Contra Costa County Biography

JAMES E. RODGERS

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, December, 2006.

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
one of the prominent attorneys of Contra Costa County, is a man to whom success 
has come as a result of unfaltering determination, untiring industry, energy, 
and enterprise, for he has worked his way upward to the success which he now 
enjoys. Mr. Rodgers is a native of California, his birth having occurred at 
Sonora, Tuolumne County, May 2, 1865. His father, P. F. Rodgers, was a native of 
Ireland, and came to America in 1849. He came to California via Cape Horn, and 
settled in Sonora [sic] County, where he became interested in mining until 1868, 
when he removed to Pleasant Hill, Contra Costa County. Here he took up ranching 
until his death, which occurred in 1891. Mr. Rodgers' mother, Mary (Holland) 
Rodgers, was also a native of Ireland. His parents were married in Sonora [sic] 
County, and four children were born of this union. John F., of Oakland, 
California; Rose M., wife of John G. Duane, of Martinez; Sadie J., wife of T. S. 
Duane, of Martinez; and the subject of this sketch. In 1897 Mr. Rodgers was 
admitted to the bar, and the same year was elected county clerk, which office he 
held for ten years. He resigned in 1908 to take up the practice of law in 
Martinez, where he has since resided. Mr. Rodgers was united in marriage April 
29, 1890, to Miss Alice Buckley, a daughter of William H. and Mary Buckley. To 
this union have been born James E., Jr., and Alice, who is at present attending 
the Berkeley School of Art. Mr. Rodgers is affiliated with the Republican party. 
Fraternally he is a member of the I. O. O. F., W. O. W., B. P. O. E., and Native 
Sons. He is an able lawyer, and his professional attainments put him in the 
front rank of the legal fraternity of the Bay counties.
 
Source: "The History of Contra Costa County, California," Elms Publ. Co., 1918, 
pp. 434