Notes:
STEPHEN A. ROGERS, EARLY TEACHER, LAWYER & ENGINEER OF KINGSTON, MISSOURI
Narrator: Stephen C. Rogers and Others
Much of the following was given to the interviewer in his last year of life. He was one of the outstanding characters of the town of Kingston and of Caldwell county.
He was born in Claiborne co. Tenn. March 20 1848 and died in Kingston July 29 1935. His parents, farmer folk, moved from Tenn. to Clinton county 1856. There Steve grew up and decided to have an education. He graduated from the University of Missouri 1873 when M.S.U. graduates were rare and got his law degree there 1875. He had fallen in love with a Columbia girl Mattie Edwards and married her Dec 1874. He was teaching school when he got his law degree, for it did not take so long those days to get one when you had a university degree.
In Sept. 1874, he took charge of the Kingston schools which he found ungraded. He graded them and organized the high school. Hence, he is known as the father of the Kingston high school. In that first year, he had the second floor, and the lower rooms were under William McAfee and Parker Platt, no women even for the primer class! He taught for several years and in 1883, he resolved to use his law degree and practice law. He ran for prosecuting attorney and was elected, for many of his pupils were voters. Then too, he had been county school commissioner while teaching.
Then his versatile mind turned to surveying and he was county surveyor for many years, in fact he surveyed for the old Hamilton and Kingston railroad. This was his favorite profession. In his last days, when pain racked his body and took away his mind, his talk was on those surveys.
In intellect, he was unusual. At a time in 1874 when many school heads were not half way thru college, he had one college degree and soon had two. He was able to talk on any subject easily to those whom he liked - but to others he was quite uncongenial. That was a part of his peculiar make-up. He had Caldwell co. history at his command. He was a bit proud of his learning, but he had every reason to be so. People called him big headed, and self opinionated. There was one child who grew up, Lalla Rookh, who was naturally of her father`s bent mentally. She has an excellent education, has taught in the Phillipines and in college work. Her health is poor and she lives in California.
Mr. Rogers had a strong desire to own property and possessed several pieces of Kingston property. He requested that his body be taken to the Masonic Hall to lie in state till his burial which was done. This seemed a part of his eccentric life.
He was buried in his lot at the Kingston cemetery where his wife lies who died about 1880. There also lies his well-known sister-in-law Mrs. Mary E. Griffin, a teacher in the K.C. schools.
S.C. Rogers was kin to the Eugene D. Rogers family of Lathrop who was a son of David and Mary Rogers, David being a native of Clairborne county Tenn. who moved to Clinton county Mo.
Interview 1935.
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