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History of Bay County Michigan
pub. H. R. Page & Co., Chicago - 1883

         [p. 28]

           And now in regard to this noble man's wife! I fear I am inade-
	 quate to do her justice. It would take a better pen to portray
	 her many acts of benevolence, her many acts of womanly devotion
	 to suffering humanity and to the pioneers and their families in
	 the hours of sickness and death in those early days that tried
	 men's souls.

	   MRS. ELIZABETH ROGERS, wife of THOMAS ROGERS, was the daughter
	 of an eminent physician, DR. WILCOX, of Watertown, N.Y., who
	 afterward moved to Toronto, Canada. She was born November 12, 1809.
	 When a young girl she attended her father's office and filled his
	 prescriptions. She became a great student, and to such an extent
	 did she pursue the study of medicine that at the age of eighteen
	 she was often consulted by her father on different cases, and it
	 was that which fitted her in after years to be of such great bene-
	 fit to the settlers of the Saginaw Valley. At the age of nineteen
	 she became the wife of THOMAS ROGERS. After residing for a time
	 near Toronto, she came with her husband to Michigan in 1837-'38
	 and settled in Portsmouth, now South Bay City.

	   From 1837 to 1850 she was the only practicing physician to
	 the early settlers. At all hours of the day or night, when called
	 upon, you would find her at the bedside of the sick and dying.
	 Through storm or snow, rain or shine, it made no difference to
	 her. Sometimes on horseback, sometimes on foot through woods.
	 She felt it to be her duty, and like an angel of mercy, she did
	 it, and would have continued to do so, but as settlers began to
	 come in, also doctors came. She still visited the sick of a few
	 old settlers, for they would have none other but her. There was
	 scarcely a birth for twenty years but what she was present. In
	 that dreadful year of the cholera, which swept off so many of the
	 inhabitants, she was at the bedside of the sick and dying, admini-
	 stering assistance and comfort without money and without price.
	 Yes, without any remuneration, for she made no charge. She felt
	 it a duty she owed her fellow creatures, and nobly did she do it.
	 Oftentimes the settlers would send her something, and she would
	 accept it thankfully. Your humble servant was once taken with
	 the cholera. She was immediately sent for, and but for her I
	 might not now be here to pen these few lines as a tribute to
	 her memory. Some time since, in conversing with the old lady,
	 she said, "How things have changed." "Yes," I answered, "we
	 have seen Bay City and its surroundings rise from three or four
	 families to a population of 20,000." "No," she said, "I do not
	 mean that; but there are no such noble hearted men and women
	 now, as among the early pioneers. It seems almost as if God
	 had chosen such men and women to make the beginning here, or
	 it never would have been done." I thought she was right.

	   She said, "When we first came here, we lived in a little log
	 house on the bank of the river, and the wolves howled so at
	 night we could not sleep. I have looked out of my door many a
	 time in the middle of the day, and have seen a pack of wolves
	 playing on the opposite side of the river where Salzburg now
	 stands." One day two Indians who had been drinking came to
	 her house while her husband was away to work some miles from
	 home. She fastened the door. They demanded admittance and told
	 her if she did not open the door they would break it down.
	 They went to the wood pile, got the ax and began breaking in
	 the door. She seized an iron rake, opened the door and knocked
	 the first Indian senseless; the other ran off. This is only to
	 show what a courageous woman she was. When circumstances required,
	 she was as brave as a lion, and when her sympathies were called
	 into action she was as tender as a child. Mrs. Rogers died in
	 Bay City, July 16, 1881

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