"Samuel F. Rogers is believed to have been born in about 1834 in Rawdon, Quebec, youngest son of Robert and Mary Rogers of County Monaghan Ireland. In his teens, he moved to Montreal with his older siblings, and first signed up in the US navy in 1856 on the bark Eagle of New Bedford. From 1856 to 1873, he served a series of three-year commissions in the navy, with stints of between a few days and a few months in between staying with his siblings, who had scattered to different parts of Quebec and New York State, not owning his own property until the 1890s, and never marrying. The highlights of his naval career include service on board the San Jacinta in 1860, in which the San Jacinta captured and boarded the brigs Storm King of Congo and the Boneta off the coast of east Africa, liberating 690 and 603 slaves respectively, who were headed for the US market. The would-be slaves were returned to Munrovia, Liberia, and the crews of the captured ships were returned as prisoners of war to Fort Warren, Boston.
He also served in the bark Horace Beale in 1862 and was part of the convoy that bombarded Fort Jackson and Fort Phillip at the mouth of the Mississippi River, forcing the surrender of New Orleans to Federal forces. Lastly, he served on board the U.S.S. Colorado in the Korean War of 1871, winning a Congressional Medal of Honour for defending the life of his lieutenant during the fight for Fort ?. From 1862 on, he had the rank of "Chief Quarter Master".
From 1873 to 1883, he took various short-term assignments as quartermaster on schooners on the Great Lakes System. During the 1890s, he was a lighthouse keeper at Spectacle Reef, Northern Lake Huron and South Channel and Grand Marais, Michigan. Some time during these latter years, he bought a property at Grand Marais, where he lived until his death in about 1905. He had by that time been joined by his sister Jane and niece Laura, who was blind, and to whom he left his property."
Courtesy of and Copyright © 2003 by Cathy Edwards, Great-great-great niece of Sam Rogers