VETERAN: US Indian War
1st Bishop of LDS Church in Pima

Joseph Knight Rogers is called the father of Graham County, Arizona because he introduced a bill in the state legislature (1882) creating the county and its name.

His parents, Ross Ransom Rogers and Helen Moffett Curtiss, and his grandparents, David White Rogers and Martha Collins joined the Mormon Church in 1838 in New York and made the trek to Utah in 1850.

He married Josephine Augusta Wall July 26, 1869 in Salt Lake City, Utah. They have eleven children: Josephine Olivia Rogers, Joseph William Rogers, Nancy May Rogers, Helen Viola Rogers, Bertha Isabel Rogers, Emma Rogers, Wilmirth Rogers, George Wall Rogers, Ross Wall Rogers, Jessie Knight Rogers and Lillian Rogers.

He again served in the state Legislature as a representative from Graham County in 1896.

He experienced many hardships in settling in various communities in Utah, including the Cricket War and the Black Hawk War.

In 1878, at the request of church authorities, his family was among others to help settle areas in northern Arizona. He was asked to be the presiding elder of a group of 28 persons who left the cold climate to settle in a previously selected place they called Smithville, now known as Pima.

(Eastern Arizona Courier)

He married second Louisa C, (Roseberry) Roseberg October 25, 1882 in St. George, Utah. They had ten children: Charlotte Roseberry Rogers, Joseph Roseberry Rogers, Charles Roseberry Rogers, David White Rogers, Wallace Rogers, Millard Henry Rogers, Helena Rogers, Martha Louisa Rogers and Mary Rogers.

He also married Mary Emma Fuller on October 25, 1882 in St.George, Utah. They had two sons: Thomas Fuller Rogers and James Knight Rogers.

BIO BY RHONDA

VIEW JOSEPH KNIGHT ROGERS HISTORY

Grandparents; David White Rogers and Martha Collins


Note: The death info I have on Joseph Knight Rogers differs – he died on the 17th and was buried on the 19th – source: journal entry of Louisa Christina Roseberry.

Don Colson