Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2026 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== USGenNet Data Repository Notice: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ============================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. ============================================================================= History of Bay County Michigan pub. H. R. Page & Co., Chicago - 1883 [p. 27-28] THOMAS ROGERS was born in Scotland, October 16, 1804. His father emigrated to Canada in 1818, and settled some five miles north of Toronto, where THOMAS learned the trade of blacksmith and machinist. Here he married Miss ELIZABETH WILCOX, November 13, 1828, where he lived until the Patriot war broke out, when he and his brothers espoused the side of the Patriots. His brothers were arrested and taken to Kingston and put in confine- ment in the fort as prisoners of war, or rebels. Shortly after, one of the brothers scaled the fort and made his escape to the United States. Shortly after, the two other brothers were re- leased and returned to their homes. THOMAS, the subject of this sketch, came to Michigan in 1836 or 1837. At Detroit he met our old fellow pioneer, HARVEY WILLIAMS, now of East Saginaw, who employed him to go to Saginaw to help put the machinery in a mill that the Messrs. WILLIAMS were then building at Saginaw City, which was the first mill on the Saginaw Eiver. After working here for some time, Mr. ROGERS was employed to go to Portsmouth, now South Bay City, to put the machinery in a mill that was then building there by JUDGE MILLER, now of Bay City, B. K. HALL, and others. This was in the month of October, but what year it was we have no record, but think it was in 1837 or 1838. The next July he started back for his family and re- moved them to Portsmouth, where he moved them into a little log house on the banks of the river, which stood where ALBERT MILLER'S upper salt works now stand. After running the mill a short time, the hard times came on, and the mill was shut down as there was no sale for lumber, and the mill remained still for some time, when B. K. HALL sold his interest to JAMES Mc- CORMICK & Son. When MR. McCORMICK removed his family from his farm above Saginaw and commenced running the mill, again, MR. ROGERS was employed to put the machinery in order and to do the blacksmith work. Prior to this, JUDGE MILLER had got a mail route established between Portsmouth and Saginaw, and the mail came once a week. JUDGE MILLER was postmaster and MR. ROGERS was deputy. MR. ROGERS did the machine work in the mill besides carrying the mail once a week to and from Saginaw. He was to have the proceeds of the office for carrying the mail, which did not consist of over three or four letters and two or three papers at a time. In the Summer he went in a canoe and in Winter he carried it on foot, walking on the ice, making about twenty-eight miles travel to and from Saginaw, which was not a big paying contract. Nevertheless, it was kept up for years, until settlers became more plenty, when MR. ROGERS was relieved and the government established a regular mail route to connect with the regular Winter mail to and from Sault St. Marie and Mackinaw, which was brought to Lower Saginaw with dog trains over two hundred miles, by half breed Indians. After JAMES McCORMICK bought the mill MR. ROGERS continued carrying the mail and doing what little blacksmith work there was to be done for the few settlers. MR. ROGERS removed from Portsmouth to Lower Saginaw, now Bay City, in 1842, and built a small house on what is now the corner of Center and Water Streets, where the Shearer Block now stands, and built a blacksmith shop on the opposite side of Water Street, where the Griswold Block now is, where he worked at his trade many years. In the Summer of 1852, MR. ROGERS went up alone on the prairie some three or four miles above Bay City to cut prairie hay, and was there taken sick with the cholera, where he would have soon died ha4 not ORRIN KINNEY and ARCHIBALD McCORMICK, who were returning home from cut- ting hay, found him. They soon made a litter of two poles and a blanket and brought him home, but he only survived a short time. He died August 9, 1852, much respected by all the old pioneers who had shared with him in his joys and sorrows, and in the trials they had all passed through. MR. ROGERS was a sincere Christian in the latter part of his life. He left a wife and seven children, viz.: PETER L., HIAL B., ESTER, BETTIE, JOHN A., ELLEN and THOMAS J. PETER L. is at Deadwood, D.T; HIAL B. died in 1867; ESTER is the wife of CAPT. RILEY M. BURRINGTON, of Bay City; BETTIE is the wife of CHARLES B. COTTRELL, of Bay City; JOHN A. is at AuGres, Mich., engaged in the shingle and mercantile business; ELLEN is the wife of F. W. LANKENAU, of West Bay City; and THOMAS J. is now in Texas. ===============================================================================