Josiah Rogers

Josiah Rogers (1759 to 1822) was a farmer in the north part of Billerica, near the Tewksbury line, who served six years on the Select Board between 1799 and 1814. He was born on April 28, 1759, the son of Zebadiah Rogers and Bette (Farmer) Rogers, daughter of Oliver Farmer. His father lived on the road to Winning's Pond; the tax list of December 1776 places him at the "Holden place, near Winning's." On December 15, 1785, Josiah married Rhoda Wooster of Tewksbury, and they had a large family: Josiah (1786), later a selectman and representative himself; Eldad (1788), who died in the West; Artemas (1790), who graduated from Harvard in 1809 and practised law at Henniker, New Hampshire; Micajah (1792), Harvard 1817, who kept a classical school in Baltimore and settled on a farm in Carroll County, Maryland; Rhoda (1794); Zebadiah (1796), who lived many years in Bangor and was killed by Indians in California; Jacob Osgood (1798); Emaline (1800); Franklin (1802); Catharine (1804), who married James R. Faulkner; and Caleb Strong (1807).

He was first chosen a selectman in 1799 and served again in 1800, then from 1808 to 1810, the years of the Embargo, and in 1814, during the war with Britain. In 1803, the year his father died, he built a family tomb on what is now High Street in North Billerica, inscribed "This Tomb erected in 1803 by Josiah Rogers for his family"; it probably holds his parents, himself and his wives, though no gravestones for him or his wives have been found. Rhoda died on July 4, 1811, and he married Diadema Read, by whom he had Lucy Jane (1814), Diadema Starrs (baptized 1816) and Martha (1819).

Josiah Rogers died on February 4, 1822. His son Jacob Osgood Rogers later sold the family farm to the town, about 175 acres "with the buildings thereon Standing" in the north part of Billerica, for $3,100, reserving "the seven square rods of land, on which the Tomb stands." The land became the Billerica Town Farm, and the tomb is the core of the small Rogers burial ground on High Street.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 124, ROGERS 14
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 307, list of selectmen: Josiah Rogers, 1799-1800, 1808-10, 1814
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 250, tax list of December 1776: his father Zebadiah Rogers, Holden place, near Winning's
4. Vital Records of Billerica (1908), births: Josiah, s. Zebadiah and Bette Rogers, Apr. 28, 1759, and children of Josiah and Rhoda
5. Vital Records of Billerica (1908), marriages: Josiah Rogers and Rhoda Wooster of Tewksbury, Dec. 15, 1785