Mineral County, West Virginia Biography of J. G. ROGERS This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 599-600 J. G. ROGERS as a contractor, builder and architect, has been one of the really constructive business men of Charles- ton for a number of years, and is also well known in that community as a citizen. Mr. Rogers was born in 1872 on a farm in Mason County, West Virginia, grew up on the farm, attended common schools, and at the age of eighteen left home and went to Pittsburgh. While there he learned the carpenter's trade, followed it as a journeyman, and while doing the prac- tical work of building he was an earnest student of archi- tecture, for about five years keeping up his courses with the International Correspondence School at Scranton. In that way he made architecture and the drawing of plans and specifications a part of his equipment as a builder and eon- tractor. Mr. Rogers moved to Charleston in 1903. He started here as a building contractor, and being entirely without capital necessarily could handle only small building projects at the beginning. He has demonstrated the ability, the vigor and the reliability that command confidence, patron- age and capital, and his business has grown from year to year until the volume for 1921 approximated $200,000. A large number of the modern structures of Charleston testify to his work as a contractor. There are residences too numerous to mention, and also a good share of the business and industrial building. Some of his most recent contracts are the Frankenburg & Boyd business block on Summers Street, a store building on the corner of Summers and Kanawha streets, and the Sarver Apartments on Quar- rier Street, the Shields double apartment building on the South Side, the Baird hardware store at the corner of Charleston and Ohio streets, and a number of others. Outside of his business Mr. Rogers finds his chief diver- sion and inspiration in his church. He is an active mem- ber of the Sixth Street Methodist Church, being president of the official board, trustee of the church property, district steward and teacher of its Men's Bible Class, which he has made one of the largest organizations of the kind in the city. Some of the best citizens in every line of business and the professions are represented in the class, and it is a class that exerts a strong influence for good not only within the church but within the community. Mr. Rogers married Miss Mamie Puckett, of Gallia County, Ohio, and they have one son, Rudolph Rogers.