Sunday, July 27, 2014

John Rogers ~ Soldier's Record

It is always a good thing to have a birthday party, even better when it is for your 90 year old Grandmother.  You know you will have lots of family there to bug about the family tree.  ;)  The bonus is when everyone at the party knows you like to see old things that belong to the family.  My uncle brought with him a Soldier's Record poster with a photo of my Great Grandfather, neither of which I had ever seen.

John Robert Rogers was born 31 August 1897 in Preston County, West Virginia to Thomas Milton Rogers and Minnie Jane Hartsell.   He was the eldest of six children.  John served in the U.S. Army during World War I between 6 January 1917 and 16 May 1919.  We know he was stationed in France for part of the war.  In January of 1920 he married Ollie Laymire and they had four children before divorcing.  John had various jobs, but the most consistent was the running of a gas station in Rochester, New York and later on one in West Virginia.  John passed way 20 November 1978 in Core, Monongalia County, West Virginia.