THE
VALLEY OF HEART's DELIGHT
santaclararesearch.net
JOSEPHINE RAND ROGERS
ACTIVIST
Santa Clara County Pioneer
Child Welfare, Prohibition, Suffragette
Surnames: RAND. LONG, HERSHEY, REYNOLDS, TABER, FOCH, JOFFRE, PETAIN,
MILLERAND , ROBERTSON, GREENE, NICHOLS, HARBORD, PERSHING, EASTERDAY,
CUMNOCK, POWERS
California is proud of her gifted and patriotic women, and well she may
be, for ever since her entry into the Union, the Golden State has been
singularly blessed with the number of women of exceptional
public-spiritedness and unusual, even rare talent and enviable
qualifications. In the beginning, to be sure, the women who helped to
lay the foundations for the great commonwealth, in keeping with the
attitude of most of their sex throughout the land, contented themselves
to labor in the quieter, less observed, but by no means isolated paths
of life; but as the years went by, and a larger influence because of a
larger freedom and service was accorded them, thanks to a broader
sentiment as to the value of women to society, and a greater tolerance
as to suffrage--a sentiment and a tolerance, by the way, fostered in
art by the effective reform work of broad-minded, clear-visioned and
courageous women--the so-called weaker, but the ever fair sex came to
the fore; and ever since has been doing a larger, and quite its full
share of the world's daily work. In this shining company of far-seeing
and courageous leaders, Mrs. Josephine Rand Rogers of Santa Clara
Valley has borne her part in her adopted state.
Mrs. Rogers, as Josephine Almira Rand, was born at Forest Home, the old
Rand homestead, situated between Niagara Falls and Buffalo, N. Y., on
November 6, 1869. She was the daughter of Calvin Gordon Rand of
Batavia, N. Y., who had married Almira Hershey Long of Tonawanda, N. Y.
Her maternal grandmother was of the old Hershey family of Lancaster,
Pa., one of the oldest and most prominent families in Eastern
Pennsylvania; her maternal grandfather, Benjamin Long, was an extensive
landowner of Pennsylvania, who later settled in Western New York, where
he became one of the most influential and prosperous citizens of that
section of the country. Her father was the son of Dr. James Rand of
Batavia, N. Y., a descendant of Robert Rand, who came to America from
England in 1635 and whose many descendants have made the name Rand a
synonym for sterling worth and achievement in this country. An uncle of
Mrs. Rogers, Chas. F. Rand, was the first volunteer in the Civil War
and was decorated by Congress for being the first volunteer and also
for bravery in service. He was also decorated by the New York State
Legislature.
Calvin Gordon Rand was a school teacher in his earlier years, but later
was the successful manager of a large estate which had been given him
by his wife's father and on which was located beautiful Forest Home. He
died when our subject was two years of age.
There were nine children in the family, and among these Josephine was
the eighth. The others were as follows: Benjamin Long, who had a
successful career as a banker, later became president of the Rand
Manufacturing Company of North Tonawanda, N. Y.; Mary Hershey, who
passed away in her twentieth year, had devoted her young life to
education and music, having graduated from the Buffalo High School,
also was member of the first graduating class in the Chautauqua course;
James Henry, president of the Rand Manufacturing Company, was the
inventor of the Rand ledger used throughout the United States and
Canada, also inventor of the visible index system and a large number of
time-saving devices; Cora Belle is the wife of F. Everett Reynolds of
Brockport, N. Y.; Elizabeth Hershey is the wife of Rev. B. Frank Taber
of Ithaca, N. Y., a Baptist clergyman, now at Washington, Pa.; Eugene
died at the age of seven; George Franklin was well known in financial
circles in this country and in Europe for his remarkable ability as a
banker. At the age of thirty-five he was president of three national
banks. Later, as president of the Marine Trust Company of Buffalo, he
was recognized as one of the greatest bankers of the country. He became
of international interest from his gift of 500,000 francs to the French
Government for the erection of a monument in memory of the bayonet
trench heroes at Verdun, and his check for the amount was presented in
person to M. Clemenceau on December 5, 1919. Three days later, as Mr.
Rand was crossing from Paris to London by aeroplane, he met instant
death by an accident to the machine when landing. His heirs honored the
check given to France, however, and the monument was erected. Its
dedication, a year later, was attended by great pomp and ceremony. The
famous war generals, Marshal Foch, General Joffre and General Petain,
being present; also it was the first public official appearance of the
newly elected president of France, M. Millerand. Seven members of the
Rand family were also present for the occasion. Mr. Rand's gift to
France marked an epoch in world history, for it was the first time a
citizen of one country had given a monument to another country to
commemorate the heroism of that other country's soldiers. Josephine
Almira, was next in age in the family; Clara Nancy, now the wife of
Frederick Robertson, a banker of North Tonawanda, N. Y., was the
youngest.
When Josephine was nearly two years of age her parents moved to
LaSalle, four miles from Niagara Falls. A few months later her father
died. Her early education was begun by her sister Mary. At the age of
eight she began attendance at the country school, and when ten her
mother moved her family to Brockport, N. Y., that the children might
have the advantages of the State Normal School located there. Four
years later her mother died.
Believing a change of climate might prove beneficial to Josephine, who
had never been very robust, it was decided that she should make her
home with her sister Elizabeth, who had become the wife of Reverend
Taber and whose pastorate was in Manhattan, Kans. Thither she went,
accompanied by Reverend and Mrs. Taber and their young son. The next
four years were spent in attendance at the public schools of Manhattan
and in the Kansas State Agricultural College. It was in this college
that she met her future husband, F. J. Rogers, who was a member of the
college faculty. Deciding that she would fit herself for the teaching
profession, Miss Rand returned to New York and entered the Buffalo
State Normal School. After graduation in 1890, she was offered a
position in the Ithaca public schools, where she taught two years. Here
she again met Professor Rogers, then an instructor at Cornell.
On June 27, 1893, at North Tonawanda, N. Y., at the home of her eldest
brother, Benjamin, Miss Rand was married to Frederick John Rogers. Mr.
Rogers was born at Neoga. Ill., September 9, 1863. He was the second
child of John Rankin Rogers and Sarah Greene Rogers. The Rogers family
came from Maine, and their ancestry is traced to William Rogers, who
came to this county in 1746. On his maternal side, the Greenes were the
prominent family by that name in Ohio, whose ancestry is traced to
1636. John Rankin Rogers moved his family from one state to another and
finally settled in Kansas. During the family's residence in that state,
Frederick attended the State Agricultural College, from which he
graduated and was placed on the teaching staff the following year. In
this college Mr. Rogers was a classmate of Ernest Fox Nichols and at
Cornell, whither the two young men went at the same time, they were
roommates. E. F. Nichols later became the president of Dartmouth
University, head of the physics department at Yale, and president of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Another roommate of Mr. Rogers
at the Kansas college was James G. Harbord, now Major-General of the U.
S. Army and General Pershing's chief of staff. When Mr. Rogers left
Kansas to continue his studies at Cornell, his father moved his family
to the state of Washington, and here he was elected governor of the
state in 1896. In 1900 he was reelected for a second term. This was a
personal victory, for he was the only candidate on his ticket--the
Democratic--that was elected, but only a few months later he died in
office. He is rated as one on of the most efficient governors the state
has ever had.
Upon her marriage, Mrs. Rogers accompanied her husband to Ithaca, where
he was a member of the physics department of Cornell University. Here
they remained for seven years. In 1900 they removed to Stanford
University, with which institution Professor Rogers is still connected.
The family spent one year at Princeton University--a sabbatical leave
of absence from Stanford in 1914-1915, when Professor Rogers taught in
the latter University.
Mrs. Josephine Rand Rogers is the mother of four children; Frederick
Rand, born in Ithaca, N. Y., on December 27, 1894, who is now
instructor on physical education in the Salinas high school. He
attended Palo Alto high school, Phillips Exeter Academy in New
Hampshire, and graduated from the Princeton, New Jersey, high school,
and from Stanford University in 1920. His college course was
interrupted by the World War. He enlisted shortly after war was
declared in the Naval Reserve on April 12, 1917. He received his
commission as ensign at San Pedro and was sent to Annapolis Naval
Academy, where he graduated in June, 1918. He was sent overseas and
made chief inspector of fourteen-inch shells, at Sheffield, England,
until the armistice was signed. He was then given the rank of
lieutenant, junior grade. While at Annapolis, Frederick Rand Rogers and
Miss Beatrice Easterday were married in Baltimore, Md., April 6, 1918.
This marriage was the culmination of a friendship begun when Miss
Easterday was a student at Castilleja school in Palo Alto, and Fred was
a high school student in the same place. They have one child, Katherine
Haller, born January 12, 1921. During Frederick's high school and
college course he was a prominent athlete, playing on football and
basketball teams and winning quarter and half-mile races. He is member
of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. Robert Greene Rogers, the second son,
born on December 5, 1895, graduated from the San Jose high school and
entered Stanford University. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve for the
World War, April 17, 1917, and received his commission as ensign, but
the armistice was signed before he was sent overseas. He also took an
active part in athletics during his high school course, playing on the
football and basketball teams in high school and on the freshman
football team at Stanford and made his letter S in high hurdles against
California. He is a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity, the Skull
and Snakes, the Geology and Mining and Gymnasium Club. Josephine, the
only daughter, was born on March 12, 1903. While a student in the San
Jose high school, from which she was graduated in June, 1919, she
played on the girls' baseball team, was elected to Torch and Laurel,
girls' honorary society. She was placed on the "preferred list" of
girls for entrance into Stanford. However she entered Mills College.
John, the youngest, born March 27, 1907, is a student in the San Jose
high school.
While Mrs. Rogers has been a devoted wife and mother she has been
impressed with a sense of noblesse oblige--that for all the advantages,
privileges, and opportunities that have been hers she owes a return to
the world. Believing that conditions surrounding the home and children
are dependent upon conditions in the larger home, the community, state
and nation, and realizing that the world is what we make it, Mrs.
Rogers has been impelled to do her part. She has at times applied
herself to the furthering of movements that were unpopular but just.
With no thought of personal glory or advantage but in a spirit of
self-sacrifice and ardent devotion to that which is right she has
wielded an influence for good that has made itself felt beyond the
confines of her own residence in city or state. Alert, broad-visioned
and consecrated, she utilizes her time for the promotion of human
welfare. Her pleasure is in contributing her part to the world's
progress.
The public work to which Mrs. Rogers first applied her energies was in
behalf of woman suffrage, in New York state in 1893. At that time the
cause was exceedingly unpopular, and needed fearless champions. Ten
years later, in Palo Alto, she again took up the work. Here it was also
distinctly unpopular. Mrs. Rogers offered her services to the club that
had voted to disband; she aided in increasing interest in the course
and enlarging membership of the suffrage club and at the time of the
passage of the amendment to the State Constitution enfranchising women
in 1911, the Palo Alto club was one of the most influential in Northern
California.
Mrs. Rand Rogers' chief interest is in child welfare. While deeply
appreciating the work done by charity workers, for needy children, and
also in sympathy with the efforts made through reform schools to
restore so-called wayward children to normal attitude of mind, Mrs.
Rogers bends her efforts toward prevention rather than cure. To provide
for children right environment and intelligent training that would lead
to their best development Mrs. Rogers claims is the fundamentally
important work of those who have the welfare of children at heart. To
this end she has labored unceasingly. The San Jose Day Nursery owes
much to Mrs. Rogers' efforts. At the request of two ladies, who had
conceived the idea of a Day Nursery for San Jose, Mrs. Rogers assisted
in forming the organization and was one of its first directors. When
funds were exhausted and the doors were about to close, Mrs. Rogers
gave a dramatic reading as a benefit performance, which netted a large
amount and was sufficient to continue the work, and acted as president
of the board of directors until the institution was firmly established.
During this time Mrs. Rogers was also active in the Parent-Teacher
Association. As district chairman of the home department she originated
the plan of having talks at the regular meetings bearing on the moral
training of children. She agitated the question of the importance of
intelligent, scientific parenthood with indefatigable zeal, and aroused
interest that is bearing fruit an hundredfold. The first course of
lectures on child training given by the University of California
Extension Division were given in San Jose at the request and by
arrangement of Mrs. Josephine Rand Rogers, who was then County Chairman
of Child Welfare for the Woman's Committee of the Council of Defense.
Courses in San Francisco immediately followed. The idea grew rapidly
and soon became an established custom.
In 1918 Mrs. Rogers had introduced into the State Legislature Assembly
Bill No. 198, providing for an appropriation of $50,000 to the
University of California Extension Division for the purpose of giving
courses of lectures in communities requesting them on scientific child
training. This bill was not reported out from committee, but a direct
result of the propaganda Mrs. Rogers had carried on in its behalf
throughout the state led to the preparation of a correspondence study
course on scientific motherhood by the Extension Division.
During the next session of the State Legislature--1920--Mrs. Rogers had
another bill presented--Senate Bill No. 213. This called for an
appropriation of $50,000 for the establishment of a Child Welfare
Research Station at the University of California. Realizing that the
amount of information available for the course in scientific motherhood
was extremely limited, Mrs. Rogers determined to go to the rock bottom
of child welfare work--the scientific study of the child itself. For
months her entire time was given to the furthering of this bill,
securing endorsements from prominent educators, psychologists, judges,
physicians, women's clubs and men's clubs, and attendance at the state
conventions and the legislature. The bill was reported favorably from
the education committee but tabled by the finance committee. She
intends to continue her efforts in this direction until the goal is
reached.
In behalf of child welfare, Mrs. Rogers fought assiduously for
prohibition. Her activities along this line--until the adoption of the
Eighteenth Amendment--was marked by a determination, thoroughness and
constructiveness that proved a compelling factor in the struggle for
the temperance cause in this state. She was one of the organizers of
the War Service League that worked in conjunction with the military
authorities at Camp Fremont during the war; of the Civic Welfare
League, formed to bring about better conditions in San Jose; also of
the Santa Clara County Law and Order League, originated to carry the
Little Volstead Act election and continue the propaganda for the Wright
Bill in the state election.
The League of Women Voters, of which Mrs. Rand Rogers is president at
the time this history is being compiled, was organized in May, 1921.
This organization having for its aim legislation for the welfare of
women and children and education for better citizenship appealed to
Mrs. Rogers as eminently worth while for the advancement of her dearest
interest--child welfare.
Mrs. Rogers was educated not only as teacher but as a dramatic reader.
She studied with the best teachers in the country, including Professor
Charles Cumnock of Northwestern University, and Leland T. Powers of
Boston; at the Curry School of Expression in Boston, and the Emerson
College of Oratory. Her dramatic readings throughout the country,
including San Jose and Stanford University elicited both press and
personal testimonies as to her splendid dramatic talent. She organized
the Current Events Club composed of faculty ladies of Stanford in 1905,
which is still regarded as one of high merit.
The year 1920 marked a new epoch in the life of Mrs. Rogers. As a
result of her wide observation and experience in civic welfare work
through various organizations and as a private citizen, Mrs. Rogers
decided that her work would be more effective if performed in a
government official capacity. Also she believed women's interests
should be represented to some extent by women themselves in the State
Legislature. Her desire was to render the greatest service in her
power. Since the state senator from her district had declined
renomination, she decided to offer her services for that position. The
"wet" and "dry" forces each putting a man on the Republican ticket for
nomination, Mrs. Rogers refused to split the dry vote by making a
campaign for the primary election. Her loyalty to the "dry" cause was
absolute. But after the primaries when the "wet and dry" issue was
settled she made her campaign on an Independent ticket on the child
welfare platform, and in behalf of democracy. The first woman to make a
campaign for a state elective office in her senatorial district, the
first person to start a campaign after the primaries, against great
odds with no organization back of her, she polled a vote that
astonished the most astute politicians. Although she did not win the
election, she had made a campaign in behalf of a just cause and felt
she had really rendered a valuable service to the public.
Open-minded, progressive, originator of ideas, of sound judgment,
earnest and fearless, Mrs. Josephine Rand Rogers has learned the secret
of right living,--the joy of service--and she lives it to the utmost.
Transcribed by Joseph Kral, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 338
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