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SIMON M. ROGERS is the present Clerk of Sangamon County. He was formerly closely connected with the educational interests of this part of the State, but for the past few years he has been an important figure in public life, holding responsible positions both under the federal and the local Government. He was born in Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio, August 20, 1850, and is a son of Uriah and Hettie (Myers) Rogers. The father brought his family to Sangamon County in the fall of 1854 and located near Mechanicsburg, where he still lives. He is a farmer by occupation and has aided in the upbuilding of the locality where he settled. Of the ten children born to him and his wife nine are living, the eldest daughter dying in infancy. All are residents of this county and all are actively engaged in agricultural pursuits except our subject and another son, L. P., who is physician at Buffalo.
The early years of the life of our subject were passed on a farm, he remaining an inmate of the parental home until he was twenty-one years old. He was a boy of bright mind and was a quick scholar, and at the early age of fourteen years was fitted for teaching school. He engaged in that profession in adjoining districts in this county, and during the last five years that he taught was Principal of the Mechanicsburg schools, which progressed rapidly under his able management.
In 1884 Mr. Rogers entered the revenue service as Deputy Collector for the Eighth District. A year and a half later he gave up that position to accept the office of Chief Clerk to the County Treasurer. He acted in that capacity two and one-half years, and in April, 1889, was elected County Clerk of Sangamon County. He is prompt in the discharge of his duties, and the affairs of his office are always carried on in a systematic and orderly fashion, and not only his constituents but members of the opposing party are very well satisfied with his course in this responsible office. Socially, he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, Knights of Pythias and the F.M. C. Politically he is a Democrat of the truest type. He is a man of marked intelligence, is pleasing and obliging in his intercourse with others, and has many personal attributes that have attracted to him warm friends.
Mr. Rogers resides at No. 1202 South Fourth Street, Springfield, where coziness and comfort are combined with genuine hospitality. The pleasant home circle of our subject and his wife, formerly Miss Jennie A. Gore, of Mechanicsburg, is completed by their two children, Byron D. and Erma G.