Major Emory W. Rogers (CSA)

Emory W. Rogers, Texas pioneer, settler, philanthropist, Confederate officer, and businessman, was born in Alabama in 1813, to James and Mary (Speaks) Rogers. On September 16, 1833, Rogers married Nancy Clinton of South Carolina in Limestone, Alabama. The couple had four sons and two daughters. No later than 1847, Rogers moved with his family to Texas and built a log cabin near present-day Waxahachie. On October 4, 1849, he received a grant of 640 acres along the north fork of the Waxahachie Creek to establish the seat of the newly-created Ellis County. This seat was designated as the town of Waxahachie. Considered by many to be the founder of the town, Rogers played a leading role in its planning, improvement, and culture. Prior to the construction of a courthouse, his home served as the town's administrative hub. After supervising the construction of various roads, streets, and a post office, Rogers built a hotel bearing his name in 1856.

With the coming of the Civil War, Rogers joined many other leading citizens of Waxahachie and Ellis County in service of the Confederacy. In 1861 he was elected as major in the Twelfth Texas Cavalry Regiment and served with this unit throughout the war. In May 1862 Rogers led elements of the Twelfth Cavalry in an attack on a numerically-superior Union force at the battle of Whitney's Lane in Arkansas. Though ultimately forced to retreat, Rogers and the Twelfth Cavalry helped forestall a Union attack on Little Rock and ensured Arkansas's continued participation in the Confederacy. At the conclusion of the war in 1865, Rogers returned to Waxahachie and resumed his role of leadership within the community. He deeded forty acres of land in August 1870 to the trustees of Marvin College, which had opened its doors in Waxahachie the previous year. Rogers passed away in 1874. Both Rogers and his wife were buried in the Waxahachie City Cemetery. In 2011 the land he donated to the college was located at the north end of College Street. The Rogers Hotel burned to the ground in 1881, but a new Rogers Hotel was constructed in 1912 and still stood in the early twenty-first century.