San Diego County Biographies
 
SYLVESTER S. ROGERS

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


druggist of Escondido, was born in Ulster County, New York, in December,1859, 
and when twelve years of age he went with his parents to Centralia, Kansas, 
where he lived eight years. Then he went to Leonardville, Riley County, that 
State, and engaged in the hardware business four years, and then in March, 1856, 
he came to California, locating in Escondido valley, and worked at Bernardo for 
P. A. Graham six months, and then in Escondido for the same man. In March, 1887, 
he bought the drug store in the town of Escondido, which he has since been 
conducting.
        He married Miss Sarah Boosey, daughter of P. Boosey, of Riley County, 
Kansas, and they have one son and one daughter. His father, William Rogers, is a 
native of England, and has lived in California for the past seven years. He is 
now living in Escondido, hale and hearty. His son, Earl Leroy, was the first 
child born in Escondido.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  233
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
 



 
WALTER J. BAILEY, 
 
principal of public schools, Escondido, California, was born in the village of 
Corinth, Penobscot County, Maine, July 24, 1862. At the age of five years he 
began his struggle for knowledge in the district school. His father was a 
farmer, but, being very desirous that his son should receive a good 
common-school education, spared no pains to keep Walter in school instead of 
allowing him to remain at home when extra assistance was needed on the farm, and 
during the long vacations between the terms of the district schools, Walter as 
he grew older was sent to private schools. His mother had been a school�teacher 
before her marriage, and in her Walter always found an able and a willing 
assistant, which, together with a natural quickness of perception, enabled him 
to stand among the first in all his classes. At the age of fifteen his father 
placed him under the care of David Fletcher, in the East Corinth Academy, where 
he remained a student a greater part of the next four years. He also attended 
the Kenduskeag High School for a short time. During the fall and winter of 1881 
he taught his first term of school in the town of Carmel, receiving $20 per 
month and his board. He met with such a degree of success in this school that he 
determined to make teaching his profession, and with that end in view entered 
the Eastern State Normal School at Castine, Maine, in the fall of 1882. His 
father wished him to be a farmer and refused to furnish the money for a 
professional course.
        Walter was thus thrown largely upon his own resources, but he never 
thought for a moment of turning from his purpose; and by teaching and hard labor 
during vacations he managed, with what assistance his mother could furnish, to 
complete his entire course, graduating June 7, 1884. Having obtained a situation 
at Bowery Beach, near Portland, Maine, he began teaching at that place, but a 
severe attack of erysipelas prevented his finishing the term and confined him in 
bed for several months, thereby exhausting his purse and seriously interfering 
with his studies. He taught several terms of school in his home district, and by 
his efforts as teacher, and afterward as "school agent" (trustee) made the 
school the best in the town. The winter of 1885 was spent in teaching the 
grammar school at West Brooksville, Maine, with his usual success. From 
Brooksville he went to Waterville, Maine, where he spent some months pursuing 
his studies under the instruction of J. H. Hanson, LL. D., in the Coburn 
Classical Institute. The summer of 1886 found him transformed into a book agent 
and canvassing in the State of New York, with his headquarters at Fulton, Oswego 
County. In September he returned as principal of the High School at Kenduskeag, 
Maine. Having been converted to the Christian religion nearly a year before, he 
was now baptized and became a member of the First Baptist Church at Kenduskeag 
and took an active part in organizing a Young Men's Christian Association at 
that place.
        Having been a sufferer from attacks of asthma from childhood he resolved 
to seek relief in the sunny land of Southern California, and attracted by the 
boom at San Diego we find him on his way to that city, where he arrived April 
17, 1887. Finding no demand for any but manual labor be began work on the Hotel 
del Coronado and assisted in laying the foundation for that magnificent 
structure. He then worked as carpenter on the same until the last of July, when 
he went to Buena, California, to take charge of a general merchandise store. 
During the next six months the railroad between Oceanside and Escondido was 
surveyed and built through
Buena, and Mr. Bailey's store, being in the midst of the contractors' camps, was 
the center of many exciting scenes.
        On the 28th of September, 1887, he was married to Miss Annie L. 
Haselton, daughter of Captain John A. Haselton, who in company with Mr. Bailey's 
sister had just arrived from their home in Maine. In August, 1888, Mr. Bailey 
was elected to the principalship of the public schools in the " Sunkissed Vale," 
which position he still retains, and the present excellent condition of the 
schools is largely due to his well-directed efforts.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  233-234
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
 



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