William L. Rogers

Sacred to the memory
of
Wm. L. Rogers
Died
Dec. 17th, 1877
Aged 55 years, 1 month & 7 days

William L. Rogers Headstone

Photo Credit: Rosa G. Gonzales

1.  Photographs

Submitted by:  Charles A. Rogers III

 

2.  Oath of Office

Provenance: Corpus Christi Public Libraries

 

3.  Biographical Information from Pathfinders of Texas, 1836-1846.

 

4.  Corpus Christi History by Murphy Givens

Corpus Christi Caller Times (December 6, 2000). Available on microfilm.

 

5.  Letter to the Editor, 1891

Editors of The Caller:

I have read in your weekly several versions about those skeletons found at or near the "Oso" and I am under the impression that "Uncle Billy" is about right. The massacre of the Rogers family by Juan Balli on or about the 6th day of May, 1846, was generally regretted, and all means in the power of General Taylor were employed to arrest the perpetrators, but without success. I also read in the communication signed "An Ex-Corpus Boy" that our dear friend, William Rogers, has left for a better home of which I had not seen a notice. Peace to his ashes.

The ex-Corpus Boy says that William Rogers, deceased, was the sole survivor of that killing, which is correct. But for the information of the relatives and friends of our deceased friend, I will tell them now, who found, nursed, revived and saved his life.

On the 8th day of May, 1846, I find myself a prisoner of war in Matamoros, with the city for prison, with the condition to answer to roll call every morning at 9 a.m. at the office of General Ampudia. Few minutes before 9 that morning the "barrileros" (water carriers) reported of hearing on the bank of the river a sound of distant cannonading. I immediately went to headquarters to answer to my name, and there found out that the fight had commenced at Palo Alto. Immediately saddled my horse and bid Matamoros good bye, and left for my home about 11 miles upriver, thinking that I could get a chance to slip in to Palo Alto that night, but while I got upon a fresh horse and hunted for one of my trusted friends, night was on us. On the 9th bright and early we started, but on our nearest course to Palo Alto, we had to cross by a waterhole known as las "Hicanazas", and here we dashed into a camp of citizen soldiers (rurales) under command of Dn. Domingo Guerra, who asked me where I was going, and I told him that I was going out to the prairie to see the fight about Palo Alto. He then told me that he arrived there the night before, having heard the cannonading, and that he was going that way himself after breakfast and that I had to stop there until he was ready. About 7 a.m. we started and on our march, we can to a sharp point of timer, called los "Contaderos", some distance above the main road leading from Matamoros to the main crossing of the Arroyo Colorado, and about one and a quarter miles above the main military road from Matamoros to Palo Alto, on which road General Taylor had to pass to the attack of la "Resaca de la Guerra," and here he ordered a halt, and ordered Bernabe Loya to mount one of the highest mesquite trees and report. About forty or fifty minutes he reported two men coming from the Arroyo Colorado; about one-half of an hour later, he reported the men coming to be four and perhaps more. By the time the men came abreast of us and were hailed by Loya to come to camp, he reported the glittering of the bayonets against the sun of General Taylor's little army on their march to la "Resaca" which we then had the pleasure of seeing ourselves the beautiful flashes of lightning the morning sun made against a couple of thousand bayonets. The men arrived and who were they? No less than that whole-souled friend and sponsor of all Americans, be he rich or be he poor, in Matamoros, Miguel Tijerina.

Tijerina was sent out on a scout to the Arroyo Colorado, and with Jose Ma. Menchaca, Juan Arocha (well-known on the Nueces river and in Corpus, being a nephew of Mrs. Belden) and Patricio Ramirez arrived late in the evening of the 7th of May; and they found the dead bodies of the Roger family and poor William lying on the edge of the water of the Arroyo Colorado in a dying condition. Now then, my readers must understand that there wasn't a house outside of the 3 mile limit of Matamoros and Corpus Christi, and every man had to carry his own provision, and one item of their provisions was generally made up from toasted corn finely ground mixed well with ground brown Mexican sugar (piloncillo) well spiced, and one cup of this gruel mixed with a little water any man could travel on all day, and this was the only means Tijerina had to nurse, revive and save poor William. There being no one in camp besides myself who could speak English, Dn. Domingo Guerra ordered me to take charge of Rogers and deliver him to the Matamoros hospital, but instead of taking him to the hospital in Matamoros, and getting myself shot for not answering to my name that morning, I turned him over to Mrs. Brennan, an old American lady and a good nurse, who was encamped on the Mexican side of the river opposite "Villa Nueva" and after Gedn. Taylor took possession of Matamoros he was taken down to the army hospital. No one else but the unflinching friendship of the lamented Miguel Tijerina towards all foreigners could have saved poor William Rogers from a lingering death.

Adolphus Glaevecke

Source: Corpus Christi Caller, 16 May 1891, page 3 col. 2-3
Transcription by: Rosa G. Gonzales 

 

6.  News item, 1904 

A Little History

The W. L. Rogers cottage in the lower part of town is undergoing a great overhauling and improvement, even to the fence around the property.  The place has a history connected with the C. C. Fire Department, and we are glad the property is to be kept up.  Thirty-three years ago, the Hon. W. L. Rogers moved to Corpus Christi and built a nice home.  A few days after he moved into the cottage, it caught fire and burned to the ground.  The very next day he let a contract for another cottage, a duplicate to the one destroyed, erecting it on the same lot, which building is the identical one now being repaired, Mr. Rogers moving into it and living there until his death several years later.  The day after the fire a subscription was started by Felix Noessel and Peter Benson for the purpose of forming a volunteer fire company, which was straightway organized and has been maintained here ever since, the writer paying his $5 and joining the Pioneer company which was soon organized, W. L. Rogers being elected the first president of the Corpus Christi Fire Department.

Source: Corpus Christi Caller, November 21, 1904, p. 5, col. 1
Research by:  Msgr. Michael A. Howell
Transcription by:  Geraldine D. McGloin, Nueces County Historical Commission

 

7.  Article by Frank Wagner

William Long Rogers, b. 10 September 1822, son of Patterson Rogers in Alabama. He was brought to Texas with his father's family in 1836, but fled with the other refugees before Santa Anna's Mexican Army was defeated. The family came back to Texas in 1843, and he was in Corpus Christi during August, 1845, where his father operated a sutler's shop. When General Taylor's men marched to the Rio Grande, his father and brothers organized a wagon train, and he was one of the teamsters. Juan Balli and his bandits attacked the train, killed all the teamsters, save William. One of the bandits cut William's throat, but he survived though he was left without food, boots or clothing in the field. He was discovered by Miguel Tijerina and three retainers, Jose Ma. Menchaca, Juan Arocha (a nephew of Mauricia Arocha Belden) and Patricio Ramirez on the evening of May 7. After about a day's journey, they encountered Don Domingo Guerra, Adolphus Glaevecke and several others traveling to see the battle sites of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. Guerra ordered Glaevecke to take Rogers to Matamoros for medical attention. Glaevecke, fearing to enter Matamoros at the time, put him in the care of an American woman, Mrs. Brennan, who lived on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande oposite Villa Nueva. When Taylor took possession of Matamoros, Rogers was cared for by Army Surgeon N. S. Jarvis. After Rogers had recovered, he rented a room in the home of Juan Corona. Rogers later married Juan Corona's daughter, Julia Corona.

When Mabry Gray's Corpus Christi Rangers head of the attack on the Rogers freight train, they quickly ascertained that Balli was leader of the raid. Arrangements were made to attack Balli's ranch upriver from Matamoros. By allocating half the men to make the raid, the other half visiting Matamoros clad in distinctive jackets, Gray was able to forestall identification. Balli's ranch was attacked, and nearly all the people there massacred. The witnesses testified that the raiders wore distinctive jackets, identical with those of Gray's men in Matamoros at the time of the attack. Since credible testimony was lacking, General Taylor was unable to prove the guilt of Gray's men. Gray and his men were ordered back to Corpus Christi.

After the Mexican War, he came to Corpus Christi and was elected Sheriff of Nueces County, 1849-50. He served as a county commissioner for Nueces County, 1854-56. When Juan Nepomunceno Cortina rescued a retainer from the Cameron County Sheriff' Rogers and ten of his vaqueros rode hard to Brownsville to help his friend Glaevecke, Peter Collins, James G. Brown, George Morris, Harry Klahn and Miguel Tijerina. cortina's men were driven out by a battalion of militia under Major Edward R. Hordg.v., with companies under command of Captain P. C. shrkey and Captain Robert West. A large assembly of militiamen gathered at San Patricio, and some are believed to have followed the Rogers group to Brownsville. Cortina and his men chose not to engage and withdrew.

It is believed some of these militia formed a secret chapter of the Order of the Lone Star. Rogers was presumably a guiding force behind that secret society. He was a charter member of the Masonic Lodge in Corpus Christi, organized in 1860. After Corpus Christi was occupied by Union forces in 1865, the military authorities appointed the city and county officials. Comparatively few ex-Confederates could or would subscribe to an oath that would allow them to vote. An attempt was made to organize a local Democratic Party, but the meeting was dispersed and several prominent citizens were roughly treated. There is no indication that Rogers was among them, but he was surely an adherent to their cause. Once civil government was restored, there was dissatisfaction with the Republican regime of Edmund Jackson Davis. It was well-known that Rogers was the leader of these disaffected people.

As a gesture of public good will in the Summer of 1871, he and Captain Richard Jordan proposed to the City Council of Corpus Christi building a Market Hall to serve as a public meeting place, provide market for fresh meat, game, fruit, fish and produce. He was then building a new home for his growing family of eight in the city. Two days later, on 31 July, 1871, his wife Julia and children, Patricio 19, Louise 16, Teresa 14, William 12, Margaret 10, Manuel 9, Thomas 4 and Matilda 3 having moved into the mansion, it burned to the ground. Friends of the family helped them rebuild, since he had no insurance. He became a leader in organizing Pioneer Fire Company No. 1 in Corpus Christi, a volunteer group chiefly of young men but directed by leaders of the local Democratic faction. The Fire Company became a powerful force in local politics for many years afterwards. Following reconstruction, he served as Senator, and Nueces County Democratic Party chairman. He died 17 December, 1877.

Transcription by: Rosa G. Gonzales

 

8.  Excerpt from The Story of Corpus Christi, by Mary A. Sutherland

William L. Rogers

by Eli T. Merriman

William Rogers, a native of Cowago County, Alabama, with his mother's family, came to Corpus Christi at the beginning of the Mexican War.  Mr. Rogers was connected with the Second United States Dragoons, and with them was ordered to Matamoras, in April 1846.  He left Corpus Christi with a band of fifteen men and two women, but when about one hundred miles out of Croups Christi, the party was captured by a band of Mexican guerillas, and promptly murdered by having their throats cut, after being tied, and their bodies thrown into the waters of the Arroyo Colorado, the women meting the same fate, but William Rogers was not to die with his family, his terrible wound was not fatal, and after four days of indescribable suffering, he reached Fort Brown, where he received first aid from military surgeons, who removed numbers of screw worms from his wound, the marks of which he carried to the grave, a clean scar from ear to ear.  At the end of four months he was out again, and it is said that for the next few years he followed d and dealt with Mexican guerillas.  Old stories have it that one man of the forty that attacked that peaceful part on the Arroyo Colorado escaped his aim.  We say peaceful, as we have been told that this was one o the sutler's wagons (most of them being unarmed), belonging to the Second Dragoons, consequently a rich prize for the bandits, and illustrating our perfect ignorance of our dusky foe; no unarmed party would think of convoying goods to Rio Grande even now.

Mr. Rogers returned to Corpus Christi in 1854, having previously purchased the pal alto Ranch and bought fifty head of cattle from Elder Barden, and for a time traded in stock, through he repeatedly suffered depredations from Mexican cattle thieves.  In 1868 his holding consisted of thirteen hundred head of horse stock and twenty eight hundred head of cattle.  These he traded off for cash and bought the St. James Hotel, then in course of erection, paying thirteen thousand for the noted old corner, five thousand dollars more was spent in finishing and furnishing it, and it became Corpus Christi's one and only hotel, where many noted men have rested in their day.  Mr. Rogers had faith in improved stock, and during our civil War imported direct from Spain ten rams of the best breed, for which he paid thirty dollars each in gold.  He believed these animals to be the best ever brought to Texas.  Later we find him buying land north of San Diego.  He owns the Maria Ranch of nineteen thousand acres, the Chusa Ranch in McMullen County, twenty-seven thousand acres, one thousand of which are under fence, and one hundred in cultivation. Three thousand goats and twenty thousand sheep, value two to eight dollars per head, land valued at one dollar to one dollar and a half, an acre.  A residence in Corpus Christi of the value of five thousand dollars, two large warehouses and the St. James Hotel from which he derives a rental of twenty-four hundred dollars per year.  Last spring his wool clip brought between six and seven thousand dollars.  (This article published in a local paper sometime in the seventies, is to stimulate others to go into sheep and cattle raising, then considered the only crop for this section.)  Under the head of "Another Good Man Gone," our local paper, Corpus Christi Free Press, under the date of December 17, 1877, chronicles the funeral of Hon. William Rogers, at that time a member of Legislature from this district.  At the age of fifty-six he died, surrounded by family and friends, and mourned by good people throughout Southwest Texas.  We copy verbatim the notice of procession which escorted the body to its last resting place:  "Star Rifles escort.  First Department.  Music (provided by Masons).  Hearse. Family.   Citizens on horseback.  Citizens in carriages."

This good man rests in the old Bay View (or properly, Military) Cemetery, among the friends of his strenuous youth, the beautiful resting place of our pioneer dead.  This sacred spot belongs to our city and our people are to unite in beautifying this cemetery and caring for the ashes of men who made history in early days.  Old landmarks are gone, only this old cemetery with its weather-stained tombstones remains, a link between then and now.  (The paper from which this article was taken was loaned by Mr. E. T. Merriman for years the editor of our own reliable papers, and always a true son of Corpus Christi.)

Source: Sutherland, Mary A.  Edited by Frank B. Harrison. The Story of Corpus Christi.  Corpus Christi: Corpus Christi Chapter, Daughters of the Confederacy, 1916.
Research by:  Msgr. Michael A. Howell
Transcription by: Geraldine D. McGloin, Nueces County Historical Commission