HISTORY OF KENTUCKY, by Lewis Collins, and J.A. & U.P. James, published 1847. Reprinted by Henry Clay Press, Lexington, Ky., 1968, pp. 175-176 [Barren county]. EDMUND ROGERS, one of the pioneers of the Green river county, was born in Caroline county, Virginia, on the 5th of May, 1762. He served as a soldier in the memorable campaign of 1781, in his native State, which resulted in the capture of Cornwallis. He was in the battles of Green Springs, Jamestown, and at the siege of York. For these services he refused to apply for a pension, although entitled under the acts of congress. It was the love of his country's liberty and independence, and no pecuniary reward, which induced him to fight her battles. He emigrated to Kentucky in 1783, and became intimate with most of the early pioneers. He possessed a remarkable memory, and could detail with accuracy up to the time of his death, all the important events of the Indian wars and early settlement of Kentucky. He had enjoyed better opportunities to learn the history of these transactions than most persons, in consequence of his intimacy with General George Rogers Clark (his cousin), and captain John Rogers (his brother), and captain Abraham Chapline, of Mercer, in whose family he lived for years. Mr. E. Rogers was the longest liver of that meritorious and enterprising class of men who penetrated the wilderness of Kentucky, and spent their time in locating and surveying lands. It is confidently believed that he survived all the surveyors of military lands south of Green river. He began business as a surveyor in the fall of 1783, in Clark's or the Illinois grant as it was called, on the north side of the Ohio river, opposite to Louisville. In the spring of 1784, his operations were changed to the military district in this State, on the south side of Green river. He made most of the surveys on Little and Big Barren rivers and their tributary streams. Muldrough's hill was the boundary of the settlements toward the south-west in Kentucky, when Mr. Rogers commenced surveying in the military district. He settled upon a tract of land, upon which he afterwards laid out the town of Edmonton in Barren county, in the year 1800. He married Mary Shirley in 1808. She died in 1835, leaving seven daughters and one son. In 1840 owing to his advanced age, he broke up house keeping and removed with his single daughters to the house of John T. Rogers, where he died on the 28th day of August, 1843. His remains were taken to his own farm and buried by the side of his wife near Edmonton. In purity of life and manly virtues, Mr. Rogers had but few equals. His intercourse with mankind was characterized by great benevolence and charity, and the strictest justice. He was ever ready to lend a helping hand to the needy and deserving. He raised and educated his nephew, the honorable Joseph Rogers Underwood. He was not ambitious of distinction. He accepted the office of justice of the peace shortly after he settled in Barren county, at the solicitation of his neighbors. Perceiving as he thought, an act of partiality on the part of the court, he resigned his commission at the first court he ever attended, and thereafter persisted in his resolution to hold no office. Mr. Rogers believed that the distinctions made among men, arising from the offices they filled, without regard to their intellectual and moral attainments and qualifications, were often unjust. He therefore spurned official stations and those who filled them, when he thought genuine merit was overlooked, and the shallow and presumptuous promoted. He believed that the fortunes of men, were controled by things apparently of little moment, and that there was in regulating and governing the affairs of this world, if not the whole universe, a chain of causes and effects or consequences, in which every link was just as important as every other in the eyes of God, although in the estimation of men, they were regarded as very different in importance. To his philosophic mind, he saw what mankind usually call great things, springing as results from very little things, and he was not disposed to concede that the effect was entitled to more consideration than the cause. He admitted a controling providence, which operated in a manner inscrutable to man; and hence he never despised what were called little things, and never became great excited with passionate admiration for what were called great things. He admited there were two great principles at work in the earth, one of good, the other of evil. His affections and his actions were all with the good. In illustration of his idea that apparent trifles were important affairs, he often told the writer that the most consequential events of his life, had been the result of his falling off a log and getting wet, in attempting to cross a creek. This happened on the day he left Pitman's station to go into the wilderness south of Green river. He got his papers wet, and was induced to return to the station to dry them, and then to take a new start. Upon his return, he met with a stranger who had a large number of warrants, and made a contract with him for their location. Under this contract he secured the land around Edmonton where he lived, and upon these facts he reasoned thus: "If I had not fallen into the creek, I should not have turned back; if I had not returned to the station, I should not have made the contract by which I obtained the land on which I settled; if I had not got that land I should not have lived upon it; if I had not lived there, I should have been thrown into a different society, and most probably would never have seen the lady I married, and of course, would not have had the wife and children I have; and as a further consequence, the very existence and destiny of those children and their descendants through all coming generations, and the influence they may exercise in families, neighborhoods and counties, depended upon my falling from the log." Mr. Rogers and his brother captain John Rogers, made a very singular contract. It was firmly agreed between them, that he who died first, should return from the world of spirits, and inform the other what was going on there. This engagement between the brothers, was most seriously entered into. Mr. Rogers has often told the writer, that there could be no such things as visits from the spirits of the dead, and holding intercourse with the living; for said he, if such a thing could be, I know my brother John would have kept and fulfilled his promise. He discountenanced everything of a superstitious character. The motto upon which Mr. Rogers acted through life, was "to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly before God." He often repeated these words as containing man's whole duty. His last illness was of short duration. He was in his perfect mind to the last breath. About an hour before he expired he was seen to smile, and being asked what occasioned it, he said, "he was thinking of the vain efforts of three of the best physicians in the country, to save the life of an old man when his time had come." He died with perfect composure and without a struggle. Inscription. - Mr. Butler, in his History of Kentucky, states, upon the authority of Judge Underwood, that Edmund Rogers had discovered on a beech tree, standing under the margin of the east fork of the south branch of Little Barren river, before there was any settlement south of Green river, the following inscription: "James M'Call, of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, June 8th, 1770." These words were cut in very handsome letters, with several initials of other names. Rogers Cornwallis Clark Chapline Muldrough Shirley Underwood Pitman Butler M'Call = Caroline-VA Mercer-KY Louisville-Jefferson-KY Mecklenburg-NC http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/barren/rogers.e.txt