Christopher Columbus Rogers

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the Texas Historical Commission marker for Christopher Columbus Rogers has to say — and friend, it has plenty to say. Palestine, Texas. June of 1850.

A boy is born and given a name that could fill a history book all by itself — Christopher Columbus Rogers. Whether that name was a burden or a blessing, Chris Rogers would spend the rest of his life living up to the weight of it. His family moved out to the rural country for a while, but young Chris found his way back to Palestine, settling in with his sister Eliza and her husband, James Ewing.

He was thirteen years old — thirteen — when he enlisted to serve as a guard at Camp Ford, a prisoner of war camp over in Tyler, during the Civil War. He was barely old enough to shave, and before that war was over, he had killed his first man. A Union prisoner.

Whatever that did to a thirteen-year-old boy, the marker doesn't say. But it's worth sitting with for a moment. When the war ended, Rogers came home to Palestine and went to work — at Ewing's newspaper, as a clerk, in various stores around town.

Everyday life. Quiet life. The kind of life that, for a man like Chris Rogers, was never going to hold.

In 1872, he became a Palestine policeman. And here is where the story takes one of those turns that makes you set down your coffee. Rogers killed the town's first marshal — a man named Dan Carey — in a gunfight.

Now you might think that would be the end of Chris Rogers' career in law enforcement. The city aldermen had a different idea. They appointed him marshal.

You want the job done? Hire the man who just demonstrated, rather conclusively, that he can do the job. He wasted no time making a name for himself.

On July 20, 1872, there was a train robbery — and Rogers cracked that case quickly. He also solved what the marker calls the infamous murder of Dr. and Mrs. Grayson, a killing that came about because of Dr.

Grayson's service to African Americans. Rogers worked those cases and he got results. But Chris Rogers was not a man who made things easy for himself or for the people above him.

He was suspended from his position multiple times after shootings. And his desire — his stated desire — to hire an African-American police officer put him in a running battle with city officials. Tumultuous is the word the marker uses, and that feels about right.

Yet the people of Palestine kept choosing him. When the position of City Marshal became an elected office in 1877, Rogers ran. He won.

He kept winning. Every election from 1877 all the way through 1888. Except the road got rougher as it went.

In 1887, Rogers shot an assailant. That shooting led to his impeachment, his resignation, and a murder trial. The trial ended in a hung jury — no verdict, no conviction, but no vindication either.

And Rogers himself came out of that incident having lost the use of his right arm. He was reelected the year after, 1888, and then left office again. July 27, 1888.

Chris Rogers walked into the Robertson Saloon and had an altercation with a railroad engineer named W.D. Young. He was stabbed to death.

The marker makes a point of saying that although Chris Rogers avoided bloodshed when possible, his life and death were marked by it. A man who spent decades trying to keep order in a town notorious for violence, who cracked robberies and solved murders, who fought his own bosses to do what he thought was right — and who met his end not in a gunfight, not with a badge on his chest, but in a saloon, from a knife. Palestine remembers him as a lawman who helped keep order when order was a hard thing to come by.

That's not a small thing. In a town like that, in a time like that, it might've been everything.

What the marker says

Born in Palestine in June 1850, Christopher Columbus Rogers was a noted and controversial lawman. Although his family moved to a rural area, Rogers returned to Palestine and lived with his sister, Eliza, and her husband, James Ewing. Rogers was 13 when he enlisted to serve as a guard at Camp Ford, a prisoner of war camp in Tyler, during the Civil War; while there, Rogers killed his first man, a union prisoner. After the Civil War, he returned home to work at Ewing’s newspaper, as a clerk and in various town stores. Chris Rogers became a Palestine policeman in 1872. He killed the town’s first marshal, Dan Carey, in a gunfight; the city aldermen then appointed him as marshal. His reputation grew when he quickly cracked the case of a July 20, 1872 train robbery. He also solved the infamous murder of Dr. and Mrs. Grayson, who were killed because of Dr. Grayson’s service to African Americans. However, Rogers would be suspended from his position several times after shootings. Particularly because of his desire to hire an African-American police officer, his relationship with city officials was often tumultuous, but he enjoyed support from the populace, winning every election from 1877, when City Marshal ceased to be an appointed position, until 1888. Rogers’ 1887 shooting of an assailant led to his impeachment, resignation and a murder trial, which ended in a hung jury. Rogers also lost the use of his right arm after being shot during the incident. Although he was reelected the next year, Rogers again left office. He was stabbed to death on July 27, 1888, after an altercation with railroad engineer W.D. Young in the Robertson Saloon. Although Chris Rogers avoided bloodshed when possible, his life and death was marked by it. Today, he is remembered as a lawman that helped keep order in a town notorious for violence. (2010)