HISTORY NEBRASKA MANUSCRIPT FINDING AID
RG0740.AM: Eliphus Hibbard Rogers, 1830-1881
Letter: December 1, 1956
Omaha, Douglas County; Fremont, Dodge County, Nebraska: Pioneer, lawyer, banker
Size: One item
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Eliphus H. Rogers was born in Litchfield, New York on January 12, 1830. He began teaching school at the age of sixteen and later attended the Cazenovia (New York) Seminary. On September 17, 1851, he married Lucy J. Goff.
Rogers was stricken with “western fever” and in 1854 he journeyed to Illinois. He moved to Wisconsin shortly thereafter and purchased land in Jefferson County. In 1856 Rogers decided that Nebraska Territory held great opportunities, and he arrived in Omaha that October. During his first winter in Omaha, Rogers made his living by hauling wood.
In the spring of 1857, Rogers was one of the first settlers in the newly laid out town of Fremont. He was admitted to the bar in 1858 and was elected to the Territorial Legislature that same year. During 1860-1861, Rogers traveled to the gold fields at Pike’s Peak where he practiced law. He returned to Fremont in June of 1861.
In 1866, with the arrival of the Union Pacific into Fremont, Rogers, in partnership with his brother Lucius, entered the real estate business and opened a private bank. This bank later became the First National Bank of Fremont.
Due to illness, Rogers resigned from the bank in 1880. In May of 1881 he was appointed U.S. Consul at Vera Cruz, Mexico. He died there on August 1, 1881.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
This collection consists of one letter dated December 1, 1856. The letter, written by Eliphus H. Rogers while he was living in Omaha, was addressed to his brother, Lucius. The letter describes the new “prairie country” of Nebraska Territory, particularly the Platte River Valley. Calling the Platte Valley “the richest part of the territory,” Rogers comments on the good soil, the availability of water, the climate, and the supply of coal and limestone. His encouragement to Lucius to visit Nebraska must have had some impact, as Lucius arrived in Nebraska in 1857.
INVENTORY
Letter, December 1, 1856
Subject headings:
Frontier and pioneer life — Nebraska
Nebraska Territory — History
Platte River Valley
Rogers, Eliphus Hibbard, 1930-1881
Rogers, Lucius, 1834-1903
Revised TMM 04-17-2007
