Where Spencer lived, and with whom...

"Five tombstones were found for the Rogers family and recorded in the Cemetary records. There are five tombstones in a row all the same size from left to right. (1) Spencer Rogers Jr. 1854-1873 (2) John C. Rogers 1837-1873 (3) Emma G. Rogers 1849-1934 (wife of Arthur Rogers) (4) Arthur C. Rogers 1841-1921 (husband of Emma Rogers) (5) Spencer C. Rogers 1817-1886 (father of Arthur Rogers)."  

Written in conjunction with posting a photo of a headstone, by another Rogers descendant on Ancestry, HughRobertMcVeigh, posted with the title:

Spencer C Rogers Sr 1817-1886, 

dated January 6, 2011 

 I must admit, the "P." as his middle initial looks as if it was added later, since it barely fits. But it's a big question since we've been chasing Spencer Clack Rogers.  

I jut found out where these headstones are located. I looked on Ancestry at Arthur Rogers death certificate, which says he was buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Shelby County, TN. 

Spencer Rogers..one more bit of important information from the Rogers Family Bible, which was talked about on my last post.

"The Rogers Family Bible: entry in hand writing in Bible, as typed in 1954 by George Elmore Rogers, Sr. and copied to his 4 sons and their descendants. SPENCER C. ROGERS Son of Rev. Elijah and Catharine Rogers, was married to Miss. Mary A. Simmons, all of Nashville, by Elder J. R. Graves, in Nashville, Tennessee, on the 14th _____ 1859."

This is substantiated by a Tennessee Marriage record for Davidson County, 1859 near bottom of the page.

  Spencer C. Rogers married Mary A. Simmons, July 14,1859 in Nashville TN.

 
The 1860 census for Nashville Ward 4, Davidson County, Tennessee taken on Aug 30 of that year.

Spencer C. Rogers is 43 years old and is a Publisher, living in household number 804 or 911. He's doing quite well, with real estate valued $8000.00 and a personal estate of $20,000.00. His household of 9 people has Mary A, age 27  and various younger persons that might or might not be his children. So John C. at 23 is a bookkeeper.  The rest of the family all have "ditto" as their last names, under Spencer  C. Rogers.


Children's names are Arthur C. 18
Jane C. 15
Cornelia A. 13
Emma 10
William S 6
George M 6 months

My guess is that George at 6 months is the son of Spencer and Mary. The others may well be his children of an earlier marriage, as they are too old to be Mary's, which I'll talk about later.

The other interesting thing is to look at his neighbors. Most of the women within a few doors are sharing homes and are prostitutes as their occupation. Then the household of Watson Freeman number 805 or 912 has his occupation as a Glass Framer Guilder, who also has a pretty hefty income.

Nashville's red light district perhaps? I don't know the actually addresses. A publisher and a glass framer and gold guilder are interesting businesses to be in the same neighborhood.

But remember this was 1860. The south was about to go to war, and Nashville was going to be changing.

My cousin who worked on the Rogers Family tree and is a member of the DAR and a few other genealogy associations, Patricia Rogers Seliger, posted this to Ancestry on Jan 17, 2015.

MC Rogers Letter to SC Rogers

Feb. 1866

Huntsville, Texas

"This is a letter Micajah Clack Rogers wrote to his brother Spencer Clack Rogers. He asked about his only living child, William L. Rogers. He tries to remember genealogy, only that Clacks came from Loudon County VA, Rogers came from Farquier Cty VA, meeting in Sevier Cty, TN, and MC is living with Thos Gibbs and his 2nd wife. Spencer is a publisher of Sunday School books."

I've struggled through reading this, (and will transcribe it soon) not finding any information about Spencer, besides that he is thought to still be publishing some materials for a Sunday School. But since it's a primary source of another ancestor trying to figure out his own ancestors, I've saved it onto another post in larger format so I can spend a few hours transcribing it. Then I'll publish that back onto the Ancestry site.

The next information on paper is the 1870 census from Memphis Ward 5, Shelby Tennessee.

So there had been a war, and in 1870 Spencer was 53, a Publisher, but living in a household with a 32 year old Printer, and his wife and daughter. Also living in that household were 6 other men, ages differing, some clerks, one a Wholesale Coffee Dealer, and one a Com. Merchant. Neighbors were a shirtmaker and a shoemaker. And Memphis is quite a distance from Nashville Tennessee.

Here's the 1880 census, again in Nashville, sixth ward, Davidson County, TN.

Now a street name is given at the far left at top of the page, but I'm not at all sure what it is...Linewiter or Lunmter, or something along those lines. Spencer is a boarder in the household of William Driver, a 77 year old retired sea captain.  Spencer is 63 himself, and lists his occupation as an editor. The other occupants of the household include William's daughter, Ruth Driver, age 22, and a black 19 year old woman, Mary Lishey as a servant.

And if Spencer had had those older children, living with him and his new wife Mary Simmons Rogers in 1860, why wasn't he living with any of them in Nashville when he was 63, rather than boarding with the Drivers? Many possibilities exist for family dynamics.

I'll look into the earlier family which had a different wife soon.

The family of Spencer Clack Rogers - his siblings

So to continue about Spencer Clack Rogers. Born as youngest brother to my great X3 grandfather Micajah Clack Rogers. Another sister also carried the Clack middle name...or perhaps added it later on.

I noticed that Micajah had served in the North Carolina militia during the War of 1812, until Aug. 1813. He had been just 17, and a Private.  This was before the birth of Spencer C. Rogers in 1817. And so there wasn't much connection for them growing up.

Spencer Clack Rogers, living in Nashville TN most of his life, may have had another family living in Chattanooga TN. There were 2 married daughters of this family who, when they died in different states, had Spencer C. Rogers on their death certificates as their father. And they both have Jane Chandler Rogers as their mother, having been born in Chattanooga TN. They died in the 1930s, and so I accept that these women were my cousins.

But back to the original family. Some of my information comes from the Rogers Family Bible, which I believe received its first entries when a Rogers married a Gibbs. Actually there were two of each who married. And they also moved from their home places in Tennessee or South Carolina to north western Louisiana.

In the Rogers Family Bible, records go back to Henry Rogers, who was father of Rev. Elijah Rogers. Elijah married Catharine Clack and they lived in Sevier County Tennessee as it became a state. They had both been born in Virginia. And then they had many children, and I have learned about a couple which were added to the ancestry list who weren't in the Family Bible. But the person who said these were also daughters of Rev. Elijah and Catharine was a reputable historian, and the descendants of these offspring still live in Sevierville TN. So I consider they are also part of the family. That gives the offspring numbering twelve born, and four boys who died in infancy.

Spencer Clack Rogers was the youngest, coming after 2 brothers who died young.  His next older sibling was Amanda M. L. Rogers, just 4 years older than himself. Then 2 years older than Amanda was Dialtha Perry Rogers. A year older would have been Caleb who died young, and he might well have died before Spencer was born, but there's no record of his death.

Spencer's next older sibling was Matilda Langford, 10 years older, then Elizabeth Clack Rogers, 12 years older than him.  Another brother had been born in 1802 but had probably died by the time Spencer was born in 1817. His next older sibling was Mary Ellen Rogers born in 1799, so 18 years older, and who married in 1816, the year before he was born. The next older brother was Robert Henderson Rogers who had been born in 1796,  and finally the oldest, Micajah Clack Rogers born in 1795.  Robert didn't marry till he was 30, (1827)  but may have been working in Alabama according to some of his descendants.  Micajah had already fought in the War of 1812 as I mentioned above. And he was married in 1819.

It seems that Spencer grew through his childhood in a household with an older (43 years old) father (who was a preacher) and many sisters, and just 2 very much older (men in fact) brothers. His mother had lost four of her sons early in their lives, so by the time Spencer came along when she was 38, I imagine she coddled him. And all those young girls probably helped care for him as well.

More about his own adult life next time...