J. Foster Rogers

        J. Foster Rogers, miller and farmer near St. Elmo, was born September 26, 1849, in the Second District of Hamilton County, and is the youngest of nine children born to Joseph and Rebecca (Hixon) Rogers. The father was born in Greene County, Tenn., about 1801, and died about 1854. He was of Irish descent, and a farmer and stock raiser by occupation. He began life in very ordinary circumstances, and succeeded in accumulating quite a handsome fortune. The mother was born in Greene County in 1803, and was of Dutch descent. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and died in 1882. Our subject received his education in the Hamilton County common schools, and in 1866 he studied law with Richard Arnet, a lawyer in Hamilton, now James County. He moved to the Eighth District in the fall of 1868. In December of the next year he moved to his farm in the Seventeenth District where he now resides. January 14, 1869, be married Miss M. J. Kirklen, who was born October 8, 1849, and who is the daughter of Elisha, Sr., and Susan Kirklen. To Mr. and Mrs. Rogers were born three children, two of whom are living: Ida and Arra, He was assistant tax collector during the years 1872 and 1873, was elected and has served as tax assessor eleven years. He was elected justice of the peace of the Seventeenth District in 1876 and re-elected in 1882, but resigned in October, 1886. He has been a successful farmer, and a very successful real estate and stock dealer. He now owns forty-three acres near St. Elmo, sixty-four acres in the Sixteenth District, and also half interest in the flour-mill near Hixon Station, the individual members of the firm being P. A. and J. Foster Rogers. Besides his land and mill property Mr. Rogers has mortgages due him to the amount of $17,000. He also owns four acres of land in St. Elmo. He is a Democrat in politics, and is an enterprising citizen.
Goodspeed's "History of East Tennessee" 1887