The phrase "hero" is bandied about casually in recognition of historical figures but the actual heroic nature of an individual sometimes depends upon the time frame and the complex morals of the moment when they made their mark on the world.
For John Henry Rogers, a Confederate soldier, late 19th century attorney, four-term congressman to the United States House of Representative and later, a Federal jurist who not only serve the Western District of Arkansas but also helped reform Federal criminal procedure and secured the writ of error for persons convicted of federal crimes, the moniker is a valid one.
Born on October 9, 1845, in Bertie County, North Carolina into a wealthy farming family, John Henry was the only child of the union between Absolom Rogers and Harriet Rice Rogers . At the age of seven, Rogers was uprooted from his ancestral home when the family moved into the wilds of Madison County, Mississippi. His father held land titles totaling $18,000 ($546, 676.04 in 2024 converted rates) and was listed in the 1860 census of being the owner of 28 slaves.
At the tender age of fifteen Rogers became the Drill Master for a company of home guards in Madison County. That unit later combined with Company H, Ninth Regiment, of the Mississippi Volunteers where Rogers was mustered in at the age of seventeen.
As a grunt soldier on the front line, Rogers sustained non-life-threatening wounds in Kentucky and Tennessee. His bravery on the battlefield earned him a battlefield commission as a First Lieutenant at the age of nineteen. His battlefield commission came directly from his actions at the Battle of Franklin Tennessee in November of 1864.
At that time he was named Commander of Company F, Ninth Mississippi regiment, Sharp's Brigade, Hill"s Division, Lee's Corps.
Rogers was part of General Joseph E Johnson's staff and when Johnston surrendered at Greensboro North Carolina, John Henry walked over a thousand miles back to his Mississippi home.
Upon that return he immediately went to work studying to enter college. Because there were
no colleges in the Confederacy at that time, he started his education at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. Two years later he transferred as part of the inaugural class at the University of Mississippi, graduating with the class of 1968.
Rogers combined his last year-and-a half of school work with studying for the bar, and he was admitted to the Mississippi bar in late 1968. He initially took a job as a schoolteacher while he continued in his private law studies but in January of 1969 Rogers moved to Fort Smith and begin practicing law.
He joined the law firm of Judge William Walker but within two years Rogers entered into a partnership with Walker that lasted till 1874. He opened his solo practice that year and practice alone in Fort Smith until 1877.
That was the year the 12th Judicial Crcuit was created and Rogers ran for the judgeship and was elected. He was re-elected once to that office and served till 1982 when he resigned citing "health reasons".
Less than two weeks later, his health must have improved because he announced a run for Congress. Later panned by critics for his decision to resign his judgeship before making a run for national office, Rogers nonetheless served eight years in that capacity.
Old principles and habits die hard and even though he was a successful and popular congressman, Rogers continued to espouse the pre-Civil e-War ideals and sentiments that he had been raised with in Mississippi. He opposed much of Republican reconstruction, and during his time in Washington DC he became a leading spokesman for the south.
In March of 1891, Rogers announced that he would be retiring from Congress and resume his law practice in Fort Smith. He claimed he needed to devote himself to the education of his children, and that public life was too demanding on his family. Shortly thereafter he was named chairman of the Arkansas location to the Democratic National Convention where he was a leading supporter of Grover Cleveland.
Upon Cleveland's election, Rogers openly sought and was on the short list of the number of major public appointments. At one time it is though he was considered to become the Attorney General for the United States.
The disappointment of not getting that job, which went to Richard Olney of Massachusetts, left Rogers looking for an appointment in the lower tier of the Cleveland administration. He was considered for a spot as the Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior in charge of the appeals from the General Land Office, Patent Office, and the Indian Bureau.
When the last appointment that he was seriously considered for, minister of Hawaii, fell through he decided to make a move back to Fort Smith in lieu of being a recipient of federal spoils.
Upon returning home he became a member and president of the Fort Smith Board of Education and was elected chairman in December, 1894 for the Arkansas Convention of Mayors.
When Judge Issac C, Parker died in the Autumn of 1896, Rogers was appointed to the Western District bench on November 27. He had a reputation of honesty and integrity along with very aggressive advocacy. He was considered a bulldog, but with the changes in the court system there wasn't much left for the bulldog to guard.
What had been a notorious court for crimes and criminals committed in the Indian Territory was soon turned into a morass of legal litigation, most of it civil and involving bankruptcy, business regulation and liquor laws. He served in a large number of cases with written opinions and many of his legal precedents still stand today as a part of the Arkansas justice system.
In April of 1911 Judge Rogers travel to Little Rock to hear cases in the court of 12th Judicial Circuit Judge Jacob Trieber, who was overburdened with a complex case involving railroads and regulations. Just before going to Little Rock, Rogers had been on a hunting trip with friends to McCurtain County in Oklahoma where the weather was nasty and the judge came down with a bad cold.
He could not get rid of the cold but continued to hear cases in the Eastern District court in Little Rock. On the morning of April 17, 1911 Rogers was due in court at 9:30 am to sentence two individuals who had been found guilty the previous Friday. When he did not appear Judge Treiber and others went to Rogers' hotel room and found him dead at the age of 66.
He died in his sleep, apparently of a heart attack. His body was returned to Fort Smith and his wife Mary Gray Rogers and four children survived the judge.
John Henry Rogers is buried in a family plot in historic Oak Cemetery in Fort Smith.
