Family Narrative

CAPTAIN CHARLES PLATT ROGERS, SR.

1832-1922

Introduction

Captain Charles Platt Rogers, Sr. was the first of our family to settle in Alabama. Captain Rogers lived to be 90 years old, fathered seven children, served in the Civil War and served with distinction in the Alabama Legislature. Through his efforts and the efforts of his descendants, the area of Letohatchee, Alabama was cultivated and developed into one of the leading townships of Lowndes County. Captain Rogers’ life spanned the developmental stage of Alabama – the Civil War, Reconstruction, the beginnings of industrialization, World War I and the rise and fall of “King Cotton.” In all, Captain Rogers lived in Alabama for close to 70 years, but his beginnings were elsewhere.

Ancestors

Charles Platt Rogers, Sr. was born on August 8, 1832, in Petersburg, Virginia, to Charles and Caroline Adoue Rogers. Charles Platt was one of nine children born to Charles and Caroline. The other children were Henrietta, Virginia, Emma, Mary Bland, Eugene, Caroline, Hellen and Isabell. Correspondence penned by Caroline Adoue Rogers in 1832 indicates that Henrietta died before Charles Platt was born. The same correspondence also reveals that the loss of Henrietta was quite difficult for the father, Charles Rogers.

Charles and Caroline Rogers met in Petersburg and married in February 1821. The marriage ceremony was conducted by Benjamin Holt Rice, a well-known Presbyterian minister who settled in Petersburg in 1812 and later founded the Tabb Street Presbyterian Church in Petersburg. The town of Petersburg, located within 50 miles of Williamsburg, was a prominent colonial settlement. By the time that Charles and Caroline married, Petersburg had become an established township involved in river traffic and mercantile trade. Three years after Charles and Caroline married, General Marie Joseph Paul Lafayette, the famous French general and statesman who assisted George Washington during the Revolutionary War, visited Petersburg. Five years after Charles and Caroline married, Edgar Allen Poe honeymooned in Petersburg.

Caroline Adoue Rogers

Caroline Adoue Rogers, born in 1806, came from French ancestry, her parents – Peter and Catherine Adoue – having moved to Petersburg, located on the Appomattox River, from Norfolk, located at the mouth of the James River. The Adoue family had also lived in Williamsburg during the Colonial period, and they had previously farmed on the island of Haiti. According to Captain Rogers’ one-page, autobiographical sketch authored the year before he died, Caroline Adoue’s father was a French planter who was driven by the natives from Haiti, a French colony before it was declared Independent in 1804. Although difficult to determine, it may have been that Caroline Adoue’s maternal ancestors moved from Williamsburg to Norfolk, while her father came from France, then Haiti and later Norfolk. By one account, Caroline Adoue’s ancestors, while in Williamsburg, were “ardent Whigs”1 and “suffered many hardships from the British during the Revolutionary War.”

Records indicate that several of the Adoue family may have been buried in the old Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg. Blandford was an independent township located near Petersburg and founded during Colonial times. Later, as Petersburg prospered, Blandford became a suburb of Petersburg in approximately 1784. The cemetery in Blandford became the major cemetery for the city of Petersburg.

Charles Rogers

Charles Platt’s father, Charles Rogers, was born in 1793 in Poughkeepsie, New York, to Charles P. and Sarah Rogers. Sarah died when Charles was an infant. Charles’ father, Charles P. remarried Rebecca, a Dutch New Yorker. Charles P. and Rebecca had a daughter named Caroline, who later married a Brown. Charles’ wife, Caroline Adoue, corresponded with his half-sister, Caroline Brown. (Copies of two letters dates 1832 and 1836 are on the Letohatchee Rogers website.) Charles apparently was raised on scenic farmland owned by the Rogers family in Poughkeepsie, a township on the Hudson River founded in 1687 – approximately 100 years before Charles’ birth. Charles had at least one sister, also named Caroline – who later married a Brown. The land on which Charles was raised in Poughkeepsie is said to be the present site of Vassar College, founded in 1861.

In her memoirs written at age 99 in 1958, Caroline Ellis Beck has this to say about her grandfather, Charles Rogers. “When Grandfather Rogers was eight years old he was sent to Bishop Chase’s School for boys in Connecticut. It must have been an excellent school for I have never seen anyone with all the fine attributes that make a Christian gentleman as he had. At Bishop Chase’s School Grandfather had his classes and drawings with which he entertained himself in the evenings all his life.” At some point before 1821, when he married Caroline Adoue, Charles moved to Petersburg and engaged in “merchandising,” according to Captain Rogers’ autobiographical sketch authored just before his death. While engaged in merchandising in Petersburg, Charles met Caroline Adoue and, as noted above, married her 11 years before the birth of his son, Charles Platt Rogers, Sr. Caroline Adoue was 15 years old when she married Charles, who was 28 years old.

As will be detailed later, Charles and Caroline moved to Apalachicola after Charles Platt was born. The family later settled in Columbus, Georgia, and Charles eventually moved to Marietta, Georgia in 1875 with three single daughters, Caroline, Hellen, and Isabell. Charles lived to be 97 years old.

Captain’s Paternal Grandmother (Sarah)

We know nothing of Sarah, except her name. Sarah Rogers was from Long Island and possibly a distant cousin to Charles P. Sarah died when their son Charles was an infant.

Captain’s Paternal Grandfather (Charles P. Rogers)

Charles P. Rogers was educated in Connecticut during the period that included the Revolutionary War, after which he engaged in surveying in Ohio, where he “prospered.” Charles P. apparently trained as an engineer, and was known as a civil engineer. After engaging in work in Ohio, Charles P. returned to New York, where he had apparently been raised. In New York, Charles P. became involved in the shipping business and was soon known as one of the leading merchants of New York City. Charles P. married Sarah in 1792 and their son Charles was born in 1793. Sarah died when Charles was an infant. Charles’ grandmother, Elizabeth, took care of him. Charles P. bought a farm near Poughkeepsie for a home for his mother and son. Vassar College is now located on this site. (A sketch of the farm buildings, done for C.P. Rogers is on the website.)

According to documents authored much later by Captain Rogers, Charles P. owned several ships engaged in international trade, four of which were seized by the British government in connection with a dispute between Great Britain and France. Charles P. borrowed and spent $40,000, an incredibly large sum at the time, to recover the ships or their value – all apparently to no avail. The United States government later assumed Charles P.’s debt for this sum. There is some indication that Charles P. may have spent a considerable amount of time in Paris attempting to recover the ships, after which he returned to the United States. This is a fascinating story that has intrigued family members for years. (Relatives have researched this event and prepared an in-depth report which we hope to soon add to the website.)

At some point after the dispute arising from the seizure of his ships, Charles P. bought an estate on the Hudson River near Hyde Park. The home was registered “Richmond Hall” and was purchased from a Royalist who wanted to return to England. Charles P. had remarried Rebecca, a Dutch New Yorker.

Captain’s Paternal Great Grandmother (Elizabeth Platt)

Elizabeth Platt Rogers was born to the Platt family of Huntington, Long Island, New York. Huntington was the name given by the Rogers family to this establishment on Long Island after the Rogers had moved from Huntington, England, and settled on this Long Island location during the early 1700’s. As Huntington flourished, the Platt family – in addition to the Rogers – became prominent in the area. Elizabeth Platt’s father, Zephaniah Platt, is referred to in several documents as a patriot who was considered by the British to be an “arrant rebel.”

Zephaniah’s politics were not just irksome to the British, but also resulted in trouble for Zephaniah, who was imprisoned by the British on a prison ship in New York harbor. The length of the imprisonment is unknown, but the incarceration proved long enough for Zephaniah to contract a serious illness – smallpox. He was released at the request of his daughter, Elizabeth, and died several days later.

Zephaniah had at least four children: Elizabeth, Zephaniah (later known as Judge Zephaniah Platt), Dorothea and Richard (later known as Colonel Richard Platt). Elizabeth’s brother, Judge Zephaniah Platt, settled the town of Plattsburg, New York on Lake Champlain in 1760. The town was officially established as a township in 1784. Elizabeth’s other brother, Colonel Richard Platt, was an aide-de-camp to General Washington during the Revolutionary War and later became the first President of the Society of Cincinnati of the Revolutionary Army.

We can infer that Elizabeth met James Rogers in Huntington, where both the Rogers and Platt families resided. We know that Elizabeth married James Rogers and had a son named Charles P. Rogers, but we are unsure of the date of the marriage or of the number of children born of the marriage. Elizabeth died in 1832.

The name “Charles” was apparently a prominent name within the Platt family during the 1700’s and may have been the name of one of Elizabeth Platt’s uncles. Because the name Charles first appears in the Rogers’ lineage with Charles P. Rogers, the son of Elizabeth Platt and James Rogers, it is reasonable to conclude that this so frequently-used name in the Rogers family had its origins in the Platt family.

Paternal Great Grandfather (James Rogers)

We have little information regarding James Rogers. We know that he apparently came from the Rogers family of Huntington, Long Island, New York, which had been named for Huntington, England, where the Rogers family had resided before moving to America. We know that James served as a soldier in the Revolutionary Army, but we are not sure of his exact capacity or length of service. In her 1958 recollections of our family history, his descendant, Caroline Ellis Beck writes: “James Rogers was an East India merchant in New York City. He was one of the founders of the New York Merchant Library and his portrait still hangs in the library.” (Recent research has not revealed any information about the Merchant Library.)

Captain Rogers’ Childhood

The Rogers family of Petersburg – Charles, Caroline and their children – moved from Petersburg to Apalachicola, Florida in 1837, when Charles Platt was five years old. In Apalachicola, Charles became employed as a broker for an international cotton brokerage. The sources are somewhat in conflict on the exact name of the brokerage, and it may be that Charles worked for more than one. The names of those mentioned are Baring Brothers & Company, Browning Brothers of London, and Dunstown & Company of Liverpool. Because various encyclopedias do not contain references to Browning or Dunstown & Company, it may be correct to assume that Charles was employed strictly with Baring & Company, a well-known cotton brokerage company of London that was founded in 1763.

After moving to Apalachicola, Charles and Caroline also established a summer home in Columbus, Georgia, where the family resided during the warm weather months. Interestingly, Captain Rogers refers to his being “raised” in Columbus, indicating a more permanent residence in Columbus as time went by. Columbus was officially established in 1828 by an order of the Governor of the State of Georgia. Thus, the Rogers family began to set up a residence in Columbus within only a few short years after it was established as a city.

Curiously, certain biographical summaries of Captain Rogers’ life forthrightly state that he was raised and educated in Petersburg. For example, the Alabama Official and Statistical Register of 1913 provides:

Senator Rogers was educated in the common schools at Petersburg, Virginia. He was placed with a celebrated educator there, Mr. B. F. Shine, under whom he was prepared for college.

Nevertheless, Captain Rogers himself wrote in the year before his death: “I was raised in Columbus, Georgia.” The archival and encyclopedic resources make no mention of an educator named B. F. Shine, nor is there reference to such a person in the histories of Petersburg and Columbus. Because Charles Platt himself wrote that he was raised in Columbus leads us to the conclusion that he was also educated there and that these statements in the Alabama Official and Statistical Register may be incorrect.

During Charles Platt’s childhood, Columbus was a thriving city and may have been largely unaffected by the nationwide economic crisis of 1837, the year that Charles Platt and his family moved to Apalachicola. During this same time, Columbus was issuing its own currency and had become a stopping point for settlers moving west to inhabit former Indian territories. In 1840, Columbus – situated on the Chattahoochee River — requested and apparently received the authority of the United States Congress to make Columbus a port of entry for foreign ships. Columbus enjoyed a prominent role in the cotton trade, and with cotton warehouses in both Apalachicola and Columbus, Charles and Caroline maintained homes in both cities. An 1850 letter from Caroline Adoue to Caroline Brown stated that maintaining two homes was too much trouble, indicating they would sell the Apalachicola home.

Meanwhile, in October 1844, when Charles Platt was 12 years old, his sister, Virginia, married Dr. William Green of Apalachicola, indicating that the Rogers family still maintained close ties to Apalachicola. In the abstract of marriages reported in the Columbus Enquirer, the marriage between Virginia Rogers and Dr. William Green is recorded, with a specific reference to “Virginia E. Rogers, daughter of Charles Rogers of Columbus, Georgia,” indicating clearly that, by 1844, Columbus had become the Rogers’ permanent residence.

Six years later, when Charles Platt was 18 years old, his grandmother – Catherine Adoue – died in Columbus. Charles and Caroline apparently stayed in Columbus throughout the 1840’s and, at some point, invited Caroline Adoue’s mother, Catherine, to live with them. In the Burials and Deaths Indexes of Columbus, Georgia, there is a reference to Catherine Adoue, with a notation that she was born in Williamsburg in 1775 and died in Columbus on January 25, 1851. One year later, Charles’ work for Baring Brothers had taken him to London, Antwerp and Brussels for an extended period, according to correspondence he sent to Caroline from London. (A Copy of this 1852 letter is on the Letohatchee Rogers website.) The Rogers family continued to reside in Columbus for a number of years thereafter. The Burials and Deaths Indexes of Columbus show that on January 25, 1871, Caroline – Charles Platt’s mother – also died in Columbus on the exact date (20 years later) that her mother, Catherine Adoue, had died. Caroline was 65 years old at the time of her death. Charles and Caroline are buried in Lot 63 in the Linwood Cemetery in Columbus.

Education At Princeton

Whether or not Charles Platt was trained by a “celebrated educator” in Petersburg or educated in preparatory schools in Columbus, we do know that his preparatory education was sufficient to entitle him to admission at Princeton University. Princeton had been founded in 1747, originally for the purpose of training Presbyterian ministers. By 1849 or 1850, when Charles Platt gained admission, the school had become a respected center of higher education, requiring candidates for admission to undergo entrance examinations on subjects such as Caesar’s Commentaries, Cicero’s Orations, Latin Grammar, Greek Grammar, English, Arithmetic, and Geography.

Charles Platt spent two years at Princeton. In his first year, he studied Classic Greek Literature, Latin, Mathematics and Rhetoric. His tuition for the year was approximately $200. In his second year at Princeton, Charles Platt continued to study Classic Literature, as well as Advanced Mathematics – including Geometry and Trigonometry. In his “circular” or report card for his sophomore year, Charles Platt scored admirably in “behavior” with a score of 100, “industry” with a score of 98, and “scholarship” with a score of 96.9. His circular also noted that Charles Platt was reported to have been absent thirteen times from “prayers,” eleven of those “not excused,” eight times from “recitations,” two of those “not excused.” An 1851 invitation to a pre-commencement party hosted by the Princeton sophomore class showed C.P. Rogers of Georgia was class vice president.

According to Charles Platt, he “entered the profession” of civil engineering in 1850, indicating he entered Princeton that year. By his own account, Charles Platt left Princeton because the school did not provide an engineering curriculum. The circular or report card from his freshman year, which lists the course work for the four-year curriculum, confirms that there was no professional concentration available at Princeton. Charles Platt’s grades, being quite high, also indicate that his departure from Princeton after his sophomore year was not due to any lack of achievement in academics.

Professional Life And Marriage

Upon leaving Princeton, Charles Platt entered “an engineering corps,” in his own words, and by 1852 was involved as a civil engineer on the Columbus branch of the Montgomery & West Point Railroad. It would therefore appear that Charles Platt returned to Columbus from Princeton, and that his reference to “an engineering corps” may have been a generic reference to the profession as a whole, with Charles having entered the employment of the railroads almost immediately upon leaving Princeton. In the several years that followed, Charles Platt also became involved in the Montgomery & Mobile Railroad, resulting in his first exposure to the locale now known as Letohatchee.

By 1857, at the age of 25, Charles Platt had become the chief engineer of the Opelika & Oxford Railroad, which he was constructing even as the Civil War began in 1861. Later in his life, Charles Platt wrote that he had been involved in the construction of every railroad track running into Montgomery.2 Charles Platt also later wrote that he had served as the resident engineer in charge of the Montgomery to Pollard railroad. Many of these local railroads were later bought by the L&N after it qualified to do business in Alabama in 1871.
Letohatchee

Charles Platt was involved in the engineering of the track that now runs through Letohatchee, Alabama. The word Letohatchee is itself an Indian word, used by the Alibamo tribe of Creek Indians, who had a major settlement at what is known as Holy Ground in Lowndes County. There was a battle between Federal troops and Indians at Holy Ground in 1813, when General Claiborne and his troops confronted a large number of Creek Indians on the banks of the Alabama River.

The word “letohatchee” means “arrow creek” or “wooden arrow stream.” As for whether this area had already been designated as Letohatchee by the Indians, or named for a nearby creek when the town was established in the 1850’s, is uncertain. References to Harris’ Alabama Place Names, Foscoe’s Place Names In Alabama, and Owens’ History of Alabama, reveal that Letohatchee was founded at some point between 1850 and 1858, when a railway station and a post office were established.

We do know that Charles Platt married Nancy Sanderson on August 23, 1857 in Hayneville, indicating that he had been in the Letohatchee area for some time before the railway station and post office were erected in 1858. The Sanderson family, some of whom settled in nearby Montgomery County, may have been involved in cultivating land in the area of Letohatchee before Charles Platt’s arrival.3 We also know that Charles Platt and Nancy Sanderson Rogers settled in Letohatchee after marriage, presumably in the year before the railway station and post office were established.

Lowndes County itself had been created by an Act of the Alabama Legislature (then located in Tuscaloosa) in 1830, having been named in honor of William Lowndes, a distinguished South Carolina statesman for whom the town of Lowndesboro was also named. Lowndesboro, originally known as McGill’s Hill, had been settled before 1820 by planters from South Carolina. The nearby town of Hayneville later became the County Seat, with a courthouse built in 1856, the year before Charles Platt and Nancy Sanderson married.

Hayneville itself was also named for a notable citizen of South Carolina – the Honorable Robert Y. Hayne – a senator famous in South Carolina for his debate with Daniel Webster. The Alabama Company of South Carolina had acquired some 70,000 acres of land in and around Hayneville, and Senator Hayne owned a large portion of it.

It was in this relatively new county of Lowndes, and in the new County Seat, that Charles Platt married Nancy Sanderson, the daughter of E. L and Mahara Sanderson (Lowndes County residents, originally from North Carolina), on August 23, 1857.

There is a story that accompanies this marriage. By one family account, Charles Platt first met Nancy Sanderson while he was a “boarder” in a Sanderson house in or near Letohatchee. Nancy had become engaged to marry another man, and the wedding was scheduled on August 23, 1857. Meanwhile, Charles Platt had fallen in love with Nancy. On the day of the wedding, Charles Platt stole the groom’s wedding clothes and horse, spirited Nancy to Hayneville for the ceremonial vows, and returned with her to the reception originally planned for her wedding.

No matter the accuracy of this story, we do know that Charles Platt and Nancy Sanderson Rogers remained married for 23 years and produced seven children before Nancy’s death in January 1880. The first of the children was born in 1859 (Alice) and the last was born in 1877 (Wilmer), three years before Nancy’s death. Although Captain Rogers remarried in 1884, his children were born of his marriage to Nancy.

The Civil War Years

Four years after marrying Nancy, and within two years of the birth of his first child, Alice, the War Between the States began. At the time, Captain Rogers was part of the Montgomery True Blues, a group of volunteers from a variety of professions in and around Montgomery. Included in the roster of the Montgomery True Blues were doctors, lawyers, engineers, printers, merchants, planters, artists and others. Charles Platt entered service in the Civil War as part of the Montgomery True Blues, which was reorganized early in the War. As a result of the reorganization, Captain Rogers became part of the 37th Alabama Regiment, and he rose rapidly in rank from Private to Captain, a rank he held until the War ended in 1865.

Captain Rogers served under General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard and General Joseph Johnston. Some of the Captain’s uniform decorations are in the possession of Billy Colvard today, as well as letters written while the Captain served in the military. It appears that, early on while he served with the 37th Regiment, the Captain was placed in charge of pay and provisions for the Regiment, which was stationed for a short time in Pensacola and later Vicksburg.

In January 1864, Captain Rogers became the Chief Quartermaster for Confederate Troops stationed in an area that included the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. There are a number of documents still remaining today that reflect the work performed by Captain Rogers while serving as Quartermaster. The documents reflect that Captain Rogers’ quarters were in Blakeley, Alabama, located near Daphne. On our website is a copy of pages 3 and 4 of a handwritten letter from Captain Rogers at Blakeley to wife, Nancy Sanderson; including observations about his fellow Confederate soldiers and personal feelings toward Nancy and family. (Pages 1 and 2 are missing.)

Return To Letohatchee And The Post-War Years

After General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia on Palm Sunday, April 9, 1865, Captain Rogers returned to Nancy and their two children, Alice and Charles Platt, Jr., in Letohatchee. Beginning with the birth of Edmund Lee in 1865, Captain Rogers and Nancy produced five more children after his return from the Civil War: Edmund Lee in 1865, Blanche in 1873, Eugene in 1874, Cecile in 1875 and Wilmer in 1877. Between the time of his return to Letohatchee after the Civil War and his entry into the service of the Alabama State Legislature in 1884, it appears that Captain Rogers maintained his professional standing as an engineer, while also building a personal estate based on the acquisition and cultivation of land in and around Letohatchee.

The production of cotton throughout the South was significantly reduced during and just after the Civil War. Before the War, Lowndes County – along with Marengo, Dallas, Greene, Montgomery, Sumter and Tuscaloosa Counties – had one of the largest concentrations of slave labor and cotton productions in the state of Alabama. With a black/white population ratio of approximately 5/1, and with a total of only 700 white, registered voters in the county during the several years just before the Civil War, Lowndes County was nevertheless one of the primary “Black Belt” producers of cotton.

In 1860, before the Civil War, Lowndes County produced 53,664 bales of cotton. Ten years later, however, the cotton production for the county had dropped to 18,369 bales. Although by 1880 the production had revived to 30,000 bales, it was not until the 1890’s that cotton production in Lowndes County was anything close to its pre-War status.

Despite this dramatic change in the cotton economy of Lowndes County – due largely to the effect of the War on slave labor and available markets – it appears that Captain Rogers’ railroad, military and family contacts (through the Sandersons) served him well during this post-War period. With land acquisitions by purchase and Sanderson family gifts or inheritances, and with noteworthy professional accomplishments (for example, the surveying of Fort Deposit), Mr. and Mrs. Charles Platt Rogers, Sr. became prominent citizens of Lowndes County during these post-War years.

Captain Rogers, his wife Nancy, and their children lived in a large home located on the northwest side of the railroad tracks running through Letohatchee, the location being just across from the railway depot and post office. As noted almost a century later in an article in the Greeneville Advocate:

This splendid old home has profound and joyful memories for all that part of Lowndes County, for it was the focus of much social doings for many years. Capt. Rogers had installed in each of the upper and lower halls a reed organ, and here were held the dances for the young people of Letohatchee, Lowndesboro, Calhoun, Sandy Ridge, and Hayneville. The dances came whenever a group of young people gathered at this hospitable home, but two formal dances were held each year – one in the Summer and one in the Fall, and many times a Montgomery band was brought down for the occasion.

Born in Petersburg, VA., and a graduate civil engineer, Capt. Rogers came to Alabama to have part in surveying the route of the Montgomery and Mobile Railroad that later became the Louisville and Nashville and he was engaged on this when the War Between the States broke out. He promptly enlisted and came through the four years of his conflict as a captain. After the War he came back to Letohatchie and acquired a considerable acreage of land, farming this in addition to carrying on his career as a civil engineer. It was shortly after the War that he . . . built his home on a slight hill overlooking a spacious area which was planted to flowering native trees and flowers, and in the grove in front of the house was where he later built a pavilion where many of the dances were held and in which his growing group of children participated.

The house completed, Capt. Rogers took his bride to New Orleans and bought much of the beautiful furniture with which the home was graced.

[The] builder had spared nothing to make the materials sound and beautiful. The two long forty foot halls which separated the bedrooms upstairs and the other rooms downstairs were some sixteen feet wide and floored with heart pine flooring an inch and a quarter thick and six inches wide. Many of the planks used in the home were over twelve inches wide, some of them as much as eighteen inches in width. And all were without a single knot, even though some of the planks were nearly twenty-five feet long.

The rooms in this relic of a bi-gone area were sixteen feet in height and twenty-two feet square, each with its own fireplace and the bedrooms each had an enormous area which, as with the homes of those days, served both as a dressing room and a closet. As was customary then, the kitchen was a separate building some distance from the dining room as a simple fire prevention method.5

The Greeneville Advocate, Greeneville, Alabama, Thursday, July 27, 1967.

During these post-Civil War years, the political scene in Alabama – and in Lowndes County – underwent significant changes. The “Radical Republicans,” “Carpetbaggers,” and “Scalawags” dominated local politics during this period of Reconstruction. Wholesale re-elections were held throughout the state just after the Civil War, resulting in officeholders being hand-picked by Reconstructionists and Radical Republicans.6 There was rampant corruption in state politics, due largely to officeholders interested only in profit. Additionally, the economy of the state was severely strained.

By 1880, however, Lowndes County – which for 15 years had been dominated by the Radical Republicans – was returning to Democratic Party control. There was a gradual return of normalcy to state and local politics due to political redistricting and the regaining of control by the Democratic Party. In 1886, Captain Rogers ran for election to the Alabama House of Representatives as a Democrat and won a two-year term. He was re-elected for consecutive two year terms in 1888, 1891 and 1894. Captain Rogers was not part of the Alabama Legislature in the years 1896 through 1899, but he successfully ran again for a two-year term in 1900.

Constitutional Convention

The population of Alabama during this time had grown from approximately 1 million in 1870 to 1.5 million in 1890. In 1895, the Legislature approved a new state flag, with elements of the Confederate flag – the red St. Andrew’s Cross on a white field. Meanwhile, the state was operating under its fourth Constitution since Alabama became a state in 1819.

At the Huntsville Convention in 1819, 44 delegates from 22 counties had drafted the state’s first Constitution, using a committee of 15 delegates. Just after General Lee’s surrender in 1865, a second Constitutional Convention was held in Montgomery, which had become the State Capitol in 1846. During the second Constitutional Convention in 1865, the delegates abolished slavery, declared secession to be null and void and accepted defeat in the Civil War. New elections were also scheduled for November 1865 to choose Alabama officials for state and local government (the elections in which the Radical Republicans and Reconstructionists took control of the state.)

Two years later, in 1867, while Captain Rogers was establishing himself in Letohatchee, a new Constitutional Convention dominated by “Carpetbaggers” and “Scalawags” was declared, resulting in a third Constitution made official in June 1868.

In 1875, a fourth Constitutional Convention was held in Montgomery due largely to statewide reaction to the excessive corruption dominating state politics after the War. Much of the corruption had involved government lending to private enterprises, resulting in a bankrupt state treasury. In this fourth Constitution of 1875, there were severe limits on the state’s taxing powers, and four main principles were followed in enacting the Constitution: education, payment of Reconstruction debt, solid economy and avoiding the mistakes of Reconstruction.

In 1901, during Captain Rogers’ fifth term in the Alabama Legislature, a fifth Constitutional Convention was called. The Convention involved 26 delegates – one of whom was Captain Charles Platt Rogers, Sr. of Letohatchee. On Sunday, June 9, 1901, the Montgomery Advertiser ran a profile of the Convention delegates, including a photograph and short biography of Captain Rogers. The Convention had been called by Governor William Samford just before his death in June 1901. Governor Samford was an Opelika lawyer and a Methodist preacher who had served in the Confederate Army and had been part of the Constitutional Convention of 1875.

The 1901 Convention was intended to remedy the inadvertent brevity and incomplete nature of the 1875 Constitution, which had been hastily drafted as a reaction to Reconstruction. As a result of the work of Captain Rogers and the 25 other delegates to the Convention, the Constitution of 1901 was enacted and remains in effect even today. A very thorough, new Constitution that included provisions for separation of powers between government branches, a bill of rights and provisions for amendment, this document was the most carefully enacted of the five Alabama Constitutions. The Constitution included minute detail on the power of the governor and the government of counties, cities and other divisions of local government. A great deal of attention was directed to public education, with Constitutional provisions allowing for school funds to be apportioned among counties according to school populations and allowing for funding of the university systems.

Captain Rogers continued to serve in the Alabama Legislature as a Senator from Lowndes County and Autauga County in 1902 and 1903. Captain Rogers was returned to the Senate in 1910 and served as a Senator from these two counties until 1915. Using statistics from the 1920 Census for Lowndes County and Autauga County, it appears that Lowndes County had approximately 20,000 residents and Autauga County had approximately 15,000 residents between 1910 and 1915. The number of registered voters was much smaller, however, with Lowndes County having 1,500-2,000 registered voters and Autauga County having approximately 2,000 registered voters.

Second Marriage

Before engaging in public service as a Representative, Senator and Constitutional Convention Delegate, Captain Rogers suffered the loss of his first wife, Nancy Sanderson Rogers, in 1880. Nancy was buried in Montgomery, presumably at the request of the Sanderson family. Four years later, in 1884, Captain Rogers traveled to Brooklyn, New York and married a school teacher, Miss Eliza Carmen, daughter of Eliza and James Carmen of Brooklyn. Miss Carmen was 44 years old, and Captain Rogers was 52 years old, when the two were married. We are uncertain as to exactly how Captain Rogers and Eliza Carmen met.

Eliza, along with Alice – who was 25 years old when Captain Rogers married Eliza – helped raise the Captain’s children, the youngest of whom, daughter Wilmer, was three years old when Nancy Sanderson Rogers died. Indeed, Blanche, Eugene, Cecile and Wilmer were all less than eight years old when Nancy died, and several sources suggest that Captain Rogers, Eliza Carmen Rogers, and presumably Alice and Charles Platt, Jr. (the second oldest) were careful to insure that the young children were diligently raised in the Church.

At some point, the Captain had built a small Episcopal Chapel on his property near his home. This small white Chapel remained on the property for many years, but was torn down in 1953. Captain Rogers had prepared a marble plaque dedicating the church to his second wife, Eliza C. Rogers, and this plaque is now in the Parrish House of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lowndesboro. The plaque reads:

In memory of my beloved wife, Eliza C. Rogers, who founded this Chapel, born November 11, 1840, and died January 3, 1911. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

The pews from the church on Captain Rogers’ property were taken to Camp McDowell, an Episcopal camp near Jasper, Alabama.

During the years that included the loss of his first wife, remarriage, the raising of his children and entry into the state Legislature, the Captain and his two oldest sons, Charles Platt, Jr. and Edmund Lee, continued to farm and develop land in and around Letohatchee. The location of a railroad depot and a cotton gin adjacent to the railroad tracks in Letohatchee allowed for easy access to national and international cotton markets, with round bales being prepared by the gin for the English markets. In addition to the Rogers family, known as the “cotton kings” in the area, and the Sanderson family, the Mitchells were also prominent in the area. One family source recalls that the Mitchells were known as the “mule kings” and were the owners of much land. It appears that the Mitchells raised mules for sale to the public, and that the business was quite profitable. One of Captain Rogers’ sons, Eugene, married Mattie Mitchell of the Mitchell family. Captain Rogers’ youngest daughter, Wilmer, married James Mitchell, Jr. of the same family.

Eugene and Mattie later sold a plot of land to the Letohatchee township for use as a public cemetery. The Rogers’ family cemetery was later designated after the death of Charles Platt, Jr.’s wife, Fannie Pritchett Rogers, in 1906. The Rogers’ cemetery was next used after the death of Captain Rogers’ second wife, Eliza Carmen Rogers, in 1911. We continue to use this small cemetery today for our annual family reunions.

Cotton Exposition

Reflecting the solid reputation of Captain Rogers as an engineer and the success of the Rogers family in growing cotton in Lowndes County was the profile of Captain Charles Platt Rogers, Sr. included in the Official History of the Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895, held in Atlanta. In the large, hardback edition of the history of the Exposition, each of the southern, cotton producing states was profiled. The Exposition had been conceived as a showcase for the southern cotton industry in order to attract buyers in the international markets – particularly in South and Central America. The promotion of the Exposition resulted in widespread recognition of the resurgent cotton industry in the South, with the Exposition having the benefit of attendance by the United States President, his Cabinet, emissaries from around the world and governors from 37 states.

In the section of the Official History dedicated to Alabama, only two leading citizens of Alabama are mentioned – Governor William C. Oates and Captain Charles Platt Rogers, Sr. The section on Captain Rogers, which included his photograph, read as follows:

C. P. ROGERS, SR.

Letohatchie, Ala.7

Capt. C. P. Rogers, Sr., of Lowndes Co., Ala., is one of the most prominent pioneer civil engineers of the state of Alabama, and has contributed as much to the development of the State as any man in its borders. For forty three years he has been prominently connected with the public works and railroads of the state from the mountains to the sea, and especially those radiating from Montgomery, Ala. His home is at Letohatchie, Ala., on the Mobile & Montgomery Railroad.

He was born in Petersburg, Virginia. His father removed to Columbus, Ga., where he went to school and finished his education at Princeton, New Jersey. Adopting the profession of a civil engineer he was engaged as a resident engineer on the Mobile & Montgomery Railroad, and at the age of twenty-five was elected chief engineer of the Opelika & Oxford Railroad, which he was constructing when the Civil War began.

He at once resigned his position, and on the eighth of July, 1861, went as a private soldier in the Montgomery True Blues to Pensacola, Fla.

On the reorganization of the Company, he joined the 37th Alabama Infantry, Col. James F. Dowdell, and served with that command until the surrender.

Capt. Rogers’ first wife was a Miss N. A. Sanderson, of Lowndes Co., Ala., by whom he had three sons and four daughters.

His second wife was Miss Eliza B. Carmen, of Brooklyn, New York.

In 1886, Capt. Rogers was elected to the Legislature of Alabama from Lowndes County, and is now a member of that body.

Official History of the Cotton States and International Exposition

One family story suggests that this recognition of Captain Rogers was actually an inadvertent mistake, since his son, Charles Platt, Jr., then 34 years old, may have been the intended subject for inclusion in the Official History of the Exposition. If this story is accurate, it suggests that Charles Platt, Jr. had become highly successful at an early age in cultivating land around Letohatchee. Correspondence from the promoters of the Exposition was forwarded to the attention of “C. P. Rogers of Letohatchee, Alabama.” The correspondence was either received and handled by Captain Rogers by mistake, or was not something that interested Charles Platt, Jr. As a result, according to the story, Captain Rogers responded, and thus his inclusion in the Official History of the Exposition.

The Eugene Haanell Story

One of the most interesting stories that comes from Captain Rogers’ life in Alabama is the story of Eugene Haanell. In 1910, Captain Rogers was corresponding with a Dr. Eugene Haanell, Director of Mines for Canada. The correspondence indicates that Captain Rogers intended to visit Dr. Haanell in Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Haanell was encouraging Captain Rogers to stay more than one day and to be sure to persuade Mrs. Rogers to come along. The story behind this correspondence is set out in handwriting on the reverse side of a letter of August 18, 1910, from Dr. Haanell to Captain Rogers. The handwriting, that of one of Captain Rogers’ children, reads as follows:

While constructing the railroad here, a young German came to my father and asked for work, being inexperienced, he gave him a job along with other laborers, 500 men, noticing the youth appeared to be unusually bright – but – was handicapped by being unable to speak English, he called him one day and said “I am going to name you ‘John Anderson,’ and am going to send you down to Evergreen to take charge of vineyard down there, as I don’t like to see you working along with these slaves, etc.”

He sent him down and the lad did well and one day my father got a communication from the German Consul at New York describing the boy and said he had run away from college over in Germany and to try and get him to come back transportation and money awaited him – he went – down and made “John” promise to go back and finish his education.

Twenty years later, he got a telegram asking if he would be at home the next day, that he and his wife wanted to see him –signed – John Anderson – he had forgotten all about the German – met the train, and who should get off but the German and his wife!! Had just been appointed Director of Mines for the Dominion of Canada – they visited each other for years – strange to say, most scientists, as a rule, are not Christian – this man found God just a few years before his death.

I read his address to his 300 students about his wonderful discovery, and advised them all to seek early, his address was published in all U.S. papers. They have a lovely summer house on the St. Lawrence River on one of the Thousand Islands – am sending a few old documents, burn when through what – you don’t want – how he takes some from the lower ranks and seals them with princes!!

Handwriting (verbatim) on reverse side of correspondence from Dr. Eugene Haanell, Director of Mines, Ottawa, Canada, dated August 18, 1910, addressed to C. P. Rogers, Sr., Letohatchee, Alabama. (CLICK HERE TO VIEW LETTER)

In 1919, three years before Captain Rogers died, he received a letter from Florence Haanell, the daughter of Eugene Haanell (John Anderson). The letter is addressed simply to “C. P. Rogers, Letohatchie, Ala.” In the letter, Florence Haanell made mention of an investment that Captain Rogers made in a gold mine in Canada, and noted that the investment had gone sour and cost Captain Rogers $15,000. Captain Rogers had apparently requested “Papa” to investigate the investment, but Dr. Haanell had been in “poor health.”

Captain Rogers had also invited the Haanells to visit Letohatchee, but Florence noted that, because of Dr. Haanell’s poor health and the expense of long travel, the trip would be impossible. Ms. Haanell further noted that Captain Rogers was “lucky” that all of his relatives made it home safely from World War I. The letter made mention of the close relationship between the Haanells and Captain Rogers, and the letter further indicated that there had been several visits between the two families.

The Decline of “King Cotton” and Captain Rogers’ Death

Because of soil exhaustion due to a lack of fertilization in the enriched soil of the Black Belt and the destructive effects of the boll weevil, there was a rapid decline of cotton production around the time of World War I, just before Captain Rogers’ death in 1922. As a result, cotton production in Letohatchee fell sharply. During these times, Captain Rogers still maintained old contacts with railroad executives, and an arrangement was made whereby the Louisville & Nashville Railroad agreed to allow Captain Rogers and his son, C. P., Jr., to broker coal from the Beltona coal mine north of Birmingham exclusively to the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. During this time, the family of C. P., Jr. moved to Beltona, and the coal business sustained this family for a short period until the president of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad died, at which time the Rogers’ family involvement in the business ended. C. P., Jr. and Edmund also had stores in Letohatchee, and Eugene had a store just behind the store owned by C. P., Jr. and Edmund.

In 1910, Captain Rogers was corresponding with the Alabama Polytechnic Institute at Auburn and State chemical laboratories regarding the water in Letohatchee. The reasons for the correspondence are unclear, but we do know that samples of the water were sent to the laboratories for analysis. The State laboratories responded that the “most abundant constituent is carbonite of sodium . . . is good for kidney trouble . . . liver trouble . . . so Dr. Russel says.” A chemist named B. B. Ross in Auburn responded that “the most abundant constituents of the water are lime and magnesium, together with sodium chloride.”

Seven years later, in 1917, Captain Rogers was also corresponding with M. C. Gorgas, Surgeon General of the U. S. Army – again, for reasons unknown. On February 12, 1917, Gorgas sent to Captain Rogers the following note: “I will take the matter with the Red Cross and see if they can do anything in this connection.” As for whether Letohatchee had been plagued by something presumed to have been caused by the water, we do not know.

In any event, we do know that Captain Rogers, who by some accounts was a taut, stern man standing 5’6” tall, was in good health in his later years. In a letter to Mr. H. G. Pannell of the Montgomery Journal’s Editorial Department, dated February 14, 1921, Captain Rogers wrote: “Am in my 89th year with a sound mine and a sound body and take great interest in current affairs.” This reference to the interest in “current affairs” is consistent with the recollection of my grandfather, Frederick Eugene Rogers, that Captain Rogers was an avid reader of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

On October 20, 1922, having retired from public life and civil engineering, having raised seven children and having lost two wives, Captain Rogers died at the age of 90 years. Captain Rogers is buried in the Rogers’ Cemetery in Letohatchee, Alabama.

____________________________

There is no death! The stars go down

To rise upon some fairer shore;

And bright in Heaven’s jeweled crown

They shine forever more.

And ever near us, though unseen,

The dear immortal spirits tread,

For all the boundless universe

Is life – there are no dead.

From written tribute to Captain Rogers’ father, Charles Rogers,
upon his death on March 23, 1890.

Alan Taylor Rogers

1990

Revised 2009