Maggie Rogers
MAGGIE ROGERS
wife of
Wm. Shoemaker
born July 28,
1861
died June 9,
1896
Erected to her
memory by
her beloved mother
------ footstone: M.R.S.
Photo Credit: Rosa G. Gonzales
Biography
According to her record written in stone in Old Bayview Cemetery, Marguerite “Maggie†Rogers was born 28 July 1861. She was the daughter of Wm. Long Rogers and Julia Corona. Her gravestone was erected by “her beloved mother†who is buried in San Diego where she settled and died after the death of her husband. Maggie’s father, Wm. L. Rogers, lies near her in Old Bayview. Maggie’s paternal line in Texas begins with her grandfather, Patterson Rogers, who fought in the Indian Wars with Zachary Taylor and then traveled to Texas with the general when he commanded the army of observation encamped at Kinney’s trading post, the future Corpus Christi. Maggie’s father was the son of Patterson Rogers and Elizabeth Blair Long. William survived having his throat slashed at the Little Colorado when he and other relatives were helping to move supplies south at the outbreak of the war between Mexico and the United States of America. The family had moved to Corpus Christi in February of 1846 and subsequently moved to Refugio in 1851. However, William L. Rogers returned to Corpus Christi and lived here and in San Diego until his death in December of 1877. By then he had become a wealthy and honored citizen of the city. He had served as representative of Nueces County in the state legislature, been vice-president of a local railroad company, and helped in the forming of the first fire department in Corpus Christi. Maggie married a member of another pioneer family of Corpus Christi, William H. Shoemaker (son of Samuel Shoemaker and Jane A. Mercer). Maggie died young, and William subsequently remarried. W. H. Shoemaker was born in Mobile, Alabama on 30 January 1861 and came to Corpus Christi when he was six years old. He was a blacksmith as a young man and later was a marine engineer by trade. In this capacity he traveled over many parts of the world, and at one point was in the middle of a severe tropical storm while in the Bermuda Islands. W. H. and Maggie had a daughter, Julie Shoemaker, who survived them. William also had two children, Mary and Sam, by a second wife. At the time of his death, they both resided in San Antonio. Maggie died 9 June 1896 and was buried in Old Bayview near other family members like her father and her sister, Theresa Julia Rogers. Wm. H. Shoemaker was buried near his family in Holy Cross Cemetery.
Research and transcription: Michael A. Howell