Rogers was born in Bradford, Vermont, in about 1791. He was the son of Benjamin Barnett and Mary Miller. His birth year is deduced from the 1851 Canada East census where he is shown aged 61[1]. The age does not agree with the recorded age (63) on the 1861 census[2] but this younger age does not seem plausible.
It is assumed that Rogers was named after the surname of his maternal grandmother, and being a proud and life long military man, his father Benjamin may have appreciated this as an homage to the illustrious "Rogers" family.
Rogers was only 4 or 5 years old when getting moved with his family from Bradford to a new home in the wilderness of Richford, Vermont. And before he was even a teenager, he was moved again though very close nearby to Lower Canada. The 1842 census referenced below shows he had by then been in Lower Canada for 41 years.
There (Lower Canada), he married Mary (Polly) Sargent, daughter of Ezra Sargent and Hannah Rynes. Though the marriage record has so far been elusive, based on the earliest known birth record of one of their children it is assumed they were married in 1815 (or at most a year or two before that).
Polly and Rogers had at least eight children. The number of "8" is an estimate based on the 1825 census that shows them with 3 girls and 2 boys, 3 of them under 6 years old[3] and the 1842 census (referenced below) which included 3 boys and 5 girls, 5 of them being under 18. According to these same censuses, Rogers and Polly lived in the eastern section of Sutton township, right adjacent to West Potton where the Sargents lived. Before 1825, they had lived for a while in Vermont.
While we have not discovered the identities of all the children of Rogers and Polly (there seems to be a boy or two missing), the following are known or assumed:
Rogers lost his wife on 17 May 1838 at the age of only 43, and Polly was interred in Ruiter Cemetery in West Potton, now Dunkin, Quebec. In spite of that loss, Rogers remained in Sutton township according to the 1842 census, still with no wife, 3 children under 14 and 5 older[5]. Presumably, Rogers' older daughters were, after their mother's death, able to act as "mother" for the younger siblings. On 7 Dec. 1846, the name of "Rogers Barnet" appears on the Mansonville Customs Cash Book, where they had collected from him 5 shillings and some pence.[6]
At some moment after 1842 but before 1851, Rogers married second Lois Courser, daughter of Simeon Courser and Lois Severance, and widow of Asahel Dufur Sr.. Rogers and Lois were recorded together in Sutton (with none of Rogers' children) in 1851 and similarly in 1861 per the censuses referenced above. Rogers and Lois lived in 1851 on Range 3 Lot 22 of Sutton, where he managed 25 acres[7] In 1861 they were living, still in Glen Sutton, directly adjacent to Lois' son from her first marriage, i.e. Carlton Dufur, with latter' wife and children.
At some time after 1861, Rogers appeared in residence at "15 Dudley Avenue" for at least a couple of years in Utica, New York, accompanied by his youngest daughter Ruth[8]. The 1865 New York State Census shows Ruth living in Utica (Ward 05) with her sister Almira Potter. Both were born in Canada, Almira (married name Potter) in 1815 or 16 and Ruth somewhat later.[9] And at the same moment, their sister Susan Curtiss lived in another section (Ward 03) of Utica. Ruth continued to live in Utica in 1870[10]. When Almira passed away in Syracuse in 1890, she was memorialized and perhaps buried in Utica[11].
The notice of Rogers' death appeared in Utica in December 1865.[12]
Death Notice, Roger Barnett, Utica Weekly Herald, 26 Dec. 1865, Page 5 |
Note that his place of burial (Prescott, Ontario) was at the time the home of his daughters Jane and Betsey.
After Rogers' death, his wife Lois continued to live with her first-marriage son Carlton, having by 1870 moved to live with him in Hill, Merrimack, New Hampshire[13]. It was there in Hill, NH, where Lois passed away on 15 March 1880 at the age of 82[14]
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