Olivia Lewis

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Peyton & Claire this was one of your gggg grandmothers

Olivia Lewis Rogers was born on April 28, 1822, in Barren County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of John Lewis, who had been born in Virginia, and Eliza Marts Reed. John Lewis, and his brother, Joseph Lewis, had farms on the wide, fertile bottomlands of the Barren River in the Skaggs Creek/Peters Creek area. Olivia grew up there, in a house that was located on high ground near where the Barren River Lake State Park Lodge is now.

Olivia's brother, Joseph H. Lewis, was one of the generals from Kentucky during the Civil War. He fought for the Confederates, and was the commander of the "Orphan" Brigade. After the war, he was quite the local 'hero' in Glasgow and Barren County.

On October 29, 1939, Olivia married John T. Rogers. They were married in Edmonton, Kentucky, which was named after Olivia's father-in-law, Edmund Rogers. Edmund Rogers was well known in the area for being a veteran of the Revolutionary War and an early settler in southern Kentucky following the War. He was just old enough to have been a soldier at the Battle of Yorktown. He was a first cousin of Kentucky hero, George Rogers Clark, and his brother William Clark (of Lewis & Clark). Because of his connection to George Rogers Clark, he got the job of surveying the 'soldier lands' of southern Kentucky, and then settled there. He married late in life, and had only one son.

Olivia's uncle, Joseph Lewis, went west to Missouri, and her father purchased his brother's home and deeded it over to Olivia. So Olivia and John Rogers lived, from 1830 until 1871, in an imposing brick home right beside the stage road between Louisville and Nashville, just north of the Barren River. (The house was torn down just before Barren Lake dam was constructed.) The story goes that Olivia was the first woman to make the trip by stagecoach from Louisville to Nashville.  The house had a "Public Room" which served as one of the 3 stagecoach stops between Glasgow and Scottsville.

During the Civil War, both Northern and Southern armies made use of the Rogers home as a headquarters, with the troops camping in the bottomlands nearby. This, of course, was not a good time for Olivia, particularly when the "Yankees" were there. She was reportedly a very strong-willed woman, and stood up to them in her own gracious and self-confident manner.

Olivia and John Rogers had 10 children who survived to adulthood, 3 boys and 7 girls. The youngest of her children, a girl, was born in 1864, when Olivia was 42 years old. This girl, Byrd Rogers Thompson, lived until 1954, and I clearly remember her as my great-great-aunt Byrd. The sixth child, Joseph Underwood Rogers, married Kate Trabue, the oldest daughter of Lelia Anderson Trabue. He moved to Glasgow and worked as a pharmacist. At other times, he worked as a farm manager of the Satterfield Farm, a large farm that included land that the Lewis’s had owned before the War. My father, Brents Dickinson Jr., the grandson of Kate and Joseph, remembers going out and working on the Satterfield Farm with his grandfather when a boy and young teen.

After the Civil War, Glasgow experienced hard times. All of Olivia's 10 children had to 'make their own way,' so to speak. One son, Edmund P. Rogers, and one daughter, Fannie Rogers Porter, moved west and settled in San Luis Obispo, California. Edmund P. Rogers reportedly was a surveyor like his grandfather and namesake, and did surveying work in California. One of Olivia's daughters, Lucy Rogers Richardson, ran a florist shop in Glasgow. Another, "Aunt" Byrd, managed the spa hotel at Sulfur Wells.

At some point after the War, Olivia and four or Five of her unmarried daughters moved to Glasgow partly to facilitate finding husbands for the daughters. Also, by this time, Olivia and John's marriage was not happy, and she wished to separate from her husband. The story also goes that they moved lo Glasgow so that they could attend dances. The Peters Creek Baptist Church, near the Rogers place, frowned on dancing.

Olivia evidently had a special relationship with her "house" slaves, and they remained with her after emancipation. Not only that, but at least some of their descendents remained loyal to Olivia's descendents. When I was a girl, a tiny, gray-haired woman, the daughter of a Lewis/Rogers slave, would always be present at my grandmother Leila's house to help with the Thanksgiving dinner. You can see her in the 1947 photo.

    Olivia died on April 18, 1903, at age 80. She owned a yellow topaz and gold brooch that had been purchased, probably in the 1840's, by her husband in New Orleans when he made his yearly (?) trips there to sell the tobacco crop. She is seen wearing this pin at her throat in photographs, and she left it to her granddaughter, Lelia Rogers Dickinson, who left it to me, her oldest granddaughter.

 Written by Lelia Ann Dickinson Smith 2001, my sister and our great aunt.

 One other bit of information about Olivia’s family: Her brother, Brigadier General Joseph R. Lewis, commanded the Orphan’s Brigade of Kentucky, CSA, one of the first rebel Brigadiers in congress and Judge of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky for 17 years. He would be your ggggg uncle.