This from "150 years of Noble County History" Noble County, IN Among thousands of early Americans who streamed westward in search of greater opportunities were two young couples who would later become valued citizens of northwest Indiana, and whose children would link their names in marriage. They were Oliver Farwell Rogers (born RoDgers) of Reading , VT., Mariah Bradburn of Harrisburg, PA., and Michael Frank and Caroline Jane Long (nee Baird), both born, raised and married in Georgetwon, PA. Oliver was the youngest of seven orphaned children of Marstin Rodgers and his wife (name unknown), who died in a "spotted fever" epidemic in Reading. Little is known of his early life, except his siblings names, Edda, Martha, Caroline, Patricia Susan (?), Sarah and Thomas. Oliver and Mariah, born about 1811, were married in Cleveland, Ohio July 4, 1839 or 1842. Their obituaries differ on the date. The 1850 census lists Oliver as a chairmaker; Mariah, four children and two young men, both chairmaker apprentices, living with the family. Mariah must have had her hands full, feeding three men, while caring for four children, ages, 7, 4, 2 and 1. The last child was born four years later. The children were Hester Ann, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Louisa May and Benjamin Franklin. Later the family name was changed from Rodgers to Rogers. About 1859, then a cabinet maker, Oliver moved the family to Rome City, In. The three sons helped in their father's shop and both daughters learned the millinery trade by staying with Mrs. Jackman, a milliner in Waterloo, IN. Hattie was less interested in hat making than Lousie, an apt pupil at eleven. It was in Rome City that Louise met he 14 year old "printer's devil" of the Waterloo Press, Henry Long, her future husband. In Rome City, Oliver and George, had a small furniture factory, O.F. Rogers & Son. In addition, George was perfecting a folding clothes rack which, when patented, would become what every housewife needed most. In the 1870's the Rome City factory, O.F. Rogers & Son, found the clothes rack so profitable that the furniture lie was discontinued. By 1881 George had patented a clothes bar and opened a second factory in Kendallville on West Rush Street to produce both racks and bars. The family moved to Kendallville, and the Rome City business was transferred there. Oliver died in 1894, five years after Mariah. They lie in Lakeview Cemetery with three of their children and a granddaughter in the Rogers plot. Louise is buried there in the Long plot with Henry and the three little ones they lost. A loved servant in the Rogers' home, Stella McKinney, dying at the same time as Mariah, was buried beside her. Two of Oliver's and Mariah's eighteen grandchildren are still living, Harold Farwell Rogers 91, in California and Florence Long Harvey, 95, in New York. Submitted by: Toni Britton, 10/19/2000