Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-11-14
JOHN ROGERS, THE TORY.
His Life Among the Indlans---His Resi-.
dence In Arkansas, and Among
the Cherokees.
Cor. Little Rock Gazette.

Cor, Little Rock Gazette.
RUssELLvILLE, ARK, Nov, o.
Ii is a well-known fact that South
Carolina contained a great many To-
ries during the Revolutionary war.
Many of her wealthiest and most
prominent men had been educated en-
tirely in England, and they sent their
sons, as 0 as they were old enough,
back to the mother country, and put
them in grammar schools and colleges,
where they often remained many years,
and, when they had finished their edu-
cational course, they returned to the
colonies thoroughly imbued with a
love of the institutions, the manners
and the customs of the country from
which their fathers had emigrated.
Such having been the case with many
prominent young men, it is not at all
singular, but quite natural, that when
the colonies declared their independ-
ence, and men we're forced to become
Rebels or Tories, that many of them
refused to take up arms against George
III. A very brief sketch of one Of
them we give below, whose uame was
John Rogers:
Near the Savannah river, in the
lower portion Of Carolina, lived a
planter whose name was Rogers, and
who was alsO a very prominent presby-
terrain minister. This John Rogers
was his son. He was a very large,
fne-looking man, Of strong natural
mind and thoroughly educated. After
hostilities had actually commenced,
young Rogers, because of his ability
and influence, and most probably for
other special reasons, became SO odiOus
to the patriots that on one occasion
they attempted to capture him, and in
fleeing from them he was so closely
pressed that he was compelled to swim
the Savannah river to effect his escape.
He went Immediately to the Greek
Indians in the lower part of Georgia,
and after remaining a few years with
them he left them and went to the
Cherokees in North Georgia, and mar
ried a full-blooded Cherokee woman.
/ He never returned to Carolina, and
| many years after his marriage he came
West with the first of the Cherokees
called " the old settlers, and selected
, him a home near the mouth of Spadra
| creek, in what is now johnson county
: He was a wealthy man and of grear
influence among the Indians.
He had several sons. of whom hi
was very fond, and being himself /;
; man of an educated mind he sent hi,
2 sons to Maryland to be educated, anC
) put them in a school or college neai
r tho city Of Baltimore. Mr.. and Mrs
Washburne. missionaries to the In
dams, found him living, as We befor0
stated, near Spadra, where they estab
e lished Dwight Mission, on Illinoi
T Bayou, in 1920. Mrs. Washburne
+ from whom we obtain our facts, main
", often saw John Rogers, and hear,
T. him tell ofhis flight, and his swimmin
the Savannah river, and his life anon
the Indians in Georgia. He lived t
be very old, and went with the CherC
T. KEGS to the Indian Territory, and l.
!. Gated near New Dwight, on the Sal
saw. He sent his children to tn
mission school, and whilst he wishe
IS them educated, he was particular i
# requesting Mr.. and Mrs. Washburn
not to teach them the Christian rel
S. gion. Not believing in ii himself, h
l. did not wish his children to believe i
}. When he was very old he concluded
I make, for the first time, a trip to Ii
tie Rock.
d He made the trip On a steamboa
and being very fond of music and the
d being a fiddler on board he hired hin
g. and kept him playing almost all Il
time when he was not asleep, An o
as acquaintance ofRogeFs' seeing him
Of his way to Little Rock for the fiji
w time, when he was very old, asked hi
h. what he was going for TO which he i
re piled, that knowing he must die 500
j. and expecting when he got to heav
he to be asked about Little Rock and
j. he had ever been there, he wished
see the place before he died, so til
he could give an intelligent answer.
The Rogers that Sam Houston,
ter resigRilg the office Of governor
Tennessee, made his home with in t
TO- Indian Territory for many years "
of William Rogers. son Of the subject
IN this sketch. He, too, was a man
10. wealth and intelligence, and mu
like his father, He and his fail
TO too, no doubt, we've friends Of Hou
to tons, and a widowed daughter of b
yor a very fne-looking woman, became
ms wife Of Houston's and they all liy
lR tho same house. She had, by HOr
Of ton, two or thFee children, who, ifl
emit ing, are now residing in the Oherol
for Nation. All Of these Rogers W
MI noted for their large persons q
all handsome FEATURES, Mrs, Washbul
self says that the finest, looking won
md she ever saw were some Of the nil
.ro- bloods Of the descendants Of old JIG
the Rogers, a little of whose history
no. have attempted to give.