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WILLIAM GRANT ROGERS
Vol. 3, p. 1099-100

One of the first men to interest themselves in the townsite of Dewey
and since extensively engaged in farming and the real estate business
at that place, William Grant ROGERS has spent practically all his
life among the Cherokee people, and an eighth portion of his own
blood is of that race. He has been one of the influential men in the
old Cherokee Nation as he is also in the county of Washington. In the
early days he served for two years as a posseman [sic] under GRATTON
and Robert DALTON when they were United States marshals at Fort
Smith, Arkansas, and his work as a deputy helped to secure a large
number of prisoners.

William Grant Rogers was born April 13, 1965, on Spring River, near
Humboldt, on what was then known as the neutral land of Kansas. These
lands were afterwards sold to the United States Government by the
Cherokee Nation for what was known as "bread money." Mr. Rogers was
one of seven children born to Hilliard and Patsy (FIELDS) Rogers, the
former a native of Georgia and the latter of Tennessee. His father
was a government interpreter for the Cherokee Indians in Georgia, and
had been educated partly in the Cherokee and partly in the English
schools. When William G. was one year old the parents came into what
is now Oklahoma, locating on Caney River, and three years later both
parents died. Mr. Rogers was then taken to live with his sister, Mrs.
N. F. CARR, and for four years was in the Cherokee Orphans' Home.
This home was originally the residence of Chief John ROSS, and when
Mr. Rogers was a student there its grounds comprised about three
acres.

After leaving school he returned to Bartlesville and entered the
employ of Mr. Carr as a cowboy. He drove cattle in those days all
over the country, to the states of Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, and
even yet can rope a steer or break a horse like a professional. This
was his principal work until he was twenty-six years of age, and
since then he has been engaged in farming for himself. About 1908 he
took up the hardware business at Dewey, and conducted the Rogers
Hardware Company until he sold out in 1914 to R. V. MYERS. Mr. Rogers
has a forty-acre homestead or allotment, which in 1903 he platted and
it is now known as the Rogers Addition to Dewey. Mr. Rogers gave the
first deed that was recorded in the Town of Dewey to R. P. CRAWFORD,
a ranchman of Washington County. His wife and five of the children
have received allotments of eighty acres each on the Caney bottoms,
and these children now have eighty acres of land as their share of
the old tribal possessions. Mr. Rogers now gives his time largely to
the supervision of his farm and to dealing in real estate, with
office at Dewey.

On May 21, 1891, Mr. Rogers married Lilly WASHINGTON, a daughter of
William and Elisa (CONNOR) Washington, who were both Delaware
Indians. Mrs. Rogers was born on Grand River in what was known as the
Delaware District near Prairie City, May 30, 1875, and is the only
daughter of her parents still living. Mr. And Mrs. Rogers have seven
children: Lula May, who was born May 15, 1892, and still lives at
home; William Emmett, who was born April 22, 1894, lives at Dewey,
and by his marriage to Bessie KNIGHT has one child, Patsy Bess, born
in 1915; Rilla Blanche, born June 18, 1896, living at home; Eliza
Jane, born December 22, 1898; Arthur Mavin, born May 18, 1903;
Joseph, born December 29, 1905; and Dewey L., born December 28, 1908.

Mr. Rogers is a democrat, and was honored by election to the office
of town treasurer of Dewey for one term, from 1908 to 1909. His wife
and three of the daughters are members of the Baptist Church. All the
daughters have a decided natural talent as musicians. Mr. Rogers is a
first cousin to W. C. Rogers, prominent as chief of the Cherokee
Nation.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Dorothy Marie Tenaza, November 24, 1998.