Roc-Row: Rock through Rowley

See below for annotated biographies of American abolitionists and anti-slavery activists. Sources include: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography and Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.


ROCK, John Stewart, 1826-1866, African American, activist, lawyer, physician, dentist, supporter of abolition movement.  Member of the Boston Vigilance Committee, which opposed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.  Opposed colonization.  Recruited soldiers for US colored regiments.

(Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Volume 9, p. 545)


ROCKEFELLER, Laura Spelman, 1839-1915, philanthropist, teacher, abolitionist.  Wife of Standard Oil founder, John D. Rockefeller.


ROCKWELL, Reuben, Colebrook, Connecticut, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-1837.


RODEE, Daniel L., New York, American Abolition Society.

(Radical Abolitionist, Volume 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)


RODNEY, Caesar Augustus, 1772-1824, Delaware, statesman, lawyer, diplomat.  U.S. Congressman, 1803-1805.  Later, Attorney General of the United States under Presidents Jefferson and Madison.  Rodney wrote:  “When we shall proclaim to every stranger and sojourner, the moment he sets his foot on American earth, the ground on which he stands is holy and consecrated by the genius of universal emancipation.  No matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced; no matter what complexion, incompatible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may have burnt upon him; no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down; no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted on the altar of slavery; the first moment he touches the sacred soil of America, the altar and the god shall sink together in the dust; his soul shall walk abroad in her own majesty; his body shall swell beyond the measure of his chains, which burst from around him, and he shall stand redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled by the great genius of universal emancipation.” 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 300; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, p. 82; Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, pp. 83-84; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 18, p. 735). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, pp. 82-83:

RODNEY, CAESAR AUGUSTUS (January 4, 1772-June 10, 1824), lawyer, statesman, and diplomat, was born in Dover, Delaware, the son of Thomas Rodney [q.v.] and Elizabeth (Fisher) Rodney. He was the nephew of Caesar Rodney [q.v.], who, having never married, took a particular interest in the boy and not only assisted in his education but bequeathed to him most of his real estate. After living for two years in Philadelphia, and then again in Dover, the family settled in 1780 in Wilmington, Delaware, where for upwards of two years Thomas Rodney was engaged in the flour exporting business. In 1786 Caesar Augustus matriculated at the University of Pennsylvania. Upon his graduation in 1789 he commenced the study of law under Joseph B. McKean [q.v.] in Philadelphia. He was admitted to the bar in 1793 and began practice in Wilmington and New Castle. In 1796 he entered the Delaware House of Representatives as a member from New Castle County and continued a member of that body until the year 1802. A stanch supporter of Jefferson, he was prevailed upon to run for Congress in that year against the Federalist candidate, James A. Bayard [q.v.]. With Jefferson's backing, he succeeded in defeating Bayard and served as a member of the House of Representatives for two years. During this term he proved himself a firm supporter of the administration relative to the Louisiana Purchase treaty and of the Twelfth Amendment to the Federal Constitution.

In January 1804 Rodney was chosen one of the House managers to conduct the impeachment proceedings against John Pickering, judge of the United States district court for New Hampshire, and in December of the same year he was appointed one of the House managers to conduct the impeachment proceedings against Justice Samuel Chase. On January 20, 1807, he became Jefferson's attorney-general, continuing in this post in Madison's administration as well until he resigned on December 5, 1811. In the War of 1812 he served actively in the defense of his state. Commissioned on April 7, 1813, as captain of the 2nd Company of artillery attached to the 1st Brigade of the militia, he was promoted major of a battalion of artillery after the close of the war on March 15, 1815 In the meantime, he had been elected a member of the state Senate and served in the sessions beginning January 3, 1815, January 2, 1816, and November 11, 1816. In 1817 he was appointed by President Monroe a member of a special commission to South America for the purpose of ascertaining the political status of newly established republics in that continent. His fellow commissioners were Theodorick Bland and John Graham. Proceeding directly to Buenos Aires, the commission remained there from February 1818 until the last of April. Rodney and Graham then returned to the United States while Bland proceeded to Chile. Reports by the commissioners were transmitted to Congress on November 17, 1818 (House Document 2, 15 Congress, 2 Session).

As a result of his vigorous stand in opposition to the extension of slavery into the territories, Rodney was elected to Congress in 1820. He took his seat in December 1821 but in the following January he was elected by the Delaware legislature to fill a vacancy in the Senate. He resigned from the House on January 24, 1822, and qualified as a member of the Senate the same day. A year later he resigned to accept an appointment by Monroe as the first United States minister plenipotentiary to the Argentine Republic. He arrived in Buenos Aires on November 14, 1823, a few days before the President promulgated the Monroe Doctrine. The appointment was very acceptable to the Argentinians but Rodney's career as a minister proved to be a short one. Falling dangerously ill on November 23, he recovered sufficiently to speak at a public dinner held in his honor on May 27, 1824, but died, following a relapse, on June 10. His remains were interred in the English churchyard in Buenos Aires. When not in the public service of the United States, Rodney maintained with his large family a lovely home in Wilmington, Delaware, named "Cool Spring." His wife was Susan Hunn, daughter of Captain John Hunn of Philadelphia. By her he had fifteen children, ten daughters and five sons.

[Sources include: W. T. Read, Biographical Sketch of Caesar Augustus Rodney (1853); Delaware Archives, volumes IV and V (1916); W. R. Manning, Diplomatic Correspondence of the U. S. Concerning the Independence of the Latin-American Nations (1925), volume I, published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); J. B. Moore, A Digest of International Law (1906), volume I; Letters to and from Caesar Rodney, I756-84 (1933), ed. by George H. Ryden; Governors' Register State of Delaware, volume I (1926); J. T. Scharf, History of Delaware (1888), volume I; J. M. McCarter and B. F. Jackson, Historical and Biographical Encyclopedia of Delaware (1882); Henry C. Conrad, History of the State of Delaware, volume III (1908).]

G.H.R.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 300:

RODNEY, Caesar Augustus, statesman, born in Dover, Delaware, 4 January, 1772; died in Buenos Ayres, South America, 10 June, 1824, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1789, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1793, and practised at Wilmington, Del. He was elected to congress from Delaware as a Democrat, serving from 17 October, 1803, till 3 March, 1805, was a member of the committee of ways and means, and one of the managers in the impeachment of Judge Samuel Chase. In 1807 he was appointed by President Jefferson attorney-general of the United States, which place he resigned in 1811. During the war with Great Britain in 1812 he commanded a rifle corps in Wilmington which was afterward changed to a light artillery company, which did good service on the frontiers of Canada. In 1813 he was a member of the Delaware committee of safety. He was defeated for congress and in 1815 was state senator from New Castle county. In 1817 he was sent to South America by President Monroe as one of the commissioners to investigate and report upon the propriety of recognizing the independence of the Spanish-American republics, which course he strongly advocated on his return to Washington. In 1820 he was re-elected to congress, and in 1822 be became a member of the U.S. senate, being the first Democrat that had a seat in that body from Delaware. He served till 27 January, 1823, when he was appointed minister to the United provinces of La Plata. With John Graham he published “Reports on the Present State of the United Provinces of South America” (London, 1819). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 300.


ROGERS, Elymas Payson, 1815-1861, African American, clergyman, poet, missionary, educator, prominent abolitionist.  Wrote anti-slavery satires, “A Poem on the Fugitive Slave Law,” and “The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise Considered,” 1856.

(Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Volume 9, p. 554)


ROGERS, J. V., Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-39.


ROGERS, John, Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1840-1857.


ROGERS, John Almanza Rowley (November 12, 1828-July 22, 1906), Congregational clergyman, educator, co-founder of Berea College in Kentucky. The spirit and ideals of antislavery Oberlin College had made a deep impression upon him, and he felt that nothing could help Kentucky so much as starting a similar Christian college.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, pp. 103-104:

ROGERS, JOHN ALMANZA ROWLEY (November 12, 1828-July 22, 1906), Congregational clergyman, educator, was born in Cromwell, Connecticut, the son of John C. and Elizabeth (Hamlin) Rogers. He attended Williams Academy, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, until his parents moved to Ohio, and then entered Oberlin College. After receiving the degree of A.B. in 1851, he prepared for the ministry in Oberlin Theological Seminary, supporting himself by teaching in Oberlin Academy and, during the long vacations, in New York City. He graduated in 1855 and the following year married Elizabeth Lewis Embree of Philadelphia; a Quaker girl.

On his wedding trip he was asked to take a group of orphans to Roseville, Illinois. After preaching in the Congregational church of that town, he was invited to become its pastor and was there ordained. He remained in Roseville for about two years, and then, hearing that a friend had given up missionary work in Kentucky because of hardship and danger, he felt impelled to go there himself. The spirit and ideals of antislavery Oberlin had made a deep impression upon him, and he felt that nothing could help Kentucky so much as a similar Christian college. A few years before, John Gregg Fee [q.v.] had established an anti-slavery church in what came to be known as Berea, Madison County, Kentucky, and in 1855 had opened a school. Rogers chose this place for his labors and in April 1858 moved to Berea with the indorsement and financial support of the American Missionary Association. Here he and his wife began teaching fifteen pupils in a room the sides and roof of which were of split clapboards. Rogers made desks, maps, and charts, and introduced such startling innovations as music, pictures, and lectures. The school proved popular, and before the close of the term its enrollment had greatly increased. The following term two additional teachers were employed. Rogers was one of the little group which drew up a constitution for a college, completed and signed in July 1859, a stipulation of which was that the college should be "under an influence strictly Christian, and, as such, opposed to sectarianism, slaveholding, caste, and every other wrong institution or practice." John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry inflamed the whole South and in December 1859 Rogers and ten others were ordered by an armed mob to leave the state. They appealed to Governor Magoffin, who answered that he could not protect them. They then left the state, but continued to. make payments on land they had bought for the site of the college.

After serving for a time as traveling secretary of the American Missionary Association, in New York and New England, Rogers became pastor of the Presbyterian church in Decatur, Ohio, with the understanding that he might leave at a month's notice and return to Kentucky. In 1865 the exiles went back to Berea and reopened the school. Rogers conducted it and was also associated with Fee in the pastorate of the church. A college charter was obtained and the institution grew rapidly. Rogers was instrumental, in 1868, in having the trustees call Edward H. Fairchild, then head of the preparatory department at Oberlin, to the presidency, but remained as professor of Greek until 1878, and served as trustee up to the time of his death. After resigning his professorship, he was pastor of a church in Shawano, Wisconsin, for five years. He then retired to Hartford, Connecticut. His death occurred at the home of a daughter-in-law in Woodstock, Illinois. John Raphael Rogers [q.v.] was his son.

[J. A. R. Rogers, Birth of Berea College (1903); Berea College (1883); Oberlin College: The Alumni Catalog of 1926 (1927); Berea Quarterly, October 1926; Chicago Tribune and Courier-Journal (Louisville), July 24, 1906.]  

J. W. R.


ROGERS, Moses, New York, abolitionist, member of the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, founded 1785.

(Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, pp. 106-107; Basker, James G., gen. ed. Early American Abolitionists: A Collection of Anti-Slavery Writings, 1760-1820. New York: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 2005, p. 223). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, pp. 106-107:

ROGERS, MOSES (c. 1779-October 15, 1821), early steamboat captain, was born in New London, Connecticut, the eldest of seven children of Amos and Sarah (Phillips) Rogers. The family, which included among its members many mariners and fishermen, traced its American ancestry to James Rogers who was living in New London as early as 1660. Moses learned to manage a sailboat in boyhood and by 1800 was in command of a sailing vessel on Long Island Sound. On February 18, 1804, he married Adelia Smith, by whom he had three sons and two daughters. He became greatly interested in steamboat experiments, especially those of John Stevens [q.v.], in some of which he may have had a part. It is frequently stated that he commanded Fulton's Clermont, but no original record has come to light which proves this assertion. In any event, he could have commanded it for only a few trips in the fall of 1807 before he was selected by John and Robert L. Stevens [q.v.] to command their steamer, the Phoenix. The monopoly of Hudson steam navigation granted to the Fulton Livingston interests made it necessary to send the Phoenix, in 1809, by Sandy Hook and Cape May to the Delaware River for service, and Rogers was captain on this, the earliest ocean voyage of a steam vessel. He continued as captain while the Phoenix plied between Philadelphia and Bordentown, New Jersey, the first steamer on the Delaware and the western link of a stagecoach- steamboat route from New York to Philadelphia. In 1815 he commanded the Eagle on the first voyage made by steamer from New York to Baltimore, and later  he became part owner of a bi-weekly line between these ports. He also took out patents in 1814 and 1815 for a horse-power ferry-boat which was adopted on several ferry-lines in New York harbor and evidently used in other places.

In 1818, seeing the future Savannah under construction in New York, Rogers persuaded Scarborough & Isaacs, a Savannah shipping firm, to purchase it, fit it with engines, and experiment in the use of steam on the ocean. Rogers superintended the building of the engines, paddle wheels, and accompanying machinery. The paddle wheels he constructed so that they could be quickly taken from the water and placed on board in case it was desired to use only sail, an innovation dictated by his experience on the maiden trip of the Phoenix when the paddle wheels were badly damaged by storm. After having made the journey from New York to Savannah, Rogers left the latter city on May 22, 1819, for Liverpool. With him on this voyage, as navigator, went Stevens Rogers (February 13, 1789-November 30, 1882), also of New London, designer of the Savannah's rigging, who had been associated with him in the Phoenix and the Eagle and later became his brother-in-law. This first voyage of a steamship across the Atlantic can scarcely be called the first crossing of the ocean by steam, since the passage consumed twenty-nine days and eleven hours, of which time sails were used for twenty-six days and three hours. The voyage was continued to Stockholm and St. Petersburg, where the Savannah was visited by many of the nobility, including the Prince of Sweden and the Emperor of Russia. On the stormy voyage home sails were used until the ship was in the Savannah River. The owners were forced to sell the Savanah, and Rogers formed new connections with a company about to operate steamers on the Great Peedee River between Georgetown and Cheraw, South Carolina He superintended the construction of the Peedee in 1820, and while in command of it the following year was stricken with malarial fever. He died and was buried in Georgetown. Though his Savannah undertaking did not bear immediate fruit in promoting transatlantic steamship service, Rogers deserves credit for mechanical ingenuity and courageous seamanship.

[The best source of information is J. E. Watkins, "The Log of the Savannah," in Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, I890 (1891), based on the original logbook, preserved in that institution, and on contemporary newspaper references; obituary notice reprinted from the Georgetown Intelligencer shows 1821 rather than 1822 to be the correct date of Rogers' death. See also J. S. Rogers, James Rogers of New London, Ct., and His Descendants (1902), and A. D. Turnbull, John Stevens, An American Record (1928).]

O. W. H.


ROGERS, Nathaniel, 1794-1846, newspaper publisher, editor, abolitionist.  Established early anti-slavery newspaper, Herald of Freedom, in Concord, New Hampshire.  Participated in the New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society.  Served as a Manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1837-1840, 1842-1844.  Rogers attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840.  Wrote anti-slavery articles.  His articles were reprinted in the New York Tribune under the pen name Old Man of the Mountain.  Supported the women’s rights movement. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 309; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 320)

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 309:

ROGERS, Nathaniel Peabody, editor, born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 3 June, 1794; died in Concord, N.H., 16 October, 1846. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1816, and practised law until 1838, when he established in Concord, N. R., the “Herald of Freedom,” a pioneer anti-slavery newspaper. He also wrote for the New York “Tribune” under the signature of “The Old Man of the Mountain.” His fugitive writings were published, with a memoir, by the Reverend John Pierpont (Concord, 1847). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 309. 


ROGERS, Robert V., Pickaway County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36.


ROGERS, Thomas, abolitionist, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Employ, the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

(Nash, Gary B., & Soderlund, Jean R. Freedom by Degrees: Emancipation in Pennsylvania and Its Aftermath. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 129)


ROGERS, Timothy, Society of Friends, Quaker, Ferrisburg, Vermont, operated a station of the Underground Railroad in his home.

(Drake, Thomas. Quakers and Slavery in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1950, p. 119)


ROGERS, William C., Utica, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-1842.


ROGERS, William, 1751-1824, Pennsylvania, abolitionist leader, clergyman, educator, College of Philadelphia, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Education, Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, 1790, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

(Basker, James G., gen. ed. Early American Abolitionists: A Collection of Anti-Slavery Writings, 1760-1820. New York: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 2005, pp. 223, 239n11; Locke, Mary Stoughton. Anti-Slavery in America from the Introduction of African Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade (1619-1808). Boston: Ginn & Co., 1901, pp. 91, 168; Nash, Gary B., & Soderlund, Jean R. Freedom by Degrees: Emancipation in Pennsylvania and Its Aftermath. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 129)


ROLLINS, Edward Henry, 1824-1889.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire.  He performed important services in the merger of Know-Nothings, Free Soilers, Whigs, and anti-slavery Democrats into a coherent and enthusiastic party. The even balance of party strength and the fact that New Hampshire elections came in the spring made the state a pivotal one in national affairs and the work of Rollins attracted much attention. He was chairman of the Republican state committee from 1856 to 1861, resigning in the latter year because of his election to Congress.
Served in Congress July 1861-March 1867.  U.S. Senator 1877-1883.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 312-313; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, p. 120; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 18, p. 787; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, p. 120:

ROLLINS, EDWARD HENRY (October 3, 1824-July 31, 1889), politician, legislator, railroad financier, was born at Rollinsford, New Hampshire, eldest of the six children of Daniel and Mary (Plumer) Rollins. On both sides of the family he was of good colonial stock, his father being a descendant of James Rawlins who called to New England in 1632, and settled at Ipswich, Massachusetts. Edward spent his youth on his father's farm and once declared that no one knew better "the sorrows of hill-farm husbandry than I did until my twenty-first year." His early education was scanty, and while he began preparation for Dartmouth, lack of means obliged him to relinquish his ambition for a college education. He was an omnivorous reader, however, and overcame many of his early handicaps, writing and speaking with facility and vigor. After leaving home he spent several years as clerk in a Concord drug store, school-teacher, and employee of a wholesale drug firm in Boston. In 1847 he bought a drug business in Concord, N. H, with which he was associated until 1861. On February 13, 1849, he married Ellen Elizabeth West.

His business prospered, his store became a rendezvous for local politicians and party workers, and the proprietor, an anti-slavery Whig, was soon a rising politician. He was a state committeeman for the Whig party in its moribund years, 1850-53, and passed via the Know-Nothing route into the new Republican organization. He was elected to the lower house of the legislature in 1855 and became speaker a year later. He performed important services in the merger of Know-Nothings, Free Soilers, Whigs, and anti-slavery Democrats into a coherent and enthusiastic party. The even balance of party strength and the fact that New Hampshire elections came in the spring made the state a pivotal one in national affairs and the work of Rollins attracted much attention. He was chairman of the Republican state committee from 1856 to 1861, resigning in the latter year because of his election to Congress.

He served three consecutive terms in the House and proved himself a conscientious committeeman, a stalwart supporter of war measures, and an indefatigable worker for the interests of his state and constituents. After the expiration of his third term he was again elected chairman of the state committee, serving from 1868 to 1872, and exercising a great influence on campaigns and policies when no longer a member. A textbook on party methods and practices could be written from his experiences in keeping New Hampshire in the Republican column. A profound believer in Republican principles, opposed to conciliation with the South, a conservative with scant tolerance for reform in any guise, but personally honest and fearless, he was distinctly a product of the era. He was a skilful manager of caucuses and conventions, an adept distributor of patronage and spoils, but emerged unsmirched from the political scandals of the period.

In 1869, through the influence of Oakes Ames [q.v.], a personal friend, he became assistant treasurer of the Union Pacific Railroad and secretary of its board of directors; two years later he was promoted to the post of treasurer. He had no connection with the Credit Mobilier organization but his relationship to the railroad company caused increasing opposition to his candidacy for the United States Senate, and after his election for the term 1877-83 he deemed it advisable to sever it. In the Senate he followed much the same course he had pursued earlier in the House. His failure to secure a reelection, due to the popularity of the doctrine of rotation which he had clone much to foster and to the increasing restiveness of other leaders under the dominance of the Rollins machine, was a severe disappointment and led to his gradual retirement from active politics.

On his return to Concord he became increasingly active in New Hampshire business affairs, heading the banking firm of E. H. Rollins & Sons. From 1886 to 1889 he was president of the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad. A paralytic stroke from which he never recovered was probably the result of severe work over a long period of years. He retained an interest in farming, was a breeder of choice live stock, and did much for the agricultural improvement of the state. He died at Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire, survived by four children, one of them being Frank West Rollins [q.v.].

[J. O. Lyford, Life of Edward H. Rollins (1906), based on Rollins' correspondence and other papers; J. R. Rollins, Records of Families of the Name Rawlins or Rollins, in the U.S. (1874); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); Granite Monthly, September 1877; Concord Evening Monitor, August 2, 1889; Independent Statesman (Concord), August 1, 8, 1889.]

W.A. R.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 312-313:

ROLLINS, Edward Henry, senator, born in Somersworth (now Rollinsford), New Hampshire, 3 October, 1824. Several of his ancestors, who were among the first settlers of New Hampshire, served in the Revolutionary army, and his great-grandfather, Ichabod, was an active patriot and a member of the state convention that resolved itself into an independent government on 5 January, 1776. His name was given to the portion of Somersworth in which he resided. Edward Henry was educated in Dover, N. H, and South Berwick, Maine, became a druggist's clerk in Concord and Boston, and subsequently entered business there on his own account. In 1855-'7 he was a member of the legislature, serving in the last year as speaker, and he was chairman of the New Hampshire delegation to the National Republican Convention of 1860. He served in congress from 4 July, 1861, till 3 March, 1867, and was a firm opponent of the measure that was adopted in July, 1864, doubling the land-grant of the Union Pacific railroad company, and making the government security a first instead of a second mortgage upon the road. From 1868 till 1876 he was secretary and treasurer of the company, and from 4 March, 1877, till 4 March, 1883, he was U. S. senator. He was a founder of the First national bank in Concord, is an owner of Fort George island, Florida, and is now (1888) president of the Boston, Concord, and Montreal railroad company. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 312-313.


ROLLINS, James Sidney, 1812-1888, lawyer, soldier.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri.  After Mexican War (1846), opposed extension of slavery into the new territories.  Served as Congressman July 1861-March 1865.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume, V, p. 313; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, p. 121; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 18, p. 788; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, pp. 121-122:

ROLLINS, JAMES SIDNEY (April 19, 1812-January 9, 1888), congressman, was born at Richmond, Kentucky, the son of Anthony Wayne Rollins, a native of Pennsylvania and prominent physician, and Sallie (Rodes) Rollins. His grandfather, Henry Rollins, was a native of Ireland. James Sidney attended Richmond Academy, spent two years at Washington College; and graduated in 1830 with highest honor s from the Indiana University. Rejoining his family in Columbia, Missouri, he read law for a time in the offices of Abiel Leonard, then served in the Black Hawk War. In 1834 he completed his legal education at Transylvania University. He develop ed a large practice, but the routine and delay of the law irked him, and as early as 1836 he turned to public affairs. By inheritance and by conviction a Whig, he edited the Columbia Patriot and in 1838 was elected to the legislature from a strongly Whig county. As a legislator he achieved marked distinction in the decade 1838-48. His lifelong interests were education and public improvements. He sponsored in 1839 legislation which gave form and substance to the state university, while his effective and eloquent leadership of the cause of hi g her education resulted in public grants and in private donations which secured the location of the institution at Columbia. Through successive sessions he urged upon politically hostile and indifferent colleagues the desirability of internal improvements, of wider educational opportunities, and of social legislation. He was an ardent supporter of Clay, and by 1848 he had become the recognized leader of the Missouri Whigs, the minority party in the state. As candidate for governor in 1848 he secured the largest vote ever cast for a Whig. He echoed no popular slogans and had no effective political organization, but his eloquence and presentation of issues attracted many followers.

After several years of successful practice, Rollins returned in 1854 to the legislature, when the issue of slavery in the territories was a threat to the maintenance and integrity of his party. Although a slave-owner, he believed and maintained that it was the right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in the territories He was again a candidate for governor in 1857, receiving the support of former Whigs, Native Americans, and many Benton Democrats (Weekly Jefferson Inquirer, May 2, 1857). His defeat by 230 votes ended a brilliant but futile party leadership of twelve years. As the crisis of 1860 approached, he supported the Bell-Everett ticket and became a candidate for Congress. As a border-state moderate in a slave-owning constituency he was willing fully to recognize the complaints of the South but refused to sanction secession. Both he and John B. Henderson, his opponent, emphatically disavowed any antislavery sentiment, and Rollins won. He was reelected easily in 1862, as a Conservative-Unionist. Primarily concerned with preserving the Union, with or without slavery, he had the confidence of Lincoln and gave the government loyal and courageous support. He opposed confiscation, the Emancipation Proclamation, military government, and had grave doubt of the compensated emancipation plan for loyal slaveowners in Missouri. "I am for the Constitution and the Union as our fathers made them-I want no change" (Congressional Globe, Appendix, 37 Congress, 3 Session, p. 106). By 1865, however, he realized that slavery must be abolished, and he supported the resolution submitting the Thirteenth Amendment. Singularly free from the intolerance and fanaticism of some border state politicians, he opposed the proscriptive and punitive spirit and measures both in Missouri and in the nation.

In 1866 a crisis in the affairs of the University induced Rollins to reenter the legislature where he remained until 1872. The institution was in a dismal plight. The Republican majority was hostile toward it; the resources were almost exhausted, and public opinion generally indifferent. He met the difficult situation with tact and enthusiasm, and, by judicious concessions, was instrumental in securing the enactment of five significant statutes, 1867-72, relating to the University and to the newly created College of Agriculture. By these measures the institution was placed upon a solid and permanent foundation. Opposed to radical Republicanism, he aided in the restoration of the state Democracy in 1867-68, although he was never in complete accord with the Democratic party. His conciliatory policy, wisely dictated in behalf of educational legislation, was unpopular with many. With Carl Schurz and B. Gratz Brown he was a leader in the Liberal Republican movement. His lifelong ambition to be governor was finally frustrated in 1872 when the former Confederate element defeated him in the Democratic state convention. He retired from active politics in that year. Of tall and commanding presence, with resonant voice and facile rhetoric, he captivated his audiences and was easily one of the first citizens of the state for half a century. He died after a lingering illness, survived by his wife, Mary E. Hickman, whom he had married on June 6, 1837, and by seven of their eleven children.

[Sources include: W. B. Smith, las. Sidney Rollins Memoir (I89I), containing selections from his speeches and letters; History of Boone County, Missouri (1882); W. E. Smith, The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics (2 volumes, 1933); Missouri Republican, January 10, 1888; Rollins Papers in' the possession of Rollins' son, C. B. Rollins, Columbia, Missouri]

 T. S. B.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 313:

ROLLINS, James Sidney, lawyer, born in Richmond, Madison county, Kentucky, 19 April, 1812; died near Columbia, Missouri, 9 January, 1888. After graduation at the University of Indiana in 1830 and at the law-school of Transylvania university, Kentucky, in 1834, he practised law in Boone county, Missouri. He served on the staff of General Richard Gentry during the Black Hawk war, and in 1836 became an editor of the Columbia “Patriot,” a Whig journal. From 1838 till 1844, and again in 1854-'6, he served in the Missouri house of representatives, and he was a member of the state senate from 1846 till 1850, boldly opposing the extension of slavery into the territories. He was defeated as the Whig candidate for governor in 1848 and 1857. Mr. Rollins was a delegate to the Baltimore convention of 1844, which nominated Henry Clay for president, and was active in the canvass that followed. He was elected to congress as a Conservative, taking his seat in the special session that was called by President Lincoln, serving from 4 July, 1861, till 3 March, 1865. In 1862 he introduced a bill to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific, which, with a few amendments, became a law in July, 1862, and under its provisions the Union Pacific, Central Pacific, and Kansas Pacific railroads were built. He voted for the adoption of the thirteenth amendment to the constitution, although at the time he was one of the largest slave-owners in Boone county. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia Union convention in 1866, and in that year served again in the legislature of Missouri, where he introduced and secured the passage of a bill to establish a normal department in the state university. He was appointed a director of the Union Pacific railroad company, but resigned, and again served in the state senate, introducing a bill to establish an agricultural and mechanical college. He was also the author of many important measures that were passed by the legislature to advance the interests of the state university, and from 1869 till 1887 was president of its board of curators, which in 1872 declared him “Pater Universitatis Missouriensis.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 313.   


ROMEYN, John Brodhead, Reverend, born 1777, New York, clergyman.  Member of the auxiliary of the New York American Colonization Society. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 315; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 17, 40)

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 315:

ROMEYN, John Brodhead, clergyman, born in Marbletown, Ulster county, New York, 8 November, 1777; died in New York city, 22 February, 1825, was graduated at Columbia in 1795, and in 1798 was licensed to preach. He became pastor of the Reformed Dutch church in Rhinebeck, New York, in 1799, and of the Presbyterian church in Schenectady in 1803, was in charge of the church in Albany for the succeeding four years, and then accepted the charge of the Cedar street church, New York city, which he held until his death. Princeton gave him the degree of D. D. in 1809. Dr. Romeyn was one of the most popular preachers of his day, and an able theologian. He declined calls to numerous wealthy parishes, and the presidencies of Transylvania university and Dickinson college. He was one of the founders of Princeton theological seminary, a trustee of that institution and of Princeton college, and at the age of thirty-three was moderator of the general assembly of the Presbyterian church. He published a large number of occasional discourses, which were collected and republished (2 vols., New York, 1816). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.


ROOT, David, 1790-1873, Dover, New Hampshire, clergyman, abolitionist.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1835-1840. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 319). 

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 319:

ROOT, David, clergyman born in Pomfret, Vermont, in 1790; died in Chicago, Illinois, 30 August, 1873. He was graduated at Middlebury in 1816, entered the ministry, and was pastor successively of Presbyterian churches in Georgia and Cincinnati, Ohio, and of the Congregational church in Dover, New Hampshire. In the latter city he identified himself with the Anti-slavery party, which he served with such devotion that he suffered persecution both there and in Waterbury, Connecticut, whence he subsequently removed. He then held pastorates in Guilford and New Haven, Connecticut, till 1852, when he retired. He gave $10,000 to endow a professorship in Beloit college, Wisconsin, $20,000 to Yale theological seminary, and $5,000 to the American missionary society. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 319.


ROOT, Joseph M., 1807-1879, Brutus, New York, lawyer, U.S. Congressman, Mayor of Sandusky, Ohio. Whig Congressman and later Free Soil Member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the Thirty-First Congress.

(Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe). 


ROOT, Joseph Pomeroy (April 23, 1826-July 20, 1885), physician, diplomatist, “he was chairman of the Free-State Executive Committee, and in August 1857 was elected to the Kansas Senate under the Topeka constitution.”

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, p. 150; Topeka Capital, July 22, 1885; Weekly Commonwealth (Topeka), July 23, 1885; The U.S. Biographical Directory, Kansas Volume (1879); J. P. Root, Root Genealogical Records (1870)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, p. 150:

ROOT, JOSEPH POMEROY (April 23, 1826-July 20, 1885), physician, diplomatist, son of John and Lucy (Reynolds) Root, was born in Greenwich, Massachusetts. His father was descended from John Roote who settled in Farmington, Connecticut, about 1640. After his early schooling was completed; he attended the Berkshire Medical College; Pittsfield, Massachusetts, graduating in 1850. The following year he moved to New Hartford, Connecticut, and in September married Frances Evaline Alden, by whom he had five sons. He joined the practice of politics to that of medicine, and was elected as a Whig to the Connecticut legislature in 1855. Moved by his social and political convictions to throw himself into the anti-slavery movement, he joined a company of emigrants (the Beecher Bible and Rifle colony) starting for Kansas in March 1856. He settled at Wyandotte, and at once began an active part in the affairs of the distracted territory. He was chairman of the Free-State Executive Committee, and in August 1857 was elected to the Kansas Senate under the Topeka constitution. He was one of the pioneer corps who located the public road from Topeka to Nebraska City, and he was sent East as an agent to obtain arms and aid for the free-soilers.

He contributed editorially to the Wyandotte papers, the Register (1857) and the Gazette (1858). In December 1859 he was elected lieutenant- governor of the new state on the Republican ticket. In 1861 he was chosen one of the officers of the first annual meeting of the Kansas State Temperance Society. During the Civil War he was surgeon of the 2nd Kansas Cavalry (as it was finally designated) and was medical director of the Army of the Frontier. In 1866 he presided over the Republican state convention. On September 15, 1870, President Grant appointed him minister to Chile, an act which recognized his services and at the same time eliminated him from active participation in state politics. He presented his credentials on December 2, 1870, and since diplomatic duties were not pressing, he gave much time to a general interest in Chilean affairs. He traveled extensively. Once he crossed the Andes into Argentina and reported the trip to the Department of State in the form of a treatise on the cause of earthquakes. Later he accompanied the minister of foreign affairs to southern Chile to investigate the Indians. Improvements in transportation fascinated him; he was enthusiastically in favor of an intercontinental railroad, he urged subsidies by the United States to West-Coast steamship lines, and he undertook on his own account to have Chile establish a system of towboats in the Straits of Magellan.

Root won great popularity with the Chileans for his efforts during a frightful smallpox epidemic in 1872. He served on the Santiago Board of Health and contributed his services to hospitals and private patients, laboring to improve the sanitary treatment of the disease. In recognition of his work a street in Santiago, the "Calle de Root," was named for him. He was recalled in June 1873 to make a place for Cornelius Logan [q.v.]. In 1874 he was elected a vice-president of the Temperance Convention which forced the Republican convention to adopt an anti-liquor plank. Governor St. John appointed him surgeon-general of Kansas. In 1876 he published Catechism of Money, advocating green-backism; in this same year he was named a member of the Chilean Centennial Commission. In 1884 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention. Except for two years. (1877-79) when he was on the staff of a sanitarium at Clifton Springs, New York, he lived at Wyandotte until his death. He took a lively interest in the Kansas Historical Society and contributed several manuscript writings to its archives, among them a memoir of his experiences in Kansas in 1856.

[Topeka Capital, July 22, 1885; Weekly Commonwealth (Topeka), July 23, 1885; The U.S. Biographical Directory, Kansas Volume (1879); J. P. Root, Root Genealogical Records (1870); H. C. Evans, Chile and Its Relations with the U.S. (1927), p. 96, where Root's given name appears incorrectly as Thomas; Trans. Kansas State Historical Society, 1901-02 (1902); D. W. Wilder, The Annals of Kansas (1886); Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the U. S., 1871-73; Root's dispatches (3 volumes) in the Archives of the Department of State.]

G. V. B.


ROPER, William, Boston, Massachusetts.  Corresponding Committee of the Massachusetts auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Worked with Ralph Gurley. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 130, 159, 165)


ROPES, George, Portland, Maine, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1842-1846.


RORER, David (May 12, 1806-July 7, 1884), lawyer, legal writer. Though reared as a slave owner, he early perceived the evils of negro bondage and manumitted his own slaves. He was associated with three notable fugitive slave cases. In the first trial before the Iowa territorial supreme court in 1839, his argument that Iowa was free territory according to the Ordinance of 1787 and the Missouri Compromise convinced the court that prohibition of slavery in a territory annihilated slave property. During the Civil War he was a strong supporter of the Union and advocated immediate emancipation of slaves.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, pp. 153-154:

RORER, DAVID (May 12, 1806-July 7, 1884), lawyer, legal writer, was the son of Abraham Rorer who lived on a farm in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. On the foundation of a country school education, he studied law in the office of Nathaniel H. Claiborne [q.v.] and was admitted to the Virginia bar before he was twenty years old. Accompanied by a slave, he set out on horseback in the fall of 1826 for Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1827 he married Martha (Daniel) Martin, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. On the western frontier he practised law, superintended the construction of a military highway, investigated the condition of the Indians, and dabbled in politics, eventually becoming prosecuting attorney. In the autumn of 1835 he resigned that office, went to St. Louis, and thence in the following spring to the pioneer settlement of Burlington on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Michigan Territory. At Burlington he made his home during the remainder of his life. There his first wife died in 1838, and in the following year he married Delia Maria Viele; two daughters by this marriage survived him. Within the first three years of his residence in Burlington, that town became successively the capital of Wisconsin Territory and of the Territory of Iowa. Rorer plotted the town, drafted the charter and some of the ordinances, contributed most generously toward the erection of a church, suggested the sobriquet "Hawkeyes" for the inhabitants of Iowa, participated in a convention to petition Congress for the creation of Iowa Territory, and ran as an independent Democrat for the office of delegate to Congress. As a consequence of the bitter partisanship of that candidacy he engaged in a street fight and fatally shot a newspaper editor who abused him (J. C. Parish, Robert Lucas, 1907, p. 181). That was the end of his political career, for which he had little talent or inclination.

For approximately four decades Rorer was one of the most active members of the Iowa bar. Colleagues and rivals knew him as a thorough scholar, a vigorous advocate, and a close reasoner who could on occasion be eloquent without oratorical vacuity. Though reared as a slave owner, he early perceived the evils of negro bondage and manumitted his own slaves. He was associated with three notable fugitive slave cases. In the first trial before the Iowa territorial supreme court in 1839, his argument that Iowa was free territory according to the Ordinance of 1787 and the Missouri Compromise convinced the court that prohibition of slavery in a territory annihilated slave property, and Ralph, by living in Iowa with the consent of his master, had become free (Iowa Reports, l Morris, 1)-a judgment contrary to the Dred Scott decision seventeen years later. In behalf of a Missouri slave owner, however, he won a verdict in 1850 for the recovery of several fugitive slaves "harbored and concealed" among the Quakers near Salem, Iowa (Ruel Daggs vs. Elihu Frazier et al.). Although Iowa was free soil, he maintained that the state was bound to respect federal law. Five years later he defended an alleged fugitive slave named Dick and won his release by lack of identification. During the Civil War he was energetic in support of the Union and advocated immediate emancipation as a salutary and effective measure.

Beginning in 1853, Rorer was continuously employed for the next quarter of a century as a railroad attorney, as solicitor, first, of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company, which he had helped to organize in 1852, and in the same capacity after its consolidation with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, December 31, 1872. As a result of his extensive experience in railroad litigation and to gratify his taste for research, he wrote three exhaustive. works: A Treatise on the Law of Judicial and Execution Sales (1873), American, Inter-state Law (1879), and A Treatise on the Law of Railways (2 volumes, 1884). The scope and detail of these works indicate the author's grasp and accuracy; the publication of second editions of the first two is evidence of their popularity and usefulness to the legal profession.

[E. H. Stiles, in his Recollections and Sketches of Notable Lawyers and Public Men of Early Iowa (1916), and in Annals of Iowa, July 1907; accounts of the fugitive slave cases, Ibid., July 1899, April 1903; A. M. Antrobus, History of Des Moines County, Iowa (1915), I, 399; Biographical Review of Des Moines County, Iowa (1905); Weekly Hawkeye (Burlington), July 10, 1884.)

J.E.B.


ROSE, Ernestine Louise, 1810-1892, born in Russia Poland as Ernestine Louise Polowsky.  Feminist and women’s rights activist, abolitionist.  Lectured on and fought for abolition, women’s rights/suffrage/human rights/equality. Married to Robert Owen.

(Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, pp. 158-159; Kolmerten, 1999). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, pp. 158-159:

ROSE, ERNESTINE LOUISE SIISMONDI POTOWSKI (January 13, 1810-August4, 1892), reformer, was born in Piotrkow, Russian Poland, of Jewish parentage. Her father was a rabbi, strict in religious observances to the point of asceticism; but she, precocious and independent-minded, revolted early against orthodox Judaism. When Ernestine was sixteen her mother died, and soon afterward the daughter left home. For some years she traveled on the continent, spending considerable time in Prussia and France and interesting herself in the cause of the oppressed wherever she went. In 1832 she was in England, where she met Elizabeth Fry, Robert Dale Owen, and other congenial spirits. In 1835 she presided at the organization in England of the Association of All Classes of All Nations, which made no discrimination regarding sex, religion, race, party, or condition. At about this time she married William E. Rose, an English gentile of wealth and culture who sympathized with her views; and, coming to the United States to live, in 1836 they made their home in New York City.

Her alien race, nationality, and the deistic views she now professed roused considerable feeling against her; but this merely increased her already extensive sympathies and stimulated her zeal for the cause of all humanity, and she threw herself heartily into the various reform movements of the country. Paying her own expenses, she traveled through the eastern states and as far west as Michigan, lecturing to large audiences on religion, free schools, the science of government, abolition, and woman's rights. During the Civil War she worked with the Women's National Loyal League. Her special interest seems to have been in obtaining justice for women, and for this she worked untiringly. During the eleven years of campaigning for the married women's property bill in New York State, 1837-48, she petitioned the legislature almost annually, and five times she addressed it on the subject of the measure. Beginning in 1850, for nineteen years she attended practically every New York state and national convention relating to woman's rights; and she played an important part in many of them. As a public speaker she was pointed, logical, and impassioned (for examples see Speech of Mrs. Rose ... at the Anniversary Paine Celebration, 1850, and An Address on Woman's Rights, Delivered before the People's Sunday Meeting in Cochituate Hall ... October 19, 1851, 1851). In a time when it was easy to be led off by fanatical 'ologies and 'isms, her remarkably keen mind picked out the fundamentals and helped her colleagues to maintain a steady course. In 1869 she and her husband returned to England, where she spent most of her remaining years working, as much as broken health permitted, for the causes that she loved. She died at Brighton.

[E. C. Stanton, S. B. Anthony, and M J. Gage, History of Woman Suffrage, esp. volumes I, III (1881-87); I. H. Harper, The Life and Work, of Susan B. Anthony (3 volumes, 1898-1908); Henry Lewis, "Ernestine Rose, First Jewish Advocate of Women's Rights," Forward (New York), June 19, 1927; Woman's Journal, August 13, 1892; Times (London), August 6, 1892; private information; death date from Times, ante.]

M. W.W.


ROSS, Alexander Milton, born 1832, anti-slavery activist, abolitionist.  Ross became active in the anti-slavery movement in 1856.  Ross was an agent for the Underground Railroad, aiding escaping slaves to Canada.  He was known among fugitive slaves as the “Birdman,” because he used the cover of being an ornithologist.  He was a personal friend of radical abolitionist John Brown.  During the Civil War, he served as a surgeon in the Union Army.  Afterwards, he was employed as a confidential correspondent to President Abraham Lincoln in Canada.  

(Mabee, Carleton. Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 Through the Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1970, p. 285; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 327)

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 327:

ROSS, Alexander Milton, Canadian naturalist, born in Belleville, Ontario, 13 December, 1832. He attended school at Belleville till his eleventh year, when the death of his father compelled his removal. He evinced a great love for natural history at an early age. In his boyhood he came to New York city, and after struggling with many adversities became a compositor on the “Evening Post.” William Cullen Bryant, its editor, was much interested in him, and remained his friend ever afterward. During this period he became acquainted with Garibaldi, who was then a resident of New York; and in 1874 Ross was instrumental in securing a pension for Garibaldi from the Italian government. In 1851 he began the study of medicine under the direction of Dr. Valentine Mott, in New York, and after four years of unremitting toil, working as a compositor during the day and studying medicine at night, he received his degree of M. D. in 1855. Soon after his graduation he was appointed a surgeon in the forces in Nicaragua, under William Walker. In 1856 he became actively engaged in the anti-slavery struggle in the United States becoming a personal friend of John Brown. During the civil war he served for a short time as a surgeon in the National army, and afterward he was employed by President Lincoln as presidential correspondent in Canada, where he rendered important services to the U. S. government, receiving the thanks of the president and Sec. Seward. At the close of the war Dr. Ross offered his services to President Juarez of Mexico, and received the appointment of surgeon in the Mexican army. After the overthrow of the empire he returned to Canada and began to collect and classify the fauna and flora of that country, a work that had never before been attempted by a native. He has collected and classified hundreds of species of birds, eggs, mammals, reptiles, and fresh-water fish, 3,400 species of insects, and 2,000 species of Canadian flora. After his return to Canada he became a member of the College of physicians and surgeons of Quebec and Ontario, and was one of the founders of the Society for the diffusion of physiological knowledge in 1881. Dr. Ross has been appointed treasurer and commissioner of agriculture for the province of Ontario, and he has removed from Montreal to Toronto. He was knighted by the emperor of Russia, and by the kings of Italy, Greece, and Saxony in 1876, and by the king of Portugal in 1877. He was appointed consul in Canada by the kings of Belgium and Denmark, and received the decoration of the “Académie Française” from the government of France in 1879. He is a member of many scientific societies, and is the author of “Recollections of an Abolitionist” (Montreal, 1867); “Birds of Canada” (1872); “Butterflies and Moths of Canada” (1873); “Flora of Canada” (1873); “Forest Trees of Canada” (1874); “Ferns and Wild Flowers of Canada” (1877); “Mammals, Reptiles, and Fresh-water Fishes of Canada” (1878); “Vaccination a Medical Delusion” (1885); and “Medical Practice of the Future” (1887). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 327.


ROSS, Edmund Gibson, 1826-1907, U.S. Senator.  Editor, Kansas Tribune, Free State Newspaper. Although born a Democrat, Ross, in his own words, was "baptized in politics in the old Abolition party of 1844." Joining the Republican party in 1856, with the spirit of a crusader he led a colony of free-state settlers, heavily armed, to Kansas. Here he began a period of great activity against the pro-slavery party. In 1857 he and his brother bought the Topeka Kansas Tribune, and two years later founded the Kansas State Record (Topeka), which they sold in 1862. He was a member of the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention of 1859 from Wabaunsee.  

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 327-328; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, p. 175; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 18, p. 905). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, pp. 175-176:

ROSS, EDMUND GIBSON (December 7, 1826--May 8, 1907), journalist, United States senator, was born at Ashland, Ohio, the son of Sylvester F. and Cynthia (Rice) Ross. When he was about ten years old he was apprenticed to a printer at Huron, and, after learning the trade, he traveled for some years as a journeyman printer. In 1848 he married, at Sandusky, Fanny M Lathrop, the daughter of Rodney Lathrop of New York. He lived for a time at Janesville, Wisconsin, and for four years at Milwaukee, where he was foreman of the job printing office of the Sentinel. Although born a Democrat, Ross, in his own words, was "baptized in politics in the old Abolition party of 1844." Joining the Republican party in 1856, with the spirit of a crusader he led a colony of free-state settlers, heavily armed, to Kansas, driving an ox team all the way. Here he began a period of great activity against the pro-slavery party. In 1857 he and his brother bought the Topeka Kansas Tribune, and two years later founded the Kansas State Record (Topeka), which they sold in 1862. He was a member of the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention of 1859 from Wabaunsee. In 1862 he enlisted in the 11th Kansas Regiment and later recruited a company and became its captain. A brave and dashing soldier, he was promoted to major in 1864, and served on the Missouri border until the war ended. In 1865 he became editor of the Lawrence Tribune.

The following year he was appointed to the United States Senate to succeed James H. Lane [q.v.], who, mentally deranged, partly because of criticism of his support of President Johnson, had committed suicide. Interestingly enough, Ross was one of his critics. The appointment was popular and in 1867 the legislature elected him to fill out the term. He entered the Senate an intense Radical and an earnest opponent of Johnson. He voted for all the radical measures of reconstruction, including the tenure-of-office act, of which, however, he was quite doubtful. When Johnson removed Stanton in January 1868, Ross voted for the Senate resolution declaring the act illegal. After the President's impeachment, however, he was insistent that Johnson should have a fair trial and voted on many questions with the known opponents of conviction, notably in connection with the admission of evidence for the defense. The rumor spread among the Radicals that Ross was "shaky," and he was continual1y importuned by them, flooded with letters and telegrams from Kansas. At this time he rather favored conviction, but the character of the pressure upon him made him doubtful. In answer to a telegram of instruction from Kansas, he replied: "I have taken an oath to do impartial justice . .. and trust I shall have the courage and the honesty to vote according to the dictates of my judgment and for the highest good of the country" (Scribner's, post, p. 521). His final conclusion to vote against conviction for lack of evidence, was reached in face of the belief that he would thereby secure his own political destruction. He said later: "I almost literally looked down into my own g rave. Friends, position, fortune, everything that makes life desirable to an ambitious man, were about to be swept away by the breath of my mouth, perhaps forever" (Ibid., p. 524). The burst of bitter denunciation which followed the fir st vote fell most heavily on Ross. He was a "poltroon and traitor," it was said; "littleness had borne its legitimate fruit"; "Kansas repudiates you as she does all perjurers and skunks," were the words of a telegram from his home state (Dewitt; post, p. 545). Charges of corruption were made and every species of pressure known to politicians was exerted. Ross "bore the ordeal with the fortitude of a stoic and the inscrutability of a sphinx" (Ibid., p. 574), and again voted "not guilty." Immediately thereafter he demanded an investigation of the charges against him, but none was ever made. Several times, however, he defended his position in the Senate (Congressional Globe, 40 Congress, 2 Session, pp. 2598-99, 4513-17). During the remainder of his term, which ended in 1871, he was an independent. He favored the absolute repeal of the tenure-of-office act, and supported the Fifteenth Amendment although he believed that Congress had power to grant negro suffrage.

At the conclusion of his term he returned to Kansas and published a weekly newspaper at Coffeyville. In November 1879 he began to edit the Lawrence Standard and in February of the following year bought the Leavenworth Press and merged the two. He left the Republican party in 1872, partly because of its treatment of him, but also because of his dislike of the protective system and the character of Grant's administration. For the rest of his life he was a Democrat, although he violently opposed Bryan and free silver. In 1876 he was a Democratic candidate for elector and in 1880 for governor, but was badly beaten. Two years later he moved to New Mexico and became again a journeyman printer. Cleveland appointed him governor of the territory in May 1885, and he filled the position for four stormy years of struggle with what he asserted was a corrupt ring, antagonizing Democrats as well as the Republican legislature. In 1893 he was an unsuccessful candidate for reappointment. He spent the rest of his life in Albuquerque. Shortly before his death a messenger brought him greetings from the governor and legislature of Kansas, expressing appreciation of his conduct 'in the impeachment trial. He was utterly fearless, honest, and of good ability, but lacked tact, was brusque and headstrong, and, in the words of an opponent, "rejoiced in opposition." Two sons and three daughters survived him.

[Information concerning Ross himself appears in his History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1896) and in articles by him in Forum, July 1895, and Scribner's Magazine, April 1882. See also D. M. Dewitt, Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson (1903); D. W. Wilder, The Annals of Kansas (1886) Trans. Kansas State Hist Society, volumes I, II (1881); R" E Twitchell The Leading Facts of New Mexican History, II (1911) 496- 502; Albuquerque Morning Journal, May 9; 10, 19~7.]

J.G.de R.H.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 327-328:

ROSS, Edmund Gibson, senator, born in Ashland, Ohio, 7 December, 1826. He was apprenticed at an early age to a printer, received a limited education, and in 1847 removed to Wisconsin, where he was employed in the office of the Milwaukee “Sentinel” for four years. He went to Kansas in 1856, was a member of the Kansas constitutional convention in 1859, and served in the legislature until 1861. He was also editor of the Kansas “State Record” and the Kansas “Tribune,” which was the only Free-state paper in the territory at that time, the others having been destroyed. In 1862 he enlisted in the National army as a private, and in 1865 became major. On his return to Kansas, after the war, he was appointed to succeed James H. Lane in the U. S. senate, and was elected to fill out the term, serving from 25 July, 1866, till 4 March, 1871. He voted against the impeachment of President Johnson, thus offending the Republican party, with which he had always acted, and was charged with having adopted this course from mercenary and corrupt motives. After his term ended he returned to Kansas, united with the Democratic party, and was defeated as their candidate for governor in 1880. In 1882 he removed to New Mexico, where he published a newspaper, and in May, 1885, was appointed by President Cleveland governor of that territory. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 327-328.     


ROSS, George T., Colonel, US Army.


ROSS, James, 1762-1847, U.S. Senator 1974, lawyer, helped escaped slaves whom he represented in Philadelphia. Befriended the cause of a party of friendless negro slaves who had escaped from their masters and found refuge in Philadelphia. Impassioned oratory gained the case. The “Port Folio,” published in Philadelphia in 1816, says that Mr. Ross received the thanks of the Abolition society; but the generous act diminished his popularity.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume VI, p. 329; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, p. 178; “Port Folio,” Philadelphia, PA, 1816; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 18, p. 914). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, p. 178:

ROSS, JAMES (July 12, 1762-November 27, 1847), lawyer, United States senator, son of Joseph and Jane (Graham) Ross, was born near Delta, York County, Pennsylvania. His grandfather, Hugh Ross, of Scotch ancestry, came to America from northern Ireland about 1723. James studied the classics at Slate Ridge Presbyterian Church school and at an academy in Pequea, Pennsylvania. At the age of eighteen he was induced by the Reverend John McMillan, a close friend of the Ross family, to go to western Pennsylvania, where he taught Latin and Greek in McMillan's academy near Canonsburg (now Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania). He had originally intended to enter the ministry, but while he was at Canonsburg, Hugh Henry Brackenridge [q. v. ], a Pittsburgh lawyer, persuaded him to take up law, and in 1782 encouraged him to continue his studies at Philadelphia. He returned to Washington County in 1784 and was admitted to the bar. Specializing in land cases, he soon acquired a large practice, and in 1795 moved to Pittsburgh. He was attorney for President Washington's estates in western Pennsylvania and numbered among his clients prominent and wealthy business men.

His first connection with state politics was as a member of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention in 1789-90. A member of the committee that drafted the new frame of government, he was a stanch Federalist and attracted attention by his zealous advocacy of a clause for religious liberty similar to that in the federal Constitution. During the Whiskey Insurrection (1794) he used his influence to restrain popular fury against the federal government. President Washington appointed him one of the federal commissioners to treat with the insurgents and his efforts were in a large measure responsible for the amicable settlement of the uprising, and the saving his friend Brackenridge from prosecution for treason. In 1794 the Pennsylvania  legislature elected him to the United States Senate in place of Albert Gallatin [q.v.], who was disqualified on account of the residence requirement. Reelected in 1797, he served until 1803, and in 1799 was president pro tempore of the Senate. A firm believer in Hamiltonian ideas and policies, he worked diligently, though unsuccessfully, in 1800, to keep Pennsylvania in the Federalist ranks and to insure a national victory for his party by urging the passage of an act under which the legality of electoral votes for president and vice-president would have been decided by a grand committee composed of the chief justice and six members from each house of Congress. Under the Republican administration he defended Federalist legislation against Jeffersonian attacks, notably the excise law and the Judiciary Act of 1801, asserting that the repeal of the latter would erect Congress into "a complete tyranny" and render the judiciary totally subservient to Congress (Annals of Congress, 7 Congress, 1 Session, p. 166). A series of resolutions introduced by him on February 16, 1803, following Spain's withdrawal of the right of deposit at New Orleans and designed to embarrass the administration and provoke war with Spain, demanded the immediate seizure of the mouth of the Mississippi River, the fortification of its banks, and then negotiations for navigation advantages. In 1799, 1802, and 1808 he was Federalist candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, but the high tide of Jeffersonianism, his liberal religious views, and his refusal to canvass the state conspired in each instance to defeat him. I7rom 1816 to 1833 he was president of the Pittsburgh select council, but otherwise he was not active in politics after 1808, his law practice and land speculations, which proved highly profitable, engaging his attention. He was distinguished for his polished manner, his legal learning, and his forensic ability, and displayed an independence of judgment which sometimes cost him political preferment. His wife, whom he married on January 13, 1791, was Ann, daughter of George Woods, of Bedford, Pennsylvania. He died at Allegheny City, now a part of Pittsburgh, survived by one son.

[J. I. Brownson, The Life and Times of Senator James Ross (1910); Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (1882); Thomas Mellon, "Reminiscences of the Hon. James Ross," in Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, July 1920; Annals of Congress, 1794-1803; Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XIII (1889), 4; Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); Daily Morning Post (Pittsburgh), November 30, 1847.]

J. H.P.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 329:

ROSS, James, senator, born in York county, Pennsylvania, 12 July, 1762; died in Alleghany City, Pennsylvania, 27 November, 1847. He entered the school of the Reverend Dr. John McMillan and accepted the post of teacher of Latin. In 1782 Mr. Ross became a student at law, was admitted to the bar in 1784, went to Washington, Pennsylvania, where he practised until in 1795 he removed to Pittsburg. In 1789 Mr. Ross was elected a member of the convention to frame a new constitution for the state. The ability that he displayed in this body gave him a reputation which, with his fame as an orator and lawyer, secured his election to the U. S. senate, in April, 1794, for the unexpired term, ending 3 March. 1797, of Albert Gallatin, who had been thrown out because he had not been for nine years a citizen, as required by the constitution. In 1797 he was again elected to succeed himself. To Senator Ross undoubtedly belongs the chief credit of the peaceful ending of the whiskey insurrection. On 17 July, 1794, General Neville, the chief excise officer, was attacked, and his house and other property were destroyed. At a tumultuous meeting of the people at Washington, Pennsylvania, a rally of armed men was called, to be held on 1 August, at Braddock's Field. Mr. Ross, in a powerful speech, alone opposed the will of an excited populace. He was told that he had that day destroyed all chances of future political preferment, but, nothing daunted, he attended the Braddock's Field meeting and also that of the delegates from western Pennsylvania and Virginia, at Parkinson's Ferry. By his personal appeals and arguments a party was formed, which, if not very numerous, included many citizens of note, several of whom had been active on the other side. While he was at Parkinson's Ferry a messenger from the capital brought Senator Ross the information that he had been appointed by Washington the chief of a commission to compose the insurrection. Senator Ross more than prepared the way for his colleagues, and the insurrection was virtually at an end before they joined him. Mr. Ross had been for several years intimate with General Washington, being consulted as counsel, and now, at the president's request, became his attorney in fact for the sole management of his large estates in western Pennsylvania. While still in the senate, he was nominated, in 1799, as governor of the state. The nomination was esteemed to be equivalent to an election, but Mr. Ross refused to canvass the state in his own behalf and was defeated. At the next election Mr. Ross was again nominated and was again unsuccessful. The same disposition to defend the right, regardless of personal consequences, that had induced him, as a boy at Dr. McMillan's school, to volunteer against marauding Indians, that had separated him from friends and neighbors during the whiskey war, that in the senate had urged war against Spain to protect the mouths of the Mississippi for the use of the west, induced him to befriend the cause of a party of friendless negro slaves who had escaped from their masters and found refuge in Philadelphia. Impassioned oratory gained the case. The “Port Folio,” published in Philadelphia in 1816, says that Mr. Ross received the thanks of the Abolition society; but the generous act diminished his popularity. In 1808, for the third time, he was nominated for governor, and was again unsuccessful. With this election the power of the Federalists in Pennsylvania was broken, and with it the political life of Mr. Ross came to an end. He declined to connect himself with other parties; only as a Federalist would he hold public office. Except a short sketch in the “Port Folio” for 1816, there is no published life of James Ross, and even that in great measure consists of extracts from his speeches. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 329.


ROTCH, William, Nantucket, Society of Friends, Quaker, ship owner.

(Drake, Thomas. Quakers and Slavery in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1950, pp. 88, 97, 102)


ROWE, Sylvester, New York, American Abolition Society.

(Radical Abolitionist, Volume 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)


ROWLAND, Isaiah, Delaware, abolitionist, member and delegate of the Delaware Abolition Society, founded 1788.

(Basker, James G., gen. ed. Early American Abolitionists: A Collection of Anti-Slavery Writings, 1760-1820. New York: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 2005, p. 223)


ROWLANDS, William (October 10, 1807- October 27, 1866), clergyman and editor. A Democrat who joined the Republicans only in 1861, Rowlands rigorously excluded partisan politics from his newspaper. Though opposed to slavery, he refused to support abolition, which Robert Everett [q.v.] was urging in Y Cenhadwr.  

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 2, p. 201:

ROWLANDS, WILLIAM (October 10, 1807- October 27, 1866), clergyman and editor, was born in London, the eldest of the four children of Thomas and Mary (Jones) Rowlands. Both parents were natives of central Wales. After the death of his father, a thrifty milk dealer, in 1814, and of his mother five years later, William, the only surviving child, was cared for by relatives in Wales. If his formal education ended after four years of study at Ystradmeurig and Llangeitho, he had by then gained command of both English and Welsh. From 1824 to 1829 he taught school at Merthyr Tidfil and Pontypool, meanwhile preaching occasionally in Calvinistic. Methodist chapels. He was not ordained, however, until 1832. Having come into a small inheritance, he gave up teaching in 1829 and bought a printing establishment, where, among other things, he issued a monthly Sunday-school paper of which he was editor. He married on August 25, 1829, Ann Jacob of Cardiff, whose substantial dowry and his own sanguine temperament led him to over expand his business activities. By the autumn of 1833 he was bankrupt. Misfortune crowded upon him; the church forbade his preaching; in September 1834 he lost his wife, and, eighteen months later, his only child. His reinstatement in the ministry was but partial solace for all his troubles. He was obliged to begin his life anew and America seemed to offer the fairest future.
Rowlands arrived in New York in the summer of 1836. Not yet thirty, vigorous and energetic, he was conscious of his ability both as preacher and as editor. At once he began preaching to the Welsh community in New York City. Here and in Oneida County, New York, he ministered for the rest of his life save for a two-year pastorate at Scranton, Pennsylvania (1856-58). Less eloquent than some of his colleagues, he gained an abiding reputation among the Welsh-Americans for the clarity, the vigor, and the deep sincerity of his preaching. In his pastoral work he was equally successful, for his quick sympathy and ready understanding won him the confidence and affection of his parishioners. His greatest influence, however, was exerted through the religious press. In 1836 no Welsh newspaper or periodicals existed in America. Believing there was need for a religious publication among his countrymen, in January 1838 he issued the first number of Y Cyfaill ("The Friend"), a monthly periodical which survived until December 1933. Rowlands' intention to make his paper independent in both religion and politics proved impossible. Soon the  Congregationalists and the Baptists founded religious periodicals of their own and Y Cyfaill then became the accepted organ of the Calvinistic Methodists. A Democrat who joined the Republicans only in 1861, Rowlands rigorously excluded partisan politics from his paper. Though opposed to slavery, he refused to support abolition, which Robert Everett [q.v.] was urging in Y Cenhadwr. He condemned the liquor trade roundly and continuously. Though Y Cyfaill in Rowlands' lifetime never reached a circulation of two thousand, its influence was deep and widespread. Through it he shaped the thinking of a large proportion of the Welsh-Americans.

Even his active work as pastor and editor did not exhaust his energies. Besides numerous pamphlets, including a short history of his denomination in America, he published a volume of sermons: Damniegy Mab Afradlon (1860). He became a life member of the American Tract Society (1851) and a life director of the American Bible Society (1852). On May 17, 1838, he married Catherine Parry of Remsen, New York. By her he had thirteen children, of whom only five survived their father. His indefatigable activity continued almost unabated until his death in Utica.

[Howell Powell, Cofiant-William Rowlands (Utica, 1 873); biog. material scattered through the first thirty volumes of Y Cyfaill; R. D. Thomas, Hanes Cymry America (Utica, 1872); Utica Daily Observer, October 27, 1866.]

P D. E.


ROWLEY, Reuben, Wrentham, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1842-44.



Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.