William Evans Rogers

William Evans Rogers
Born	(1846-04-11)April 11, 1846 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	March 10, 1913(1913-03-10) (aged 66) New York City, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania United States Military Academy
Spouse	Susan LeRoy Fish ​ ​ (m. 1868; died 1909)​
Children	6
Parent(s)	William Evans Rogers Harriette Phoebe Ruggles

William Evans Rogers (April 11, 1846 – March 10, 1913) was an American businessman and railroad executive who married into the Fish family.

Early life

Rogers was born in Philadelphia on April 11, 1846, to William Evans Rogers, a Philadelphia attorney, and Harriette Phoebe (née Ruggles) Rogers.[1] Among his siblings was Cornelia Rogers, who married Captain Samuel Emlen Meigs.[2]

From December 1856 until October 1858, he was educated in Paris, France.[3] In 1861, he entered the University of Pennsylvania with the class of 1865 where he was a member of the Philomathean Society and the University Glee Club.[1]

Career

Rogers, a corporal in the University Light Artillery, left Penn at the close his sophomore year to enter the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War. He became a private in the 1st Troop of Cavalry of the City of Philadelphia. He eventually graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1867.[4] Following his graduation from West Point, he served as a second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers until he resigned from the Army in 1869.[1]

After retiring from the Army, Rogers moved to Detroit, Michigan where he entered the lumber business and helped organize Presque Isle County. Rogers City, Michigan, the county seat of Presque Isle, is named in his honor.[1]

In 1875, he moved to Garrison, New York, located just outside of New York City, where he worked as a cotton exporter.[1] In 1883, he was appointed him to the New York State Board of Railroad Commissioners by then Governor, later U.S. President, Grover Cleveland, serving for nine years total of which five were spent as chairman.[5] In 1892, he was admitted to the bar in New York and practiced law.[4]

Later, William Rogers worked for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company.[1]

Personal life

On February 13, 1868 Rogers was married to Susan LeRoy Fish (1844–1909).[3][6] Susan was the daughter of Julia (née Kean) Fish[7] and Hamilton Fish, the former Governor of New York and U.S. Secretary of State (under President Ulysses S. Grant).[8] She was also the sister of Nicholas, Hamilton Jr., and Stuyvesant Fish. Together, they were the parents of six children,[9] with one son and three daughters surviving, including:[5]

• Julia Fish Rogers (1868–1938), who married the artist Kenneth Frazier (1867–1949) in 1893.[10]
• Harriette Ruggles Rogers (1870–1963), who married Rev. William Stephen Rainsford, rector of St. George's Church in Stuyvesant Square[11]
• Cornelia Meigs Rogers (b. 1872)
• Hamilton Fish Rogers (1873–1880), who died young.[9]
• William Beverly Rogers (b. 1880), who married Grace Chapin (1885–1960), daughter of former Brooklyn mayor and U.S. Representative Alfred Chapin, in 1908.[3][12] They divorced in 1920 and she married his cousin, Hamilton Fish III.[13]
• Violet Mabel Rogers (1883–1885), who died young.[9]

In 1892, Roger's wife and several members of their extended families, were included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[14][15] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[16]

Susan died of pneumonia at their home in New York on Wednesday, January 20, 1909.[17] Rogers died in New York City on Monday, March 10, 1913.[1] They are buried at St. Philip's Church Cemetery in Garrison, New York.[17]

Descendants

Through his eldest daughter Julia, he was the grandfather of Julia Veronica Frazier (1895–1988), Susan Alice Frazier (b. 1899), and Harriette Cornelia Frazier (b. 1902).[9][18]

Through his son William, he was the grandfather of Susan Fish Rogers.[19]

References

1. "William Evans Rogers (1846-1913)". www.archives.upenn.edu. University of Pennsylvania University Archives. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
2. Meigs, Henry Benjamin (1901). Record of the Descendants of Vincent Meigs: Who Came from Dorsetchire, England, to America about 1635... J. S. Bridges & Company. p. 271. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
3. Distinguished Successful Americans of Our Day: Containing Biographies of Prominent Americans Now Living... Successful Americans. 1912. p. 360. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
4. Cullum, George Washington; Holden, Edward Singleton (1920). Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.: 1-6810. Houghton, Mifflin. p. 122. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
5. Annual Reunion. United States Military Academy Association of Graduates. 1912. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
6. "Mrs. William E. Rogers (1844-1909)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
7. "FUNERAL OF MRS. FISH". The New York Times. 4 July 1887. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
8. Burke, Arthur Meredyth (1908). The Prominent Families of the United States of America. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 385. ISBN 9780806313085. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
9. Browning, Charles Henry (1969). Americans of Royal Descent: Collection of Genealogies Showing the Lineal Descent from Kings of Some American Families ... Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 368. ISBN 9780806300542. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
10. Dearinger, David B. (2004). Paintings & Sculpture at the Nat. Academy ofDesign, Vol. 1: 1826-1925. Hudson Hills. pp. 206–207. ISBN 9781555950293. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
11. "Dr. W.S. Rainsford Dies in 84th Year". New York Times. 18 December 1933. p. 19.
12. "Potpourri of Fashion -- Some Wedding Gowns of the Past Week A Plea for Ensemble Dressing Instead of the Selection of Unrelated Details of Costume. Miss Grace Chapin's Wedding Costume Was Notable for Its Entire Absence of Lace" (PDF). The New York Times. June 7, 1908. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
13. "MRS. HAMILTON FISH DIES; Wife of Ex-Representative Was Former Grace Chapin". The New York Times. July 4, 1960. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
14. McAllister, Ward (16 February 1892). "THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED | WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
15. Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 234. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
16. Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
17. "ROGERS" (PDF). The New York Times. January 22, 1909. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
18. Leach, Josiah Granville (1910). Some account of Capt. John Frazier and his descendants: with notes on the West and Checkley families. Printed for private circulation by J.B. Lippincott Co. p. 58. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
19. Annual Report of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society to the Legislature of the State of New York. American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. 1922. p. 223. Retrieved 17 July 2018.

External links

• William Evans Rogers at Find a Grave
• Miniature portrait of Susan LeRoy Fish Rogers by Carl Weidner, at the New-York Historical Society