William Rogers

“ These works have steadily extended his fame; and amid the truest enjoyment of that fame, Mr. Rogers has lived a long and honored, and, singularly for a poet, fortunate life. His wealth and position in society, not less than his wealth and position in the world of mind, have drawn around him all the distinguished characters of his time; and his house, filled from top to bottom with evidences of his taste, and of his means of indulging it, has been the resort of most of those who have given its intellectual stamp to the age. ”

“ Rogers received a pension of 50l. on the civil list, and after a long and successful career, he died on 21 March 1875, in his eighty-third year. He married, in April 1824, Miss Mary Johnson, and left a numerous family, of whom William Harry Rogers (1825–1873) showed great talents in designing ”

“ These exercises were of more than local interest, because the man in whose honor they were held has filled a great place in American education and American science. Born in Philadalphia in 1804, he passed his early boyhood and manhood at the old William and Mary College at Williamsburg, Va. In this institution his father was professor of natural science, and in the academic freedom of which this college was then one of the few exemplars, the young Rogers was able to follow the leadings of his own genius. ”

“ Rogers the poet, a very distinguished and amiable man. He is one of the few happy mortals to whom it has been granted to be able to gratify, in a worthy manner, the most lively sensibility to every thing noble and beautiful. He has accordingly found means, in the course of his long life, to impress this sentiment on every thing about him. In his house you are everywhere surrounded and excited with the higher productions of art. In truth one knows not whether more to admire the diversity or the purity of his taste. ”

“ DOING DAMAGE TO THE ENEMY
Although Major Rogers had entirely succeeded in the chief purpose of his expedition, namely, to obtain a full understanding of what the French were about at Crown Point, and had, moreover, captured one of their soldiers, who was quite ready to tell all he knew, provided his life was spared, he was not content to return to Fort William Henry without leaving behind evidence of his visit that would make it remembered by the enemy. ”

“ Rogers' part in the very early days of Standard Oil was that of clerk and bookkeeper. He makes no secret that when he had risen to the height of $8 a week wages he felt as proud and confident as ever in after-life when for the same number of days' labor it was no uncommon occurrence to find himself credited with a hundred thousand times that amount.
All able men have some of God's indelible imprints of greatness. This man's every feature bespeaks strength and distinction. When he walks, the active swing of his figure expresses power—realized, confident power. ”

“ A proper allowance for equipment having been made by the Commander-in-Chief, the Rangers were fitted out with everything necessary, and presented a really fine appearance when they were paraded at Fort William Henry.
Major Rogers surveyed them with pride and pleasure, that he took no pains to conceal, lighting up his usually stern features.
"They're a likely lot," he said to Colonel Glasier, "and after they have had a season of it with me, they'll give the French all the trouble they want and more too." ”

“ It is easy to find men who will declare by all that is sacred that Henry H. Rogers is one of the best fellows in the world, though as many more will as earnestly proclaim him the fiend incarnate. About Addicks, among those who know the man, there is but one opinion. I have yet to meet the man, woman, or child who would say aught of Addicks, after a month's acquaintance, other than, "Don't mention him! He is the limit." And it will be said with the calm of dispassionate conviction, as one might speak of a stuffed tiger in a dime-museum jungle. ”

“ Each is eminent in his own department, each will exercise the supremacy of his genius upon us.
In the Pleasures of Memory we are forcibly reminded of Goldsmith and the Deserted Village. We feel how deeply the genius of that exquisite writer had affected the mind of Rogers in his youth. There is a striking similarity of style, of imagery, and of subject. It is not a deserted village, but a deserted mansion, which is described, and where we are led to sympathize with all that is picturesque in nature, and dear to the heart in domestic life. ”

“ Rogers is a great master in his own department. In him taste lives as strongly as genius. He is a poetic artist. The beautiful and the refined mingle themselves with the structure as inseparably as with the material of his compositions. ”

“ It is with profound sorrow that we note the death by drowning of two adult sons of Rev. J. A. R. Rogers, now the pastor of a Presbyterian Church at Shawano, Wis. All our readers are familiar with the heroic labors and endurance of Mr. Rogers before and after the war, in building up the college and church at Berea, Ky. The names and birthplaces of the sons are historic. William Norris was born at Berea in 1859, and Lewis Fairchild was born in Ohio, while the family were in exile on account of the war. ”

“ Rogers was a strict disciplinarian and an excellent business man is proven by the perfect control he exercised over the large number in his employ, whom he ruled with a firm hand yet with a wise judgment, and while rebuking any disobedience of orders, was feared, respected and loved for his strict sense of honor, justice and propriety. ”

“ They are genial and tolerant in their judgment of others. Yes, they are mighty good fellows, until you turn them around and look at their other side. Rogers is lovable enough until he touches the other button. Then he goes with perfect ruthlessness for what he wants. And yet, though you are his victim, you can't bring yourself to hate him. After he has thrown you down and taken all you have and you turn yourself over and find the dark lantern has disappeared, and you hear him going up the lane, you pick yourself out of the gutter and admire the skill with which he did the job. ”

“ Rogers with oracular emphasis, "that is where your business education is flawed. No man has done his business properly who has missed a single dollar he could have secured in the doing of it. I do not think a fair judge would find me guilty of avarice, either in business or in the manner of my living, and yet I am made fairly miserable if I discover that, in any business I do, I have not extracted every dollar possible. It is one of the first principles Mr. Rockefeller taught me; it is one he has inculcated in every 'Standard Oil' man, until to-day it is a religion with us all." ”

“ Up to now Mr. Rogers and William Rockefeller had kept me between the people and their legal responsibility by having all public statements made over my signature. I had half-way concluded that this was done to avoid future accounting, but there might be other reasons. I determined when it came to the flotation, which would be the first time they took openly the public's money, to connect them publicly with my statements. It is next to impossible for any man to sit in front of Henry H. Rogers and give one reason for his actions and have another about his person ”

“ Rogers was a member of the council from 1882 to 1885. Although painstaking and cautious in psychical research, Rogers, to whom spiritualism was of vital importance, had little sympathy with what he considered the anti-spiritualistic bias of the Psychical Research Society, and resigned his membership in its early years, although he subsequently became an honorary member in 1894. In 1884 he was a founder of the London Spiritualist Alliance, of which he was president from 1892 to death. ”

“ Allen’s resolution had been duly seconded, one Rogers, a publican, got up and said he had something to say. There was indescribable confusion, some crying, “Turn him out;” others “Pitch into ’em, Bill.” Bill Rogers was well known as the funny man in Cowfold, a half-drunken buffoon, whose wit, such as it was, was retailed all over the place; a man who was specially pleased if he could be present in any assembly collected for any serious purpose and turn it into ridicule. He got upon a chair, not far from where George sat, but refused to go upon the platform. ”

“ Street. In 1793 the firm name was Rogers & Woolsey, his partner being William Walter Woolsey, his brother-in-law, Mr. Rogers having married Sarah Woolsey, a sister of the wife of President Dwight of Yale College. In that year he was living at 272 Pearl Street, near Beekman, “in a large house with hanging garden extending over the yard and stable.”6
Mr. Rogers was a merchant of high character and public spirit. In 1793 he was an active member of the Society for the Manumission of Slaves. He was a governor of the New York Hospital from 1792 to 1799, and in 1797 treasurer of the City Dispensary. ”

“ The most important part of it, however, is gathered up in The Early Life of Samuel Rogers (1887) and Rogers and his Contemporaries (1889) , both by P. W. Clayden, two excellent works. See also Mr. Clayden's Memoir of Samuel Sharpe, Rogers's nephew. A very satisfactory abridged memoir by this nephew is prefixed to the edition of Rogers's Poems published in 1860. His recollections of the conversation of others, published after his death by another nephew, William Sharpe, in 1856, supply reminiscences of Fox, Burke, Porson, Grattan, Talleyrand, Scott, Erskine, Grenville, and Wellington. ”

“ He is considerate, kindly, generous, helpful, and everything a man should be to his friends. But when it comes to business—his kind of business—when he turns away from his better self and goes aboard his pirate brig and hoists the Jolly Rover, God help you! And, then, as a buccaneer you have to admire him, for he is a master among pirates, and you have to salute him, even when he has the point of his cutlass at the small of your back and you're walking the plank at his order. Rogers is wonderful. He is one of the most prolific human creatures I have ever met ”

“ Rogers met my onslaught by a manœuvre new in "Standard Oil" tactics. He came into the open, issuing a proclamation over his own signature which gave me the lie, at the same time tearing off a yard or two of my skin and throwing on a bucket of brine to remind me I had lost it. This attack was just off the press when I was out with a rejoinder which he, in after-years, referred to as quite the hottest thing of its kind he had ever read. ”

“ Of the writers, and especially the poets, who charmed our young and inexperienced spirits, how few are those whose works will bear the test of time; how few to whom we can turn, at a mature age, and find them all that we ever believed them to be! Mr. Rogers is one of this rare class. ”

“ As man to man another self disclose,
And now with terror starts, with triumph glows!"
Italy, Mr. Rogers's last published poem of any length, is a fine production, full of that glorious land, and abounding with the finest subjects for the painter and the sculptor; but we must not be tempted to speak further of it here.
The changes of Mr. Rogers's life, or of his abodes, have not been many. He was born at Newington-green, in 1763, and is, consequently, eighty-three years of age. Newington-green, his birthplace, has all the marks of an old locality. ”

“ Campbell may be said to hold a place (among modern poets) between Lord Byron and Mr. Rogers. With much of the glossy splendour, the pointed vigour, and romantic interest of the one, he possesses the fastidious refinement, the classic elegance of the other. ”

“ Rogers and his immediate associates, while these great wrongs were occurring, led social lives which, measured by the most rigid yardstick of mental or moral rectitude, were as near perfect as it is possible for human lives to be. ”

“ George, Rose-water dish presented by, to Winchester College, 161 Rogers’ ‘Poems,’ Turner’s illustrations to, (N. G.) , 300 Rogers, William, first British engraver of importance, plates by, shown at V. and A. Museum Exhibition ”

“ Most men who have ever been on the inside of "Standard Oil" know that no man with a bad record could do business, much less have an intimate relation, with Rogers and Rockefeller for nine seconds; and my connection extended over nine years.
The tone of my correspondence during the year was not by any means altogether friendly. The writer of the following letter presented his conclusions straight from the shoulder and I was equally direct in my reply:
Personal. ”

“ Crumpton, William, farmer
Cutler, John, market gardener
Durrant, William, relieving officer, and registrar of births and deaths
Easton, Isaac, baker
Edwards, William, lime burner
Edwards, T., lime burner and postmaster
Edwards, Thomas P., agent to the British Life Insurance Society
Everett, John, steward to Col. Stracey
Fitt, John, market gardener
Fox, John, carpenter
Gale, Mrs. Miriam, midwife
George, George, butcher
Gilbert, James, plumber and glazier
Goodson, Henry, hurdle maker
Harrison, Edmund, farmer
Hudson, Charles, beer retailer
Jarmy, Thomas, brickmaker
Lloyd, Mrs. ”

“ Laws, Robert, Dereham road
Lebbell, Thomas, Heigham street
Leggatt, John, Scoles’ green
Norman, Elizabeth Maria, King st.
Pank, James, King street
Palmer, John and W., St. Augustine’s
Riches, William, Barn road
Rogers, John, Muspole street
Shalders, T., Hay hill, Market place
Shreeve, J., (shoeing) Magdalen st.
Thaxter, John, Barrack street
Warner, James, Trafalgar street
Wegg, Christopher, Fishgate street
Blind Makers (see Venetian Blind Makers) —Boat Builders— Britcher, John, Carrow abbey
Fisher, James, Oak street
Hobrough, William, Bishop’s bridge
Houghton, Robert, St. ”