting and fishing weren’t interesting he would go to a farming section. Then the Mother and Children were happy. They wanted a place that they could call home. I have heard my father tell a sad story of one little sister that was more effected by the family moving from place to place than the rest of the children. She would say lets go home. I want to go home and when Pap wouldn’t break camp and take her in to the settlement, she died in camp and they buryed (sic) her by the road side.

My Father, William McKinra Rogers ⁵, was borned (sic) January 30, 1817 and was the first son of Pap’s family and answered to the name of Mack. Now Mack was a very truthful, honest and dependent (sic) boy and when Pap would send him out on any Kind of errand, such as Trading with the few white people in the Cumberland Mountains, he would tell Mc (sic) when to be back at home and Mc never failed to come in at the stated time ⁶.

J.E. (Jesse) Rogers or Grand Pap owned and operated a mill in the Cumberland Mountains that was run by water power. On this mill they made gunpowder, the one and only essential part of the powder that I remember was charcoal. Now to burn this charcoal it was necessary to cut timber and making it into 4 ft. lengths. This wood was upended and placed in a circle commencing in the middle. When enough wood had been added, the pit as it was called was covered with leaves or straw then all was covered again with earth. To burn this coal pit it took weeks and some body had to watch over it or an opening in the wall would let in the air then it would burn into ashes.

Now this gunpowder had to be disposed of and as Mack was the most dependable of the boys it was his task to go among the thinly settled country along the Tennessee River and sell or trade with the white people and Indians. In those days there was very little money and almost everything was excepted in exchange for the gunpowder. Now this gunpowder must be kept dry and in those days, there were no manufactured waterproof containers so the only thing that could be done was to pack the powder in dressed skins.

There was only one way to get this powder to places where it could be sold and that was by a pack horse. No wagon could go across mountains and the country where no road had been traveled only a trail made by the stock that lived in the unsettled country.

When Mack was 14 years old the real trouble for the family began. The boys were chopping wood and clearing some land for farming purposes when Mack cut his foot badly with his chopping axe. Pap was sick with a fever and the weather being warm and the house small Mack hopped out in the open and laid under a big tree that stood near the sick room. While resting there Mack saw his mother come from Pap’s sick bed and she got down on her knees and not knowing or caring for Mack being near and hearing her she asked our Heavenly Father to spare Jessie (sic) from death and give him more time that he might live a better life that he was not prepared to die and that she was ready and willing to go in Pap’s place. Now using my father’s words, his mother was a corpse in 24 hours and his father much improved.

Robert, the babie (sic) was several months old and could sit alone, but he had to be fed, his clothes changed and washed, the girls were too small to be much help so Mack was nurse, cook, housekeeper and in fact was general manager for the motherless children. In caring for Robert, the babie, was very trying on a 14 year old boy. Once in feeding him sweet potato, he thought he had choked the babie to death, but fortunately there is a Heavenly Father that comes to our assistance when we do our best and fail ⁷.

Joe, the second boy was not farming inclined and when he was only turned in the teens (sic), he met a trader in stock. Now this trader was driving west to open range and wanted Joe to go with him so that is the last time the family ever saw of Joe Rogers.

Later, they heard from the herdsman and Joe. They were in McLennen Co, Texas. Joe then owned some cattle and had in his possession some land that he called his Ranch about the time war with the states was declared. The family Received a letter from a woman saying Joe Rogers was dead. There were several letters of inquire written to the woman asking about Joe’s death and if he owned any property, but they never received any answer to any of the letters. At this time the Rogers family lived near Springfield, Missouri. Pap by this time was getting over his traveling disposition and the boys all married and a family to care for and money scarce so nobody went to see if the report of Joe’s death was really true.

Grand Pap soon found that it was necessary to marry again and the children, especially Mack was glad to have a mother again to help with the house work and the children needed clothes and they had to be made by hand. Now this second wife ⁸ had 2 children a girl and a boy. Now Grand mother was glad to have a home for her 2 children and with her willingness to work, the girls had clean dresses and the boys had shirts and there was always something for the family to eat. The food consisted of cornbread dried beans dried fruit thro (sic) the winter months, but fresh vegetables in season and wild turkey almost any time of the year, venison and Bear meat in season.

Grand Pap with his second wife and the boys and girls almost grown (or some of them at least) broke camp in Tenn. and moved to about 15 miles east of Springfield, Missouri ⁹. The Rogers men all secured land in Green(e) and Christian Counties. The Land was school and Government Land and had to be purchased from the United States Land Department. The price of land was 50 cents per acre. (Even) At that low price the new settlers (still) found it very difficult to get the amount of money that was necessary to pay on their new home lands in the west. As it was called at that time.

This Land was not many miles from the Ozark Mountains and was covered with heavy timber. Most of the Land was smooth and good for farming purposes, but had to be cleared of the growth of vegetation. The largest trees were cut down and into lengths and split into rails to be used to fence the land. The limbs from the Rail cuts, the under brush and vines were cut and burned. We are only to the ground now and it is supposed there is as much under the ground as you have took off of it. So you see it was no easy task to clear up a new ground farm in Missouri. The stumps were pulled and piled in ricks and from a distance they looked like Hay stacks.

It required a good team of Horses to plow this new ground, but oxen were more dependable and would stand more hard work than horses or mules. A certain Kind of plow had to be used in breaking this new ground, one with a heavy stock and a sharp nife (sic) or colter in front of the plow point to cut the many roots that had been left in the ground.

Dave Cosby was Grand Pap’s step son ¹⁰ and came with the family to Missouri. He married one of Grand Pap’s girls. Miss Minerva Rogers. Susie Rogers married Mr. (Pleasant B.) Eddings. Sallie (Sarah) Rogers married Mr. (Floyd) Robertson. William McKendree Rogers married Miss (Sarah Wilson) Watts. Reuben Rogers married Miss Watts and many years later she died and Reuben married his wife’s sister ¹¹.

But there were several more of the Watts sisters and when Robert asked for the youngest of the girls, Ritty (Jurrita Wilson)Watts, the old maids said no! But Robert wasn’t discouraged any and frequently would pass the home of the Watts family to see if by luck he could get young Ritty. The Watts family were braves and was a part Indians, and when young Robert would come near the home, the old maid sisters would throw stones at him, but a young Red headed Rogers with Irish blood in his vanes (sic) was not easy to give up. One day he was more fortunate. He saw the girl at the spring, Robert was riding a high headed horse and Ritta (sic) wearing a home spun dress climbed on the horse behind him and away over the hill they went while the sisters showered them with stones. Once in possession of his girl, it wasn’t long until Robert and Ritta were Man and wife.

Mack was a Licensed Methodist minister and lived a mile from Robert’s new log house and in those days you wasn’t required a health certificate nor advertise 3 days before a Marriage License would be granted you. In those times you didn’t need marriage licenses. The Minister pronounced the parties man and wife then the preacher had the marriage recorded at the county by paying fifty cents.

Dave Cosby settled on land joining Mack and Robert Rogers in Green(e) County Missouri and Grand Pap being his step father and Grandma his mother, he gave them a home on his land and built their log house near his own. Grand Pap couldn’t work any more, but Grand Mother could work and did have her own garden of vegetables and tobacco patch, some cows and a few sheep, one horse, a little brown mare that Pap used for his saddle horse. With the help of Grandma he could saddle and mount Shaver (as that is what they called the horse) and come riding down the state highway to Mack’s.

When Grandma came to our house, she walked and Knitted all the time. One Morning she had an unusual adventure. The dog coming with her ran on a heard and was barking furious when Grandma rounded the bend in the road, there was a Bob cat on a tree trunk just out of reach of the Little white dog. Well grand ma wasn’t afraid of a little thing like a bob cat so she got a well seasoned limb and gave it a whack across the head and it tumbled to the ground and the dog killed it.

The sheep that Grand ma owned provided her with wool from which she got her Knitting yarn. The wool was Knitted in to socks and gloves and sold at 25 cents a pair. Grandma could put the stitches of a sock on the needles as she would come to our house and finish it off as she went home.

Grand Pap’s house was near the school house that I first went to and he was often seen on the play ground and enjoyed seeing a fight or battle settled among the big boys. After school had turned out one sunny day some young Men Rode up to the school house and hollowed (sic) school butter that was a dare to the young men at the school and they at once started in a run after them. They went over hills and thro brush and succeeded in capturing one. Then the entire school took him to the Fulton pond, cut a hole in the ice and ducked this young Man as the boys called it. Later that day a man rode up and said Little Willie Wilkerson ¹² is lost. The school was closed for the day and we all went home except those that knew how to locate them selves again in a thinly settled country. They got horses, dogs, and Guns and went in search of the little boy. The dogs were used to locate the direction he went and the guns were to be fired when he was found. Now the shadows were long and night coming down when we began to hear guns firing, We Knew Willie had been found. His homemade linsey dress had caught on a snag and he had walked around and around and twisted it tighter, was pulling at his dress and crying when found. Two little dogs were with him and they tried to protect him. My Brother L.F. Rogers ¹³ was the first to find him and one of the dogs was mine.

Now this was some of the things that happened at Fulton¹⁴ school house where I learned my A.B.C. The building was made of hughed (sic) or split logs and only one Room. The seats were split logs and holes made in the round side and pegs put in for legs. The teacher was a crippled Man, but when the school got to (sic) noisy he could hop out to the woods and cut a Hazel switch and he Knew where and how to use it. I got as far as 4 syllables in the old Blue Bucked spelling Book. There were prises (sic) offered for various advancements and on the last day of school my name was called as one receiving a prize and it frightened me. I thought I had disobeyed and was going to be punished. Then Mr. Elxander gave me a book and said to Susie Rogers for being the most studious in her class. This was about 1872.

My Father, Mack Rogers improved his land with the Material that grew on it, made the Rails that fenced it, cut and hughed the timber that built the home for the wife (Sallie Watts). The house a (sic) was two story high with a stone chimney and a Fire place on the first and second floors, an L or long room was built later from Lumber sawed from logs cut on the Land. This room also had a stone fire place and here is where we cooked, eat, and had room for a bed or two. At one end of this room was a lean too where we put the barrel of Kraut, a Keg or so of pickles, a barrel of pork, home made sorghum, apple Butter, dried punkin (sic), and many other things.

The Barn was also a two story affair. The ground floor was used for cribs of corn and other grain and a thrashing floor where ripe grain was placed and horses were led around and around over it untill (sic) the grain was tromped out of the stray. The grain had to be cleaned by hand by winding the chaff out from the grain. The upper part of the Barn was used for hanging the tobacco which was grown at home for those that used it.

We picked up the stones from a hill side and planted it in Tobacco. Several stalks that grew near the house and in better soil then the rest of the patch was not matured and left when the Main crop was harvested. One Morning I saw those big rank stalks in rags and hurried to tell Father the cows had ruined the Tobacco and he said oh no Sue, the freeze last night did it that way. I don’t like to work with Tobacco. It is difficult to set out the plants. Then it has to be suckered and worked at least once a week. I would rather farm in Texas, (sic) work in the cottonfield.

Wm. Rogers paid for and improved his land he settled on in Missouri and had a good sized family consisting of 6 Boys and 3 girls and when the family need the Mother most, she died. The oldest of the children was a girl and we called her Jane ¹⁵. She was 16 and knew just how to cook and keep house. The boys worked the land and Father Preached. Not many years later Father married Catharine Boals. John T. Boals, (My Grandfather) was a Mason and Justice of the peace and held court in his residence for many years and had the distinction of repeating the Marriage vows to Runaways in less time than it took the Father to arrive on the sceene (sic).

W.M. Rogers realized he was facing a New problem already with a large family and hoping to be successful in raising another family. He found it very necessary to change his place of Residence. With these thoughts in Mind He placed the farm in Uncle Jimmie Grays ¹⁶ controle (sic) and secured a (sic) traveling equipment and with the entire family, headed west. Father had heard that Wise County and Jack County was (sic) very desireable (sic) land for farming also for grazing purposes.

The Rogers family traveling in wagons thro almost a new country from Springfield Misouri (sic) to Jacksboro Texas found the going very slow ¹⁷. There were no highways as exists to day (sic). The water courses were without bridges and had to be forded. The Arkansaw (sic) River had a ferry boat. On arriving at a swolen (sic) stream, we would go in camp several days at a time until the water was low enough to allow us to cross. Then we would drive west for Jack County Texas.

Father with his 6 sons, 2 girls, a second wife and a babie girl looking for a suitable section of country to make their future home and in going west we travailed thro (sic) Ft. Smith, Vanburian Arkansaw (sic) and over the level prairies of Kansas. Thro Oaklahoma (sic) at that time it was the indian Nation. Then thro the Northern part of Texas without seeing the quality of the land either for farming or grazing purposes, but alass (sic) when we arrived in Jack County Texas we didn’t find just the country we were looking for. So father said turn the teams around boys, we will travail (sic) East. The country around Ft. Worth began to attract our attention and we did locate on the devide between the Crosstimbers and Grapevine prairie 18 miles from Ft. Worth and the same distance from Dallas in Tarrant County Texas.

At this early date Texas officials were giving the homeseakers a head right of 160 acres of land. The Father and Mother and each of the children that was (sic) of age received that amount. My Father didn’t ask for a donation of Texas land. He didn’t want but a little place that he could call home. Instead of getting all the land that He could while the getting was good, be bought 175 acres with a small house and a few acres in cultivation.

The trouble with the farmers were they had nothing to fence their land with and without a good fence it was useless to try to raise wheat and corn as that were the only crop we raised those days. Barb wire had not been invented at that early day and rain fall was very uncertain. So the small farmers had to plant corn in January or as early as the weather would permitt (sic).

About the year 1859, the Rogers family was located on a small farm near a village as Grapevine in Tarrant County Texas. Of course the land had to be fenced and the bigest (sic) part sodded (sic) using a team of oxen. Some times 3 or 4 yoak (sic) to a big plow and that was called a prairie team. That was slow going compared to the way plowing is done in Texas to day (sic).

There were 6 Rogers boys and 4 was (sic) large enough to hold a sod plow so they took time about plowing. The boys worked barefooted and a weed we know as stinging nettle was plentiful and it was painful to the bare feet. One boy walked along with the oxen and carried a long whip, but seldom used it on the team. The teamster would manage the steers by talking to them. A steer knew just what to do when he heard the word woa come and would obey sooner than one of the small boys would.

(Note: The copy I obtained from Martha Crabb was copied from a copy in the possession of Mrs. Wayne (Hazel) Arnold of Plainview, Texas. She is a grand daughter of Susan Rogers Martin. The original of this wonderful account was at that time in the possession of Mrs. Arnold’s sister.)

Footnotes:

¹ Evans was the last name of his first wife. Some have also used Green as his middle name, but middle names did not come into common use until the end of colonial times in America or the generation after Jesse. I have found nothing to indicate that Jesse had a middle name. Jesse had grandsons who were named both Jesse Evans Rogers and Jesse Greene Rogers. This may have been the source of the confusion.

² Jesse was probably born in Washington County, Tennessee The family moved to NE TN from Wythe Co VA about the time Jesse was born in 1791. The 1850, 1860, and 1870 Federal Census lists his birth state as TN. The family then moved initially to what was then Washington Co TN near Jonesboro on the Chuckey River and then to Claiborne County, Tennessee near the small community of Speedwell. He was in this area until he was at least 23 years old. At the age of 44 he was in Marion Co TN where he married the second time. When Jesse lived in Marion Co, Chattanooga was no doubt the closest large town.

³ Other references indicate that Jesse’s great grandfather ,Benjamin Rogers who died 1802 in Blount County, Tennessee came from England. Mack had moved to Texas about 1859 before Susan was born. Jesse died in Missouri at the age nearly 81 when Susan was 11 years old. At first we thought Susan might only be repeating what her father told her about Jesse, but recently I discovered that Robert Mack moved his family back to Missouri from Texas about the time the Civil War ended, 1864. He and his family were still living in Webster Co, MO in 1870 when they were listed in the 1870 Federal Census. About 1874, they moved back to Tarrant Co, TX. That was a lot of moving in those days.

⁴She is no doubt stating information given to her by her father. Based on the reference to the Tennessee River, this had to be when the family was in Marion County, Tennessee and this of course was long before she was born.

⁵William McKendree Rogers

⁶ This obviously refers to the time the family was in Claiborne County, Tennessee which borders on the Cumberland Mountains.

⁷ Mack was 14 in 1831 when his mother Elizabeth Evens Rogers died. However, his brother, Robert Doak Rogers, would have been five years of age. Either Susan or her father had Robert’s age understated or the "babie" was in fact one of the younger children.

⁸ Mary Griffith Cosby. She was the widow of Samuel Cosby. Griffith was her maiden name.

⁹ Jesse, his wife Mary and the younger children moved from TN in 1845. At least two of the older boys came earlier. William Mack Rogers was married to Sarah Wilson Watts in Greene Co, MO in 1838.

¹⁰ David G. Cosby was Mary Griffith Cosby Rogers’ son by her first husband.

¹¹ Reuben’s third wife was his second wife’s sister, but they were not Watts girls. His first wife was Hannah Evans who died 19 May 1847. His second wife was Elizabeth Bradley who died 23 Sep 1860. His third wife, Camiella, was Elizabeth’s sister.

¹²William Herd Wilkerson was born 1847 in TN. In the 1870 Christian Co, MO Fed Census, he is listed as living next to William Mack Rogers and his family. His wife Nancy Elizabeth Rogers was the daughter of Robert Doak Rogers. Therefore, "little Willie later became Susan Martin Rogers’ uncle. This incident must have happened about the time the family returned from Texas in 1864………‘’little Willie’’ would have been six or seven as the time.

¹³ Lewis Fletcher Rogers born in Missouri June, 1850.

¹⁴ Fulton Township is in northern Christian Co, MO and just to the west of where William Mack Rogers and his family were living in 1870.

¹⁵ Martha Jane Rogers born 1840 in Greene Co, Missouri.

¹⁶ James Gray was born about 1810 in TN and married Ann or Anna Rogers who was born in 1808 in TN. She was Jesse’s sister. They are listed in the 1870 Christian Co, Federal Census.

¹⁷ This was William Mack Rogers’ family’s second trip to Texas in about 1874-77 as Susan was not born when the first trip was made. However, it sounds like it was the first time the family ever made the trip. She could have been repeating some of the things her family told her about how and why they wound up in Tarrant Co at the end of the first trip to Texas.

This page was last updated on: January 21 2010 07:32:11