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PAST AND PRESENT OF THE CITY OF SPRINGFIELD AND SANGAMON COUNTY ILLINOIS
By Joseph Wallace, M. A.
of the Springfield Bar
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, IL
1904



Page 664

SIMON M. ROGERS - Simon M. Rogers was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, August 20, 1850, a son of Uriah and Hettie (Myers) Rogers, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. The father has passed away, but the mother, who was born in 1827, is now living in Urbana, Champaign county, Illinois. Leaving Ohio the father removed to Illinois, settling on a farm near Mechanicsburg. There he carried on general agricultural pursuits and stock raising for many years, but his last years were spent in honorable retirement from active labor. His death occurred in Mechanicsburg in 1895, when he was in the seventy-eighth year of his age. In the family were ten children, five sons and five daughters, of whom nine are yet living.

Simon M. Rogers, the second in order of birth, pursued his education in the public schools and also added largely to his knowledge through study and the reading of good books. He taught school for fifteen years in Sangamon county, the entire time being spent as a teacher in four adjoining districts, and during the last five years he was principal of the schools of Mechanicsburg, Illinois. On putting aside educational work, he entered the internal revenue office of the eighth district, and later he became chief clerk in the office of the county treasurer, where he remained for two and one-half years. He was then elected county clerk and served two terms. He also filled the position of supervisor of assessments for four years under R. F. Kinsella, county treasurer of Sangamon county, retiring from that position on the 1st of December, 1902. On the 1st of August, 1903, he became financially interested in the Springfield Monument Company, of which he is now a stockholder, director and secretary. After leaving his official position in the courthouse, Mr. Rogers became connected with the fraternal organization known as the American Home Circle, of which he is now the secretary. He had previously served as a director and vice-president from the beginning. For many years he has been a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge, also of the Modern Woodmen of America, and he is a member of the Fraternal Mystic Circle, of which he has been supreme director for many years. He is likewise supreme secretary of the American Home Circle at Springfield, and in his life exemplifies the kindly spirit of these fraternities.

Mr. Rogers was married in Mechanicsburg, Illinois, on the 8th of November, 1882, to Miss Virginia A. Gore, a native of Clark county, Ohio, where she was born, reared and educated. Her father, Peter Gore, married a Miss Wigginton, and both were natives of Virginia. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Rogers were born two children, Byron D., who is a graduate of the high school of Springfield, and received the congressional appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he is now a midshipman; and Erma G., who is a member of the senior class in the Springfield high school.

In his religious views Mr. Rogers is independent, while his wife belongs to the First Methodist Episcopal Church. They live in a well appointed home at No. 215 East Jackson street not far west of the governor's mansion. Mr. Rogers is a man of strong judgment and strong intellectuality who throughout his life has been a student, keeping abreast with the advanced thought and ideas of the time. No trust reposed in him has ever been betrayed in the slightest degree, and he has gained many friends, not only through social, but also through business relations.



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