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                               Rodgers Family

            A Register of Its Papers in the Library of Congress


                Prepared by Anita Nolan and David Mathisen
        Revised and expanded by Michael Spangler and Patrick Kerwin

                                    2003

                 Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

                              Washington, D.C.

       Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

                Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress
                         Manuscript Division, 2003

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Collection Summary

Title:    Rodgers Family Papers , 1740 - 1987 (bulk 1804 - 1932 )
ID No.:    MSS38125
Creator: Rodgers family
Extent:    14,850 items ; 74 containers plus 4 oversize ; 28.4 linear feet
Repository:    Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Abstract:    United States Navy and Army officers and family members.
Correspondence, diaries, letterbooks, logbooks, photographs, recollections
(memoirs), financial papers, and printed matter centering primarily on the
naval career of Commodore John Rodgers (1773-1838).

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of
person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and
listed alphabetically therein.

Names:

Rodgers family
Bainbridge, William, 1774-1833--Correspondence
Barron, Samuel, d. 1810--Correspondence
Decatur, Stephen, 1779-1820--Correspondence
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1841-1935--Correspondence
Hull, Isaac, 1773-1843--Correspondence
Kimble, William, fl. 1813
Lear, Tobias, 1762-1816--Correspondence
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865--Assassination
Macomb, Ella Chelle McKeldon--Correspondence
Macomb, J. N. (John N.), 1810 or 11-1889--Correspondence
MacArthur, Douglas, 1880-1964--Correspondence
Meigs, Charles D. (Charles Delucena), 1792-1869--Correspondence
Meigs, Mary M.--Correspondence
Meigs, Montgomery, 1847-1931--Correspondence
Meigs, Montgomery C. (Montgomery Cunningham), 1816-1892--Correspondence
Perry, Matthew Calbraith, 1794-1858--Correspondence
Perry, Oliver Hazard, 1785-1819--Correspondence
Peters, Minerva Macomb--Correspondence
Peters, Thomas Willing--Correspondence
Pinkney, Anne M. (Anne Maria)--Correspondence
Porter, David, 1780-1843--Correspondence
Rodgers, Henry, d. 1854
Rodgers, John, 1812-1882--Correspondence
Rodgers, Louisa--Correspondence
Southard, Samuel L. (Samuel Lewis), 1787-1842--Correspondence
Spence, Robert Traill, 1785?-1826--Correspondence
Stoddert, Benjamin, 1751-1813--Correspondence
Taylor, Mary Montgomery Meigs, 1843-1885--Correspondence
Trippe, John, 1785-1810--Correspondence
Webster, Daniel, 1782-1852--Correspondence
Macomb family--Correspondence
Meigs family--Correspondence
Rogers family
Rogers family--Correspondence
United States. Navy--Officers
United States. Navy. Mediterranean Squadron
Albany (Sloop-of-war)
Concord (Sloop-of-war)
Constitution (Frigate)
New York Naval Shipyard
North Carolina (Ship-of-the-line)
President (Frigate)
Macomb, Alexander, 1888-1970. Papers of Alexander Macomb
Macomb, Ann Minerva Rodgers, 1824-1916. Papers of Ann Minerva Rodgers
Macomb
Macomb, Christina, 1861-1945. Papers of Christina Macomb
Macomb, Nannie, 1864-1952. Papers of Nannie Macomb
Rodgers, John, 1773-1838. Papers of John Rodgers
Rodgers, Minerva Denison, 1784-1877. Papers of Minerva Denison Rodgers

Subjects:

Embargo, 1807-1809
Navy-yards and naval stations--New York (State)
Military topography--New Mexico
Ranches--Wyoming
Diplomatic and consular service, American--Germany
Havre de Grace (Md.)--Social life and customs
Sion Hill (Md. : Estate)
United States--History--Tripolitan War, 1801-1805
United States--History--War of 1812
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Washington (D.C.)--Social life and customs

Administrative Information

Provenance:

The Rodgers Family Papers were deposited in or given to the Library of
Congress by various members of the family from 1918 to 1999. Deposits have
subsequently been converted to gifts. Part I was deposited in the Library
in 1968 by Alexander Macomb and Edna Wilson Lake Macomb. Part II was given
by Nannie R. and Christina Macomb and John F. Meigs in 1944 and 1946. Part
III was presented to the Library by other Rodgers family descendants. Set A
of this series consists of the first Rodgers material presented to the
Library. Most of Set B was transferred from the Navy Department Library at
the request of William L. Rodgers in 1921. Addition I was largely the gift
of Louisa Rodgers Alger and Edna Wilson Lake Macomb. Rutherford Lake, Jr.,
gave material comprising Addition II in 1999.

Processing History:

The Rodgers Family Papers were arranged and described in 1973. Material
received between 1974 and 1984 was incorporated into the collection in
1985. Material given to the Library in 1999 was organized as Addition II in
2000. The register was revised and updated in 2003.

Transfers:

Most photographs have been transferred to the Library's Prints and
Photographs Division, where they are identified as part of these papers.
The Prints and Photographs Division also holds other material related to
the Rodgers family.

Copyright Status:

The status of copyright in the unpublished writings in the Rodgers Family
Papers in these and in other collections of papers in the custody of the
Library of Congress is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States
(Title 17, U.S.C.), except for the literary rights in the unpublished
writings of Montgomery C. Meigs which have been dedicated to the public.

Preferred Citation:

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following
information: Roman numeral designating the Part followed by a colon and
container number, Rodgers Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note

Note: A genealogical chart of the Rodgers family compiled ca. 1973 when the
collection was initially arranged and described is available in the
Manuscript Reading Room.

John Rodgers (1773-1838)

 Date          Event

 1773          Born, Harford County, Md.

 1798          Appointed lieutenant, U.S. Navy

 1799 - 1801   Duty on Constellation (frigate)

 1802 - 1803   Commanded John Adams (ship), Mediterranean Squadron

 1804          Commanded Congress (frigate), Mediterranean Squadron

 1805 - 1806   Commander in chief, Mediterranean Squadron

 1806          Married Minerva Denison (died 1877)

 1807          Commander in chief, New York flotilla and New York Naval
               Station

 1810          Appointed commander in chief, North Atlantic Squadron

 1812 - 1814   Commanded President (frigate)

 1813          Promoted to commodore

 1815 - 1824   President, Board of Navy Commissioners

 1821 - 1838   Senior officer, U.S. Navy

 1823          Secretary of the navy ad interim

 1824 - 1827   Commander in chief, Mediterranean Squadron

 1827 - 1837   President, Board of Navy Commissioners

 1838 , Aug.
 1             Died, Philadelphia, Pa.

Scope and Content Note

The Rodgers Family Papers span the years 1740-1987, with the bulk of the
collection covering the period 1804-1932. Although many family members are
represented in the collection, the primary figures are John Rodgers
(1773-1838) and his wife Minerva Denison Rodgers, their daughter Ann
Minerva ("Nannie") Rodgers Macomb, their granddaughters Christina Macomb
and Nannie R. Macomb, and their great-grandson Alexander Macomb. Other
correspondents include Louisa Rodgers Meigs, her husband Montgomery C.
Meigs, and their children.

The division of the Rodgers Family Papers into four parts containing
material covering the same period is due to the provenance and
administrative status of the collection. All parts contain both
correspondence and miscellaneous notebooks, journals, accounts, and other
documents. Since the series overlap topically and chronologically, it is
necessary to consult all parts in order to find the correspondence of a
given person. This is particularly true for John and Minerva D. Rodgers.
Parts I and II contain significant amounts of their correspondence with
each other and with other members of the family. Rodgers's general
correspondence, mostly from other navy personnel, is scattered among the
parts. The collection also contains letters received by Christina and
Nannie R. Macomb, Minerva Macomb Peters and Thomas Willing Peters,
Commodore John Rodgers, and others from individuals outside the family.

The major portions of Part I and Part II consist of family correspondence.
Letters between John and Minerva D. Rodgers for the period 1804 to 1837
documents their daily lives, his while serving or commanding ships on
various cruises and hers at home at Sion Hill, the family home at Havre de
Grace, Maryland, or in Washington, D.C., where the Rodgerses maintained a
home after 1815 on the river at Greenleaf Point in the southwest section of
the city and later on Lafayette Square.

The periods 1804-1815 and 1825-1827 are particularly well represented in
this correspondence. From 1804 to 1806, John Rodgers was often in command
of the naval squadron in the Mediterranean during hostilities and
negotiations with the Barbary States. Minerva Rodgers maintained the home
at Sion Hill during 1807-1810 while her husband was in command of the New
York Naval Station and a flotilla patrolling the east coast of the United
States to enforce the nation's embargo policies. During 1811-1815, Rodgers
encountered the British sloop Little Belt off the Virginia coast and had
other adventures associated with the War of 1812. In 1826-1827, he again
commanded a fleet in the Mediterranean, his last command at sea. Before and
after this interlude, he spent his time mainly in Washington, D.C., as
president of the Navy Board of Commissioners, a post to which he had been
appointed by President James Madison in 1815.

There are also letters from the Rodgerses to their children, particularly
from Minerva Rodgers to their daughters Louisa Rodgers Meigs and Ann
Minerva ("Nannie") Rodgers Macomb. Two letters written to her children tell
of the loss of her son Henry ("Hal") Rodgers with the ship Albany in 1854
and of sentiment in the capital city after the assassination of Abraham
Lincoln in 1865. Another son, John Rodgers (1812-1882), one of the first
officers in the United States Navy to attain the rank of rear admiral, is
represented in this collection by his correspondence with his parents and
some of his brothers and sisters. The bulk of his papers, however, as well
as those of his son, William L. Rodgers, also a rear admiral, and his
grandnephew, John Rodgers (1881-1926), a naval aviator, are in the
Library's Rodgers Family Papers in the Naval Historical Foundation
Collection.

A large amount of correspondence is from Meigs and Macomb relatives, who
constitute the "army branches" of the family. Two of the daughters of John
Rodgers married army officers and their sons were also army officers. Ann
Minerva ("Nannie") Rodgers married John Navarre Macomb of the department of
topographical engineers, who was sent to the new territory of New Mexico in
the 1850s and wrote frequently to his wife telling of his experiences
there. His correspondence for the Civil War period is also noteworthy. The
family later resided in Cincinnati, Ohio, where John Macomb was engaged in
building a bridge over the Ohio River, and in Rock Island, Illinois, where
he worked on a bridge over the Mississippi River.

Life in the territory of Wyoming in the 1880s is documented in the
correspondence of Minerva Macomb Peters, a daughter of "Nannie" and John
Macomb. After her marriage in 1881 to Thomas Willing Peters, she journeyed
to Wyoming with her husband where he raised cattle. In 1889, he obtained an
appointment in the consular service at Plauen in the state of Saxony,
Germany, and the family left the United States to settle in Europe. The
letters Minerva Macomb Peters wrote to her parents in the 1890s reflect a
different type of life from that which she had encountered in Wyoming. The
Peters's sons, John and Evelyn, continued to correspond with the Macomb
family after their mother's death in 1898 and are represented in the
collection by their letters written to their aunts, Nannie R. and Christina
Macomb, up to 1945. Alexander Macomb, a grandson of "Nannie" and John
Macomb, wrote of his life in the navy, mainly during peacetime, in letters
to his mother, Ella Chelle McKeldon Macomb, during the period 1911-1932. He
describes events, situations, duties, and persons encountered during a
career that took him all over the world.

Included in the correspondence of the Meigs branch of the family are
letters from Montgomery C. Meigs to his parents, Charles D. and Mary M.
Meigs of Philadelphia, and to his wife, Louisa Rodgers Meigs.
Correspondence of their children, Montgomery Meigs, a civil engineer who
settled in Keokuk, Iowa, and Mary Meigs Taylor, who married Army Colonel
Joseph Hancock Taylor, is also among the family papers.

The largest group of general correspondence is that received by Commodore
John Rodgers. Although some is found in Part I, the bulk is contained in
Part II and Part III. Writing on subjects concerned mainly with Rodgers's
activities in the navy, the correspondents include early naval figures such
as William Bainbridge, Samuel Barron, Stephen Decatur, Isaac Hull, Matthew
Calbraith Perry, Oliver Hazard Perry, David Porter, Samuel L. Southard,
Robert Traill Spence, Benjamin Stoddert, and John Trippe. There are also
letters from Tobias Lear in 1805 relating to negotiations with the Barbary
States at the time that Lear was the American minister negotiating with the
Barbary powers and Rodgers was commander of the navy squadron in the
Mediterranean. Letters from Lear in later years and from his wife Frances
D. Lear to Minerva Rodgers after Tobias Lear's death are also included. Of
a more personal nature are letters between John Rodgers and Ann Pinkney in
1804 when, as Rodgers's personal emissary, she kept him apprised of Minerva
Denison while he was at sea.

The collection also contains miscellaneous papers in Parts I, II, and III
relating to the navy and to ships commanded by Rodgers. This material
includes documents relating to courts of enquiry and the court-martialing
of various men under Rodgers's command. Of particular note are letterbooks
and order books for the period of Rodgers's tenure as head of the New York
Navy Yard and as commander of the Constitution (frigate) and the North
Carolina (ship-of-the-line). There are also logbooks and journals kept on
board the Constitution, the President (frigate), and the North Carolina,
while they were under his command. A journal for the President, 1811-1813,
was maintained by Matthew C. Perry, who is also represented by
correspondence and by a journal of the Concord (sloop-of-war) under his
command, 1831-1832.

Other miscellaneous material includes biographical notes on John and
Minerva Rodgers; recollections or memoirs of Minerva Rodgers and Nannie
Rodgers Macomb; notebooks, diaries, and school composition books; a
recollection of an account which had been passed down in the family of a
visit of Tobias Lear to John Rodgers on the eve of Lear's death in 1816;
and an account of the sickness and death of William Kimble, a seaman on the
President in 1813, who was said to have awakened from death twice during
the course of his final illness.

Part IV consists of additions to the collection. Addition I includes
correspondence, diaries, biographical material, financial and legal papers,
printed matter, and other miscellaneous items. Of particular significance
is Nannie R. Macomb's diary which chronicles Washington, D.C., social life
in the period 1883 to 1888. Prominent correspondents include Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Douglas MacArthur, and Daniel Webster. Addition II contains
personal papers of Alexander Macomb, a naval officer, including
biographical material, correspondence, estate and financial records, and
material relating to real estate. The correspondence consists primarily of
family letters written to Macomb.

Related Material

In addition to the Naval Historical Foundation collection of Rodgers Family
Papers, other related collections in the Manuscript Division include the
papers of Montgomery C. Meigs and Frederick Rodgers.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in four parts composed of twelve series:

   * Part I
        o Correspondence, 1796-1957, n.d.
        o Miscellany, 1799-1951, n.d.

   * Part II
        o Family Correspondence, 1804-1888, n.d.
        o General Correspondence to John Rodgers (1773-1838), 1799-1847,
          n.d.
        o Miscellany, 1740-1935, n.d.
        o Oversize, 1787-1935

   * Part III
        o Correspondence and Returns of Stores, 1775-1851, n.d.
        o Miscellany, 1804-1958, n.d.
        o Oversize, 1824-1827

   * Part IV
        o Addition I, 1761-1977, n.d.
        o Addition II, 1858-1987, n.d.
        o Oversize, 1878-1963

 November 4, 2003