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physically\that he is called Hikaru or "the shining ne". nHe
transmits mhch of his character to his children. n many ways
Genji's son Haoru serves as the "anti hero" in t e later chap-
ters. He is ahcounterpoint ‘·· for Genji's exper nces. He never
relinquishes his\search for perfect love. ut his ideal woman
\
must occupy most Lf her time elsewhere. e does not search for
an all-engrossing gttachment. While h matures through the re-
sponsibilities of pahenthood, Genji ever really becomes the arche-
type of "Oriental Patriarch"; till/the end he remains young in
\ /
spirit. Genji's character matu es and develops throughout the
work, yet he never really\§gr ws up". He must have To no Chujo's
child as a remembrance of H\r mother. He must be amused at all
times and at all costs. s the illegitimate but predilicted son
of the Emperor, he is t treaged with great consideration by all
the characters of th book but\¥s always sympathetically treated
by the authoress, ady Murasaki.\ Perhaps Genji's great love for
children is stim ated by his havipg been orphaned at such an
early age. He s raised partly byx ujitsubo and certainly he
loved his ste mother greatly. But ihen whom among the court did
he not lover A study of the personality of Genji from the stand-
point of yreudian psychoanalysis would\§e fascinating. What would
it have/to say about the effect of his childhood on his compulsive
philandering and his choice of women; a Jhild (Murasaki), an old
lady concubine of his father, his stepmother whom he impregnates,
and his prediliction for haughty women who at first reject him.
9

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13 folders in one box and 2 packages
This collection consists of the papers and correspondence of the Rogers
family, originally of Barren County, Kentucky, various members of which moved
west - to M ssouri, Illinois, California and Texas - in the mid-nineteenth
century. Dates on materials in the collection range from 1805-1910, but most
fall within a span of approximately forty years in the middle of the century.
The materials are divided up into folders labeled with the name of the family
member primarily concerned, and are filed chronologically within the folders.
A detailed calendar of materials is included, as are ahdidged genealogies of
the Rogers, Wood, and Bagby families. prepared bv William Chambliss, the donor
of the collection.
The business and legal papers in the collection range from personal IOUs
to copies of labor contracts, tax and other receipts, itemized merchants'
accounts, wills, court summonses, and other legal documents. Some of the corres-
pondence is also concerned with business, especially the letters of William G.
Ferguson, written to his friend and agent, William B. Rogers (folder 1). Most
of the letters, however, are of a personal nature. Family members who have moved
west alternately express their joy in and their dislike of their new surroundings,
and beseech their Barren County relatives for news of the rest of the family.
Several topics of special interest are touched upon in the letters. For example,
several of Walter Bagby's letters (folder 3), include his on-the-scene accounts
of events leading up to the lynching of Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders in
Illinois in 18MQ. The Rogers family papers (folders 4-10) reveal some of the
attitudes toward and effects of the Civil War on a staunchly Southern family
which lost three of its sons to the conf1ict.” The letters of Thomas G. Yancey,
written to his friend and cousin Mollie Wood (folder 8) from California in the
late 1860's provide detailed accounts of his trip to and experiences in that state.
List of folders:
1. John and Matilda Bagby papers, 1805-1855
2. Charles D. Bagby papers, 1832-1852
3. Walter Bagby papers, 1827-1857
U. William Byrd Rogers papers, 1832-1883
5. Nancy E. Rogers papers, 1857-1879
6. John Byrd Rogers papers, 1855-1864
7. George Walter Rogers papers, 1862
8. Mary (Mollie) H. M. Wood papers, 1862-1910
9. Charles Bagby Rogers papers, 1875
10; Margaret Annie Rogers papers, 1860-1861
11. H. M. Rogers papers, 1889
12. Robert F. (Robin) Wood papers, 1867-1897
13. Jane F. Fishback papers, 1892
Packages:
1. Certificate for a widow's pension for Matilda Bagby, whose late husband John served
as a sergeant in the Revolutionary War.
2. Scrapbook of newspaper clippings, magazine pictures, etc., some of which relate
to the Rogers family.

 * .
The Bagby - Rogers - Wood — Fishback Papers
\
This small collection of papers and letters date from 1805-1910.
They were written by, identified with, or addressed to individuals
who knew each other as kinsmen or friends. The principal families
concerned -- Bagby, Rogers, Wood, and Fishback -— had once lived
in Albemarle County, Louisa County or Orange County, Virginia,
before making the trek to Kentucky in the late eighteenth century
or in the first decade or so of the nineteenth century.
Their final destination in Kentucky was a section of Barren
County several miles north, northeast of Glasgow, Kentucky, and
yet conveniently situated near an important route that later came
to be known as the Jackson Highway. It ran from Nashville Tennessee
through Glasgow to Louisville, Kentucky. Today this road is also
known as U.S. Highway 31E. ,
' The farming communities near the road where the principal
families, relatives, and friends established their homesteads were
Blue Spring Grove (renamed Goosehorn, and finally Hiseville), Rich
Grove (just south of the subsequent Goodnight community), and Coral
Hill. The original place names appear repeatedly in the documents
of this collection.
The close ties of the major families are suggested by the Wood
family's intermarriage not only with the Bagby and Rogers families
but also with other nearby settler families from Virginia and North
Carolina, e.g., the Yancey, Field, and Baird families. Even today
the inscriptions on neighborhood tombstones bear silent witness to
the interfamilial nature of their relationship. The William Bird
Rogers Cemetery at Goodnight, Kentucky, and the Robert Field Wood
Cemetery on the Horton—Rigdon Road near Coral Hill, Kentucky, are
prime examples of the interconnection of the Bagby, Rogers, Wood,
Fishback, Field, Yancey, and Baird families. (See map of cemetery
locations on next page.)
The various papers in this collection may appear, at first
glance, to be authored by too many individuals residing in too many
mutually remote places like Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Texas,
and California to permit much meaningful synthesis or topical order.
Yet the strong bonds of kinship and friendship or the common
interests in slave farming that existed among some of the individuals
named in the documents tend to overcome the fragmentary nature of
the collection.
Additional compensation for the rather limited scope of the
collection may be found in a wide assortment of information on
economic, political, and religious aspects of American life in the
nineteenth century. The personal and picturesque comments of letter
writers are particularly impressive because they depict with
exceptionally vivid imagery the countless opportunities to be found
in the new western territories. Their down-to—earth descriptions
are a stark contrast to such lifeless contemporary catchphrases as
the "Expansion of the Western Frontier" which supposedly characterize
the challenging experiences of nineteenth century settlers who were
pushing ever westward.
1. William Bird Rogers (1804-188b) was a grand nephew of Ann
Rogers, the mother of General George Rogers Clark (1752-1818),
_ frontiersman and military officer.

 2
Even the unsystematic personal observations on the Civil War
that appear in the letters provide a human dimension of a bloody
era in American history that might otherwise go unnoticed.
The reader who desires to find a sensible thread of connection
in the documents may begin with the letters which were written
year after year by the same individuals to friends and relatives
in Barren County. In this category are the letters of the two
Bagby brothers (Charles and Walter), who were writing about M
experiences in Illinois during the 1830's and 18h0's. Other
letters of interest were penned between 1858-1883 by William G.
Ferguson to his farmer—agent and friend William B. Rogers. And
the most voluminous spate of correspondence, from 1865-1910,
came from the deft pen of Thomas G. Yancey, an erstwhile Barren
Countian who had permanently forsaken Kentucky for California.
Altogether the collection is most significant historically
for the period from 1830-1870. During this forty year span, the
materials relating to barren County (Kentucky), Illinois,
Missouri, and California may be roughly summarized under the
following six rubrics.
1. The Westward Movement for Greener Pastures
The contents of the letters suggest that once the land in
the vicinity of Glasgow, Kentucky, had been occupied by the early
settlers, the second- or third-generation descendants of the
pioneer families concluded that the opportunities for a pros-
perous future or a quick fortune in Kentucky were rapidly fading.
Thus they*began to emigrate to the frontiers of Illinois, Missouri,
Texas, and California.
Upon arrival in new territories and confronting unfamiliar
conditions,their responses were not always the same. One emigrant
might feel compelled to write home in abject despair while another
might be inspired to write the most glowing accounts about the
opportunities and the wealth of natural resources discovered
outside Kentucky's borders. On occasion the expatriate would
urge those left behind to pull up stakes and join in the search
for a better life.
Letters exuding optimism were the type initially written by
Charles Bagby to his Kentucky kinfolk. He could only portray the
little-explored Illinois prairie in the mid—1830's as a "paradise
on earth." His unbridled enthusiasm for Illinois tended to be a
latter day version of another stirring letter penned in 1829 by
a young woman who had only recently arrived in Kentucky and was
trying to coax a Virginia cousin to join her in a new found land
of abundance.
The longest series of letters has been left by a particularly
knowledgeable emigrant (Thomas G. Yancey), who traveled to the
west coast in 1865. His engaging letters stretch over a 45-year
period, though they were mostly concentrated in the late 1860's.
After arriving at his destination he wrote to a friend about the
unusual impressions gained from the sea voyage from New York to
California via Panama City. His new surroundings in the West,
if anything, were full of startling surprises. He was not only
greatly astonished at finding a mixed racial population but
equally amazed at hearing all the uncommon languages from Chinese

 3
to Choctaw. Certain customs in California also seemed radically
unlike those in Barren County -- men rather than women did the
milking. Despite being a staunch southerner, he unabashedly
admitted his admiration for the enterprising and energetic
money-making spirit of the Yankees he encountered. His brief
impressionistic comparison of the contrasting Yankee-Southern
life styles was more favorable to the practices of the Yankee
than to his rebel counterpart.
The intermittent exodus of Barren Countians to greener
pastures and the increasing movement of settlers into the mid—west
in the nineteenth century contributed to a demographic transfor-
mation of sparsely populated territories that was clearly reflected
in a letter from Rushville, Illinois, in the 1880's. Written
by a woman who had not visited the Rushville area for forty—three
· years, the letter reveals the writer's astonishment upon seeing
that the open prairie of her youth had vanished. In its place
she could see only an unfamiliar landscape dotted with farmsteads.
2. Economic Matters
The notion that there was a pot of gold at the end of the
frontier-rainbow seemed to characterize the hopes of individuals
willing to take great risks in prospecting for gold or speculating
in new lands. Charles D. Bagby, an ex—Kentucky adventurer who
moved to Illinois in the 1830's, reported —— almost poetically ——
a land of indescribable beauty and economic potential. Yet
because of scarce money and credit, he was complaining by the
late l830's that he lacked even enough funds to leave the "damned
country" of Illinois for a return visit to Kentucky. Another
former Kentuckian, H.M. Rogers, wrote more optimistically from
Texas in 1839 to encourage a Glasgow cousin to come to the western
territory. In spite of the Indian wars, Rogers portrayed Texas
as a place where a quick fortune could be made and luxuries of
every kind could be enjoyed. T.G.Yancey in California was also
reporting in 1865 the enticing news that Californians never
bothered to make change in coins of less than a dime.
For the economic historian who may be curious about prices
in various localities, this modest collection of documents includes
a few itemized accounts from general merchandise stores for dry
goods, tea, coffee, sugar, hardware, and whiskey. Letters from
Missouri and Illinois reveal prices for land, livestock, grain,
and a little data on land taxes. They also make sporadic refer-
ences to crop conditions in Missouri and Illinois, and business
opportunities in California. The price of slaves in Barren County
is most likely too fragmentary to be useful, though it is
of some interest.
Two documents reveal that after the Civil War William B.
Rogers, a former slave owner, used a written annual contract to
employ two of his former slaves. Another ex—slave owner (Robert
F. Wood) became the legal custodian of an orphaned lé year old
negro boy under a contract of apprenticeship. He decided,
however, to dissolve the contract and release the boy upon being
charged, under a writ of habeas corpus, for failing to carry out
the custodian's contractual obligation to teach the boy how to
read and write.

 4
3. Politics
Political matters are briefly mentioned from time to time by
persons in Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri. From Illinois,
ex—Kentuckians expressed their grief over Clay's defeat of Jackson
in Kentucky, but reported with satisfaction that Illinois citizens
generally supported Jackson. One letter from a Democratic state
legislator in Missouri reported that the Missouri governor desired
more competition among the railroad companies, and criticized the
state legislature for being so dilatory in doing its work. In
general the political views expressed in the letters were inclined
toward the Democrats. In one instance, a land speculator (Charles
D. Bagby) in Illinois opposed the establishment of the U.S. Bank
and a tight money policy. A slave owner in Kentucky prior to
the Civil War expressed his hatred of Lincoln. And two other
letters in the l860's comment on the controversial electoral
issue of taxation for the construction of a railroad in Barren
County.
4. Civil War
Letters indicate that supporters of slavery were making
efforts to form voluntary military units in Barren County prior
to the Civil War. Once war came, a confederate officer reported
in August 1861 that the officers in his unit had been elected to
their command positions.
Four of the five sons of the William B. Rogers family volun-
teered to serve the Confederate States Army. Three unfortunately
joined the same infantry unit in Kentucky's Orphan Brigade, i.e,
Company A, Fourth Regiment Infantry, Kentucky Volunteers.
Pvt. William L. Rogers (b. 1838) was killed at Shiloh, Tennessee,
in 1862; Corporal George W. Rogers (b. 1842), medal of honor
winner, was mortally wounded at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in 1863;
and Major John B. Rogers (b. 1835) was either killed at Kennesaw
Mountain, Georgia, in 1864 or was taken prisoner there, never to
be heard from again. Charles B. Rogers (1840-1919) survived the
war after a year's enlistment in Co. C, Second Regiment Cavalry,
Kentucky Volunteers, under the command of the then Col. John Hunt
Morgan. (See Report of the Adjutant General of the State of
Kentuck ; Confederate Kentuck Volunteers, War 1861-1865. Vol I.
(1915), pp. 144-149, 556-557.; Grave monuments for all four
brothers are in the William B. Rogers family cemetery, Goodnight,
Kentucky. @+,;%M,YL_£O3€y;J(QQ@, A&bl,V+ umétcwuj
During the war a letter of 1863 from John B. Rogers, written
while he was still a Captain, indicates that he regarded the
Conscription Act by the Union government as a confession of
weakness and he mistakenly concluded that the North would soon
capitulate. He also believed that the slaves, the South's great
tower of strength, would enable the South to produce indefinitely
all its needs for the war. The Captain regarded both armies as
equally guilty of depredations in the countryside, neither being
any better in this respect than the other. A similar view of
two armies was also shared by a slave—owning farmer who produced
brandy in Barren County. He apparently lost his brandy to the
marauding forces on both sides. One wartime receipt indicates
that William B. Rogers received an I.O.U. from a military unit
for the food he provided for troops and horses. In an area near
Louisville one writer remarked that the troops had been purchasing
rather than confiscating supplies.

 5
In Missouri where the introduction of slavery was controversial,
a woman writer indicated that a few men (probably southerners)
had been taken from their beds and shot. This made other
Missourians from the South uneasy. She also reported that
ex—confederate men who were settling in Missouri during the Civil
War were being badly treated. Her uncle was threatened with
hanging if he did not quit criticizing President Lincoln.
Distrust of the mailswasemphasized by one slave owner
(William G. Ferguson) who lived near Owensboro, Kentucky. He
believed the mail was being opened and the contents deliberately
lost. The mail system within Kentucky, especially between Barren
County and Owensboro, was subject to repeated criticism. The
Kentuckian (Yancey) who went to California in 1865 made frequent
reference tothe considerable length of time required for letters
from Kentucky to reach him: sometimes a month, sometimes two
months. But once a transcontinental railroad was completed, the
delivery time was sharply reduced to the mere span of a week.
5. Religion
Many letters by men and women alike included comments on
religious affairs, religious beliefs, and "meetings." The latter
presumably were revival meetings if not ordinary church meetings.
Several letters by Walter Bagby in Carthage, Illinois, repeatedly
reported the explosive nature of the mutual animosity plaguing
the Christians and the Mormons in Illinois. Since Bagby was an
officer in the "Carthage Grays" and was commissioned to guard the
jail against vigilantes during the detention of Joseph Smith and
other Mormon leaders, his account of the lynching of the Mormon
leaders in 184h is of particular interest. Further Christian
hostility toward the Mormons appeared in a letter addressed to
Walter Bagby from a preacher friend in Indiana.
One curious document in the collection was certified as a
"true copy" of a deceased daughter's message to her aged mother
directed through the good offices of a spiritual medium. The
daughter was urging her mother to obey God and pray for the
forgiveness of her sins.
Another letter, written in 1881 by a preacher or a religious
friend of William B. Rogers, by then already in his late seventies,
constitutes a lenghty, closely reasoned, and classic form of
Christian apologetic designed to persuade a nonbeliever to join
the Church. William B. Rogers received similar promptings from
a fellow slave owner (William G. Ferguson) in Curdsville, Kentucky.
6. Miscellaneous Matters
Even letters that are seemingly inane and full of gossip reveal
something of historical significance. First, one gets a fair
impression of the varying degrees of literacy and penmanship
prevailing in one part of nineteenth century Barren County. The
semi—literates, characteristically enough, spelled their words
very phonetically. Others who enjoyed a more advanced formal
education or had engaged in more serious self-instruction were
able to display a very sophisticated vocabulary and refined
calligraphy.
Certain aspects of farm life, social life, romance, and spouse-
hunting are also revealed in the letters. They suggest, for
example, that certain early nineteenth century rural districts

 6
in Barren County were well populated with blood relatives and
possibly suffered from a scarcity of women outside the local group
of kinsmen. Consequently the first settlers seem to have returned
to Virginia now and then to secure spouses. One letter of 1829
mentions a man who remained in Kentucky and married a cousin ‘
because he was unable to make the trek back to Virginia to get
a wife. Marriage among cousins may have been widespread; for
one writer stated very positively that marriage among blood cousins
should be outlawed. The same writer (Yancey) observed that in
his new home in California there was a disproportionate number
of men to women in the late l860's. In the California country-
side, at least, aging bachelors were numerous, and old men
frequently married very young women.
Though a random selection of letters,is not a sound basis for
reaching general conclusions about prevalent health conditions,
the letters seem to contain an inordinate amount of references
to personal ailments and poor health.
The interesting personal impressions and poignant descriptions
concerning new and immediate surroundings, which characterize the
scattering of letters in this collection, are far too numerous
to summarize in a few words. Yet they alone make the letters
worth reading.
Moving away to a new territory, however, did not necessarily
inspire a rosy description of local conditions. In fact, a forlorn
Kentucky expatriate in the early l890's discovered to his great
distress that a leaky dwelling and the fierce plain winds were
some of the intolerable aspects of a new life in north Texas.
The unhappy realization that he could no longer look out the door
and glimpse familiar faces only compounded his predicament.
Summing up his distaste for Texas quite succinctly, he wrote,
"I ant [sic] gonna live in no such place as this."
(Prepared by William J. Chambliss III)

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