SAMUEL ROGERS.

      Samuel Rogers was born in Charlotte county, Virginia, November 6, 1789. He was the eldest son of Ezekiel Rogers, whose father emigrated from Smithfield, England, about 1740 and settled in Bedford county, Virginia. His father, when quite a lad, was a Colonial soldier, belonging to the regiment of Col. Geo. Washington. He was afterwards a soldier of the American Revolution. He was in the battle of Cowpens, at the siege of Yorktown, and witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis. After peace was declared he married Rebecca Williamson, a woman of strong mind and deep devotion to the cause of religion. In 1793 Ezekiel Rogers, with his family, emigrated to Kentucky, and settled a few miles south of Danville, on Salt River, then in Mercer county. A short time after this his father moved to Strode's Station, near Winchester. In 1801 his father, with his family, moved to a farm on the Missouri River, twenty miles from St. Louis, then called Paincour. This country at that time was a possession of Spain. In 1809 Ezekiel Rogers was murdered and his wife sold their farm and moved back to Kentucky, about midway between Millersburg and Carlisle.It was here Samuel Rogers married Elizabeth Irvine, daughter of Andrew Irvine, who recently had moved from near Danville, and who was a soldier of the Revolution. Soon after his marriage he confessed Christ, and was immersed in Hinkston creek, near Jackstown. It was but a short time after that he enlisted in Captain Metcalfe's company and fought, through the War of 1812. He returned to his home after the war, and began to preach at Old Concord and Cane Ridge. After having made a tour through Preble and Clinton counties, of Ohio, he moved to the latter county in the fall of 1818. Here he labored for many years, organizing and building the New Antioch Church. From this grand old church as a center, he labored through Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Tour after tour be made through these states when in most places they were vast wildernesses. He would be away from home three months at a time. He felt "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel of Christ." He had angels that watched around his home in the persons of Jonah and Jane Vandervert, Bashores, Lynns, and Roulons. Such men and women as these constituted the first missionary society among us as a people. These godly people supplied the larder, [447] clothed and took care of the family of the evangelist. Not only this, but they kept the church moving. Surely there were giants in those days. In these towns he brought many men to Christ and induced others to preach the Word. Talbott Fanning, of the South, and Dr. Benj. Hopson, J. Franklin and Elijah Goodwin, of the West. Over 7,000 he baptized with his own hands in his labor of over sixty years. Much of the strength and power of our churches in these states can be traced to the earnest labors of this soldier of Christ. In many sections of the new West, the mourners' bench was a great institution with the Christians. They at last gave it up; but as Samuel Rogers often remarked, in abolishing the mourner's bench the mourner too often had been abolished. We are greatly mistaken if we suppose that at once all the grand principles of this Restoration were grasped by the fathers of this movement. It was slowly and sometimes sullenly that they came to the light. At first they contended for the name Christian and the Bible as the only creed. Immersion, the only water baptism. Baptism for the remission of sins. Christ the only creed, etc., came after the twenties had passed away. Organized mission work and Sunday schools came much later. In November, 1833, Elder Rogers moved, with his family to the Falls of Rough Creek. Henry county, Indiana,. Here he taught school as well as preached. In his little school house he had a great meeting in which the whole community turned to the Lord. Seven preachers came out of that one meeting. Benj. Franklin and three brothers, Eider Adamson, John T. Rogers, and one other, whose name I have lost. In 1838 he moved to Drake county, Ohio. Here he labored with that same wisdom and zeal that had characterized his work in the past, and the rich harvest of souls was his highest and best reward. About 1840 he moved to Griswold City, Missouri. Here he labored successfully and converted many proud, wealthy, and scornful people to the Christ. It was while here that he induced the brilliant young man, Dr. Winthrop Hopson, to give up medicine, and give himself entirely to the Lord. For Hopson and Franklin, he had a love that even old age could not obscure. In 1843 he moved to Gurnsey county, Indiana. He was now sixty years old, yet he had the fire of youth, and without the fear of punishment or hope of reward he pushed forward in the work of the Lord that engaged his youthful years. In 1844 he moved to Carlisle, Kentucky. Here lived his brother, John Rogers, a great preacher in the olden days, with whom he labored on many a mission field. He now gave his time to mountain mission work, sent to this field by the South Elkhorn Church, of Fayette county. After this the State Board employed him to labor in the valley of the Kanawha, where he held many successful meetings. After this he held long series of meetings in Fleming and Mason counties, with his fellow soldier of the War of 1812, Jno. T. Johnson, than whom a greater preacher Kentucky has never produced. In 1850 he moved to Owingsville, Bath county, where he labored two years. In 1852 he moved to Cynthiana. He was now sixty-nine years of age. Here he preached for the church and many of the churches in Harrison and Owen counties. From this place he often visited the dear old workshops of Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri. During the war he lost in battle his youngest son, W. S. Rogers, whom he loved as Jacob loved Joseph. No one to him was as dear as his darling "Wip." A truer son, a nobler patriot, and a braver man never lived. Here he lost Elizabeth Irvine, his wife, his pilot, his savior. Had it not been for her, the record of Samuel Rogers would have been darkness, death, and defeat, instead of light, life, and victory. He loved Cynthiana with all the ardor of his fervent heart--and he was loved in return by the highest and lowest in that favored town.

      Who that attended the State Convention of the Churches of Christ at Lexington in the fifties, sixties, and seventies call ever forget the bent form of the little old shawled man, who before those enthusiastic audiences would shoulder his crutch and tell how fields were won?

      He died at Carlisle, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Francis Fisher, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. His body rests beside that of his wife and his son, Capt. W. S. [448] Rogers, in the old grave yard in his beloved Cynthiana, waiting for the æons to go by when this mortal shall put on immortality.

      Like John the Baptist, be was a voice crying in the wilderness: "Repent! repent! repent!" He believed the Word of God with all his ardent nature. He gave himself for the truth. The highest proof that he possessed its spirit. Whether in fighting the battles of his country or his God, he knew not fear, and he now dwells with the host who have come up out of great tribulations, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

[COC 447-449]