Randolph  County,  Indiana

Aaron  G. Rogers


            The name of Rogers carries a burden of sentiment to the reader of United States history. It is a name that is distinctly American. Dr. Aaron G. Rogers, one of the most prominent physicians of Randolph county, is descended from a family which played its part well in the shaping of the first United States; a family which has literally been in the vortex of human events and activities; and which has been represented in nearly every place where human passions have clashed, or civil and moral questions have been settled in "the court of blood." In the dubious years at the close of the eighteenth century there were Rogers, of the same family of our subject, who performed their duty heroically and faithfully; in 1812, in the '60's, and in the intervening years when smaller strifes and Indian wars troubled the land, our subject's people have won their spurs in every sense of the word. Dr. Rogers, of this sketch, has not had the opportunity for military glory, but in a profession that requires the stamina and nerve of the battlefield he has been a commander; his work has been characterized by that conscientious devotion to duty, that disregard for self in the interest of others, which mark one as a man among men. It is for such men as Dr. Rogers that biography is intended, and so in this volume of Randolph county, it is highly appropriate that he should be given conspicuous mention, for it is to such as he that future generations point to in extolling the generations and years of the past.
            Aaron G. Rogers was born in Henry county, Indiana, on August 18, 1849, and was the son of Thornton and Eliza (Luellen) Rogers. Thornton Rogers was born in the state of Virginia, and came overland to Henry county, Indiana, when just a youth, with the intention of farming in the "new country," a task worthy of his fibre. Not only did he work in the interests of agriculture, but also served his brethren as a minister of the gospel, preaching in the Christian church of his community. He lived to reach the age of seventy-four years, his death being the result of an injury and not from any bodily weakness.
            Thornton Rogers was twice married, first to Sarah Massy, and to this union were born the following children: John, deceased, a farmer and survived by a widow and two children; James, deceased, who was a soldier in the Civil war, and is survived by a widow; Malinda, deceased; and Elizabeth, who is also deceased. Thornton Roger's second wife was the mother of eight children, and they were: David, deceased, who was a member of the Union army during the Civil war, and who is survived by a widow and three children; Aaron G., our subject; Abigail, who married S. G. Hays, now a widow, living on the old homestead; French, died at the age of two years; Mary; the wife of Amos Leeka, a Randolph county farmer, and the mother of two children, one of whom is dead; Amelia Jane, deceased, was the wife of Christian Richardson, a stock man, and is survived by two children; Benjamin died at the age of ten years; Priscilla Sarah, deceased, married George Hodson, and was the mother of three children.
            Our subject's grandfather, Aaron G. Rogers, was a farmer, and the father of six children, five boys and one girl. He was a native of Virginia, and died in Missouri at the age of eighty-six years. Besides his farming activities he preached in the Methodist Episcopal church. His military record is interesting and notable. In 1794, when General "Mad Anthony" Wayne, the hero of Stony Point, New York, was sent into Ohio to quell the hostile Indian tribes there, Aaron Rogers was a soldier in the small army of rangers and riflemen. He braved the hardships along with the rest of that courageous company, and wielded his flintlock as effectively as any. Again, in 1812, he saw hard service under command of William Henry Harrison, after "Old Hickory" had made his name famous at Tippecanoe. The campaign against hostile Indians was practically ended for an interval by the defeat of the Shawnees at the above mentioned place, and consequently Aaron Roger's service was, for the most part, directed against the British, who were then in the process of being "licked" the second time. The, military career of Aaron Rogers was replete with interesting events and it is our regret that more space cannot be afforded for a complete account of them. His life was inspiring, as was the life of Joseph Rogers, our subject's great-grandfather, whom we narrate of in the following paragraph.
            Joseph Rogers was probably a native of Virginia, as the Old Dominion was, according to historical account, the home of the Rogers family, from the time of their voyage from the shores of the mother-country, Wales. Joseph Rogers was one of the first patriots who rallied to the flag when the Revolutionary war was declared. On that historic date of June 17, 1775, when the British troops around the town of Charleston, Massachusetts, stormed the Americans, fortified on Bunker Hill, Joseph Rogers was one of the noble hundreds who time after time drove the "red coats" back, and fought stubbornly until lack of ammunition lost the patriots the redoubt at the summit. He suffered a bullet wound in this, engagement, but was not incapacitated for further service in the colonial army. John Rogers, Joseph's brother, was also a soldier in the American army. On September 11, 1777, at the battle of Brandywine, or Chad's Ford, Pennsylvania, he was killed by an English bullet. Joseph Rogers died after the war in Virginia.
            Our subject's grandmother on his mother's side was Abigail Jones, and she was born in Virginia. She married a Virginia farmer and then they came to the Hoosier state, where she died at the age of eighty-nine years. Our subject's family, both paternal and maternal, are of Welsh descent.
            Dr. Aaron G. Rogers was educated in the common schools of Middletown, Henry county, Indiana, and also graduated from the high school there. Having a strong ambition to enter into the profession of medicine, he matriculated at the Miami Medical College at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1879, and in 1881 was graduated with high honors from that institution. In 1896-7 he took a second course in the same school. For one year he practiced successfully in Farmland, this county, then located at Parker in 1880, and here he has practiced ever since, with the exception of three years spent in Terre Haute, Indiana. In the practice of his profession, Dr. Rogers has always kept abreast of the times, and no physician of the county stands higher in the faith and confidence of the people. He is a doctor living in the age of antitoxins and serums, and despite the opposition to the use of specifics from certain quarters, has unbounded faith and dependence in their use. Perhaps no profession is open and possesses so much fraud and misrepresentation as that of medicine. For such defamations of a trade that is almost sacred, Dr. Rogers is a merciless antagonist, and he employs every resource at his command to thwart the operation of deceit. For the medical "quack" he is a stumbling block, and for the so-called "specialists" he is an avowed enemy. Dr. Rogers was the first doctor in Randolph county to administer the diphtheria antitoxin, which is now universally used by the doctors of the country.
            On February 15, 1879, Dr. Rogers was married to Mary E. Carter, a daughter of William B. Carter, a merchant of Farmland, this county, but now deceased. Dr. Rogers suffered the misfortune of losing his wife by death in 1889, leaving one daughter, Sylvia May, who was born November 22, 1882, who now lives with her father.
            In religious matters, Dr. Rogers attends the Friends church. His mother-in-law was a preacher in this denomination. Fraternally, he is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Politically, he is a Republican, and takes a great interest in the affairs of the party. At one time Dr. Rogers served well as a member of the county board of charity.
Past and Present of Randolph County, Indiana, 1914.
Contributed by Gina Richardson

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