William C. Rogers
While the business affairs of William C. Rogers are such as entitle him to mention with the representative citizens of Cincinnati, there are other chapters in his life record equally commendable, one of the more important being his legislative service whereby he made it possible that the transfer system in street railways should be adopted. His influence and labors both directly and indirectly have been elements of worth in the city life and he has the deepest interest in the welfare and upholding of Cincinnati, where his entire life has been passed. He was here born on the 14th of November 1848, his parents being William G. and Ellen (McKiernan) Rogers, both of whom have now passed away. The father was a pioneer businessman here, establishing the first shoe manufactory in Cincinnati, in 1850, his place of business being on Hopkins Street. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Rogers were six children: William C.; Eliza, deceased, who was the wife of John M. McDonald; Warner, residing at Mount Lookout; Ella, the deceased wife of Ben Law; Robert, who has also passed away; and Amelia, who is the widow of Charles Doolittle and has two children, Lydia and Charley.
To the public school system of the city William C. Rogers is indebted for the educational privileges he enjoyed and which have served as the foundation for his success in business. His early commercial training was received as a salesman for his father's shoe factory and subsequently he was admitted to a partnership in the business, at which time the factory located at No. 133 West Pearl Street. For a long period he was thus closely associated with one of Cincinnati's productive industries but retired form the field of shoe manufacturing about 1895. He established a wholesale coal and coke business in 1896, under the name of the Rogers Coal & Coke Company, carrying on the business until 1902, when he sold out to the Fairmont Coal Company, which has since been merged into the Consolidation Coal Company, of which Mr. Rogers became manager in 1909, with offices in the Traction building. His previous identification with the coal trade well qualified him for the onerous and responsible duties that developed upon him in this connection. As manager his attention is given to the administrative direction and executive control of the business which under his guidance is continually growing in volume and importance. While he has won for himself a position in the ranks of the alert, wide-awake, enterprising and progressive businessmen, he has also long figured as a citizen of worth whose assistance can be counted upon in furthering plans and purposes that are for the general good. His political allegiance has ever been given the Republican Party and in 1895 he was elected to represent Hamilton County in the general assembly. Endorsement of his first term's service was given him in his reelection, in 1897, so that for four years he continued as an incumbent of the office. He served on a number of important committees and was connected with some valuable legislation. He was termed the "father" of the fifty years' franchise bill, which gives street railways the right to consolidate, and thus made transferring form one line to another possible.
At Cincinnati, in May 1872, Mr. Rogers was married to Miss. Emma V. Stow, a daughter of Mrs. Ann F. Stow, of Tionesta, Pennsylvania. The children of this marriage are: Maud, the deceased wife of W.W. Peabody, Jr.; W.H., who married Elsie Kelly and resides at Louisville, Kentucky; O.P., who is engaged in gold mining in Alaska; Gregory, general manager of the National Roofing & Title Company of Lima, Ohio; Robert S., of the R.S. Rogers Coal & Coke Company of Cincinnati; and John M., a horticulturist. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers hold membership in and support the Episcopal Church and he is also identified with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and also crossed the sands of the desert with the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. His business ability is pronounced but it is no less marked than his public-spirited citizenship and his devotion to the ties of friendship.
From Cincinnati, The Queen City, Volume III by Rev. Charles Frederic Goss, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912