PUBLIUS V. ROGERS
Publius Virgilius Rogers was born at Antwerp, Jefferson county, N. Y., December 30, 1824. He was the eldest child of Ralph Rogers, M. D., a native of Acworth, N. H., who removed in early life to
Antwerp, N. Y., and soon afterward to Watertown, Jefferson county, N. Y. Dr. Rogers received his medical education in the Medical College at Fairfield, N. Y., and practiced medicine at Antwerp until
1833, when he removed to Watertown, N. Y., where he was a leading member of his profession up to the time of his decease, February 21, 1872, in the eightieth year of his age.
Mr. Rogers's mother, Sarah Corse, was a native of Duxbury, Vt. She died at Watertown, N. Y., September 19, 1875, in the seventy-third year of her age. Publius V. Rogers was a lineal descendant of Thomas Rogers, who was one of the 105 immigrants in the Mayflower. Through a grandmother he was a descendant of John Alden and Priscilla Mullens. Among his ancestors in the Province of Massachusetts Bay were many influential pastors and preachers. One of his ancestors was Capt. James Rogers, a vigorous Indian fighter. Captain Rogers removed to Nutfield, N. H., as Londonderry was then called. For two or three generations his family resided there until their removal to Acworth, N. H. One of his maternal ancestors was Captain Corse of the British Army. Many of the Corse family were officers and soldiers in the colonial wars. An ancestor of Mr. Rogers, Elizabeth Catlin, was the wife of James Corse, a scout. Mrs. Corse lived at Deerfield, Mass., and was captured with her daughter by the Indians. She died in captivity on her way to Canada, leaving one daughter, who married and died in Canada, and two sons. Four ancestors of Mr. Rogers served their country in the Revolutionary war. Three of them were officers of the army.
Publius V. Rogers received his elementary education in the schools of Antwerp and Watertown. One of the teachers of his boyhood at Watertown was the late Judge Charles Mason. He was afterward a student in the .Watertown Academy, while the late judge Mullen was its principal. He was prepared for college in the "Black River Literary and Religious Institute" of Watertown, under the instruction of the late Rev. Dr. James R. Boyd. He entered the sophomore class of Hamilton College in 1843 and was graduated in 1846. Among his classmates in college were the Rev. Isaac H. Brayton, afterward a lecturer in Hamilton College and a professor in the College of California; Henry P. Bristol, tutor of Hamilton College and father of Prof. George P. Bristol of Cornell University; John N. Hungerford, a member of Congress, trustee and benefactor of Hamilton College, and a prominent banker at Corning, N. Y.; Gustavus A. Kellogg, son of the late Hon. Spencer Kellogg, of Utica; Dr. Horace Lathrop, tutor in Hamilton College and long an eminent physician cian in Cooperstown, N. Y.; Perry H. Smith, of Chicago, in memory of whose beneficence the library building of Hamilton College is named; Alexander Spaulding, justice of the Supreme Court in New York city. Of Mr. Rogers's work in college one of his instructors writes with discrimination and emphasis: " While Mr. Rogers was one of the youngest of his class, his manliness and maturity of character were beyond his years. He was prompt and faithful at the post of duty. His mind and attainments were well balanced, so that the outcome of his under-graduate studies was a well-rounded, generous culture."
Soon after his graduation Mr. Rogers began the study of law in the office of Skinner & Brown at Adams, N. Y., spending an hour each day in bookkeeping at the Hungerford Bank. Afterward, he continued his legal studies in the office of judge George C. Sherman at Watertown. During the summer of 1848 he took part in the survey of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg railroad. On the organization of the Watertown Bank and Loan Company by Judge Sherman, January 1, 1849, Mr. Rogers was placed at the head of its management as cashier. He filled this position very acceptably for some months, and in September, 1850, was appointed cashier of Fort Stanwix Bank at Rome, N, Y., and in September, 1853, cashier of the Bank of Utica. This appointment was due largely to the influence of the late Hon. Hiram Denio. In the litigation of certain cases in which the Fort Stanwix Bank was a party, judge Denio had observed the thorough knowledge of banking and of the laws appertaining thereto which Mr. Rogers possessed. When the directors of the Bank of Utica decided to appoint a new cashier, on his recommendation Mr. Rogers was elected. The appointment of so young a man to be the principal manager of so old and influential a bank, having so large a capital and so many stockholders and customers, was a very high compliment to the ability, integrity, and trustworthiness of Mr. Rogers. Soon after entering upon his official duties the new cashier discovered that the capital of the bank had been impaired to the extent of one-sixth of its amount--$100,000. With the concurrence of the directors he had the courage to suspend the payment of dividends until this loss should be made good. Under his administration the capital was gradually restored to its full amount; and since its restoration the bank has paid semi-annual dividends with the regularity of the periods and has accumulated a surplus of $400,000. That Cashier Rogers fully met the expectations of the directors was shown by his election as president of the bank in 1876, as the successor to Benjamin N. Huntington, of Rome, N. Y. Throughout a long life he maintained his early reputation for financial ability and strict integrity. For a continuous period of forty-two years he was cashier or president of the First National Bank of Utica. Guided by his sound judgment, and under his able administration, the bank became a permanent source of sure income to its many stockholders, and a very important factor in the business affairs of Central New York. With a mind peculiarly adapted to the banking profession, supplemented by collegiate and legal training and business experience, Mr. Rogers, in his financial work, exemplified, to a high degree, inflexible integrity, wise sagacity, persevering industry, and a keen intelligence. As a financial adviser of individuals and institutions his advice was frequently sought and was as highly valued as it was freely and generously given. In the business community his standing was very high and most enviable.
How widely he was identified with the business interests of Utica and Central New York will appear from a simple enumeration of the corporations with which he was influentially connected. From 1872 to 1895, when he died, he was a director and from 1875 to his death he was the treasurer of the Utica Water Works Company. From its organization to his death he was a director and vice-president of the Mohawk hawk Valley Cotton Mills. For many years he was a director in the Utica Steam Cotton Mills, the Skenandoa Cotton Company, and the Utica Willowvale Bleaching Company. For some years, Mr. Rogers was also a director in the Utica Gas Light Company. In all these business relations for more than forty years it is the simple truth to say he deserved and received many tokens of respect, confidence, and friendly regard of his business acquaintances. It has been truly said of him by one who knew him well that "he was the soul of honor; he dealt fairly with every man. Such positions as he occupied required the exercise of wise judgment and often firm- ness; yet so courteous was he, and so kindly, that, while seldom receding from a position once taken, he gave no offence to rankle as the result of a necessary refusal. In all financial matters he was thoroughly informed, and his conclusions, carefully reached, were usually right, and were so accepted by those who had sought his guidance."
But the activities of Mr. Rogers's life were not limited to business affairs, numerous and important as were these, requiring, as they did, continuous and laborious attention; he was, besides, generous and helpful in many directions. His beneficence was self-sacrificing. During the Civil war he was treasurer of the Soldiers' Aid Association, which raised by subscription a large sum of money to provide for the families of those who had gone to the front. The distribution of this money in small amounts required careful attention. As treasurer of the fund to aid sufferers in Nebraska he was equally pains-taking and public spirited. As a trustee of the Utica Art Association he did much to promote the success of the fine art exhibitions which, in successive winters, gave so much enjoyment and culture to the citizens of Central New York. Mr. Rogers was actively interested in the organization of the Fort Schuyler Club, serving as one of its governors for several years, and as its president from 1889 until his decease. For many years he was a trustee of the Home for the Homeless, succeeding judge William J. Bacon as president of that most beneficent charity. For twenty-five years Mr. Rogers was a faithful and useful trustee of the Reformed Dutch church, and was one of the committee who had charge of the erection of the present edifice on Genesee street after the former house of worship, on the same site, had been destroyed by fire.
In 1881 Mr. Rogers was appointed by the governor and Senate of the State of New York one of the managers of the Utica State Hospital for the Insane, and in 1885 he was elected president of the board as the successor of the Hon. Samuel Campbell. For nearly fifteen years he served the State in this high and most responsible office. It was for him no sinecure. He visited the institution nearly every week, and through personal inspection and conversation with the superintendent and other officers he gained an intimate knowledge of its condition. To the financial affairs of the Bank of Utica, or to his own business transactions, he gave no more careful at tention. As chairman of the building committee for many years he supervised new work and extensive repairs. He was seldom or never absent from a monthly meeting of the managers, even when his health was endangered by his attendance. He was a model presiding officer, observant, patient, and impartial. "The aggregate of the hours thus spent in this beneficent work, without other reward than the consciousness of discharging honorably a public duty, would be months if they could be counted." During his service in the board the hospital was investigated several times by a legislative committee. The investigators" were often simply professional politicians, spoilsmen; to whom it was inconceivable that so much time and valuable service could be given to the institution, gratuitously, by managers actu- ated only by benevolence and public spirit with no selfish, ulterior purpose. They did. their utmost to excite suspicion and to discredit the management. This indig- nity was very trying to a sensitive high-minded gentleman like Mr. Rogers. Rather than submit to it he might have resigned his office. But conscious of the rectitude of his motives, with a high sense of duty, and exhaustless patience, although by nature keenly sensitive, he could endure more than most men. " He could hear much and say little." Every investigation increased public confidence in the man agement of the hospital. So that when Mr. Rogers appeared officially before the governor or the Legislature to present its wants, his statements were never doubted. After the death of the eminent Dr. John P. Gray, who had been the successful superintendent for thirty-five years, it was natural that changes in the management of the institution should be proposed. These proposals excited opposition. But so ready was President Rogers to recognize needful changes required by the growth of the hospital, such was his tact and good sense, and such was his acknowledged fore- sight, that serious difficulties were prevented, and the increasing needs of the institution were provided for wisely.
A graduate of Hamilton College in 1846, for nearly fifty years he enjoyed the advantageous results of early collegiate training. He appreciated thoroughly the ad vantages of a collegiate education to a business man. He had no patience with those who depreciated or denied them. One day, in his office, when the writer of this article said to him that he was giving much time and anxious thought to the college, he replied, with moistened eyes: "There is not a week in which I do not realize in my business here the value of my college training. I use here the same mental processes in which I was trained there. I can never do too much for the college." This appreciation and these grateful feelings made him so ready to serve the college as trustee for twenty-six years, from 1869 to 1895, and to hold the office of treasurer from 1880 to 1887: As treasurer he gave to the institution the benefit of his long financial experience and his executive ability at a time when its pecuniary affairs required special care. This he did absolutely without compensation. It was this grateful loyalty to the college which induced him, as a member of the executive committee of the trustees, to give so much of his time to its meetings held in his office. He attended to every duty and accepted every responsibility, in this connection, willingly and cheerfully. As a financial adviser his judgment was of the highest value to the college board of trust; and his membership in the board greatly strengthened the confidence of the alumni and friends of the college in the wisdom and integrity of its management. He never forgot the friends of his youth and the associations of his college days: He did not think that such remembrances were unmanly. He never lost his interest in the Sigma Phi fraternity, of which he was a member. In the University Club of New York, of which he was a member, he found many congenial associates. It is very pleasant to his friends to remember that during the last week of his life he so greatly enjoyed the reunion of old friends at the college commencement of that year, and rejoiced with them in the assured stability of the college and in its rapidly increasing prosperity.
Mr. Rogers was too sincerely patriotic to take no interest in public affairs. He was a Republican, but not a partisan. Though ready to serve the public in many ways, he would never accept political office. He greatly enjoyed foreign travel, twice spending some months abroad, but he found his highest happiness in his home and in his family. There, his sympathy, his kindness, his gentleness, and his hospital tality were unfailing. For nothing in his public and private life was he more re- markable than for his dignified and gracious courtesy. This was his distinctive characteristic. The directors of the First National Bank of Utica knew him inti- mately for years, and their official announcement of his decease is evidently as sin- cere as it is sympathetic. In this announcement they use these tenderly significant words: " That through life he bore himself as a high-minded citizen, a cultivated gentleman, a kind neighbor, and a loyal friend, all who have .ever known him do bear their sorrowing testimony."
Mr. Rogers had not enjoyed robust health for some years, yet the end of his earthly life came suddenly at the last. He died at his home in Utica, July 2, 1895. It was ordered providentially that the clergyman who had been his intimate friend since his college days, who had officiated at his marriage and in the baptism and marriage of his only son, should also be permitted to officiate in the funeral services.
September 11, 1861, Mr. Rogers Was married to Miss Elizabeth J. Butler, daughter of the late Chauncey Sage Butler, of Sauquoit, N. Y. His wife survives, as does also his only son, Charles Butler Rogers, who has succeeded his father as president of the First National Bank of Utica and as a manager of the Utica State Hospital. Charles B. Rogers was married January 31, 1894, to Miss Susan Brayton, of Utica. Mr. Rogers left also a sister, Mrs. Murray, of Watertown, N. Y., and two brothers-in-law, John Milton Butler and Charles A. Butler, and a sister in-law, Miss Henrietta Butler, of Utica.
Contributed by Rev. Anson J. Upson, D. D., chancellor of the University of the State of New York.
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