Obituary of Theophilus Rogan

THEOPHILUS ROGAN, ESQ., son of  Griffith and Mary Rogan, was born in Kingsport, Sullivan county, Tennessee, July 20, 1825, died at the residence of his daughter, Miss Katherine Mary Rogan, at Russellville, Tenn., Sept. 23, 1904, aged 79 years, 2 months and 3 days, and was buried at the Bethesda Cemetery Sunday, Sept. 25, the Rev. J. R. McRee officiating.

Mr. Rogan was married to Maria Louise Graham, daughter of Hugh Graham, at the residence of her parents in Tazewell, Tenn., Dec 14, 1853, the writer officiating.  The fruit of this marriage was seven children, four  daughters and three sons, of whom five survive.

In 1849, he located as a lawyer in Tazewell,, Tenn., and practiced there till 1851, when he went to Texas on  horseback and located in Lockhart, where he continued the practice till 1860, when he visited Tazewell with his family.  On account of the disturbed state of the country he left his family in Tennessee and returned to Texas alone.  In 1862 he returned to Tennessee on horseback, not without considerable risk; and on this trip he happened to be at Corinth, Miss. during the battle of Shiloh, between the Confederates under Johnston and Beauregard and the Federals under Grant and Buell. He at that time heard General Beauregard's famous order to his troops, "Shoot low."

It is proper here to state that Mr. Rogan attempted to enlist in the Confederate army, but, upon examination by the surgeon, was rejected as physically too infirm for soldier life.   He intended to return to Texas with his family, but, owing to the state of  the country, finding it impossible, he located on the Hayslope farm at Russellville, Tenn., where he resided to the end of his life.

Mr. Rogan was educated at Martin Academy, in Blountville, and at the Jonesboro Academy.  It was his ambition to complete his education at the East Tennessee College at Knoxville (now University of Tennessee), but circumstances forbade.  However, he received his training under the most competent educators, where his equipment for the duties of life, secular and religious, was, possibly, more substantial and appropriate than if it had been obtained at a college or university.   He studied law under that eminent jurist, Thomas A. R. Nelson, and practiced his profession in Texas and Tennessee, and at the time of his death, he was one of the oldest lawyers in Tennessee.

While attending school in Blountville he was brought into an experimental knowledge of sins forgiven in a revival at that place, and connected himself with the Presbyterian Church. While living and practicing law, as a young man at Tazewell, Tenn., he was elected elder in that Church, and was continued in this sacred office both in Lockhart and Russellville, He also served as superintendent of the Presbyterian Sunday school in Lockhart for seven years, and was, for more than a quarter of a century, superintendent of the Presbyterian Sunday school in Russellville, and held that position to the time of his death.

Mr. Rogan's home training was of  the best, laying the foundation of that sturdy integrity that characterized him through life; his scholastic advantages were reasonably good for his day, and he profited by them; his attainments, as far as he went, were thorough and accurate; he had a ready command of good English and his law speeches and other public addresses were systematic and forcible.

He married into a family of wealth, but his richest acquisition by this union was a companion whose superior intellect, energy and unswerving devotion to principle and duty aided in making his life a success, and reared around him a family that has enriched the citizenship of the country.

Mr. and Mrs. Rogan had their "golden wedding" at Hayslope Dec. 14, 1903. There was a considerable company of invited guests, and numerous and valuable presents indicated the high esteem in which they were held.  The original bridesmaid and the original celebrant were present, as was also the venerable Rev. Harvey Smith, of the Presbyterian Church.  The two ministers mentioned and Mr. Rogan himself made short and appropriate addresses; the table was loaded with delicious viands "and all went merry as a marriage bell."

Mr. Rogan's home near Russellville, a beautiful rural situation, has been for many years a health resort, where a few select families and individuals, seeking rest and recuperation, have been accommodated.  The free and easy home-like social atmosphere of the place has given it a peculiar and irresistible charm.

Devoted Christians and active church workers among lawyers were once rare, but it is an encouraging sign of the times that the learned professions have largely given in their adhesion to the Christian religion, and lawyers are no exception to the statement.  Mr. Rogan, though a man of superior legal attainments, having been twice nominated for Judge, and encumbered with the cares of a busy life, looked upon the service and worship of God as his chief vocation, and he was as deeply pious and as thoroughly evangelical as even the better class of ministers of the gospel.  Indeed he might have been called a lay-preacher, for many pointed and useful were his public religious talks, especially in the Sunday school and his private conversations were always prudent and seasoned with grace.

The Bible was the man of his counsel. At the age of seven he began a diary and kept it up without intermission until two days before his death. The following entry has been found in his journal: "Finished a reading of the Bible in course and commenced reading it again.  Have read it in course once a year for fifty years or more."

Only a few weeks before Mr. Rogan's death, the Rev. Harvey Smith and the writer called upon him.  He was then confined to his bed with the infirmities that terminated his life.  The interview was a mixture of solemnity and humor.  Mr. Rogan expressed his readiness to depart and be with Christ, yet a preference for restoration to health, if it should be the Lord's will.  His  words, mainly religious, sparkled with wit, as he exchanged pleasantries with his old friends.

Amid the tears and caresses of a devoted family, this good man ended a life of honesty and honor, a life sobered by its share of care and suffering, adorned with usefulness, sweetened with experimental godliness, and crowned with the confident hope of a  glorious immortality.  He gave his honors to the world again, His blessed part to Heaven, and slept in peace.

His faithful companion and five living children survive him to cherish in their hearts the beautiful image of an ideal character, and to mingle loving tears with sweet remembrances of marital and parental kindnesses and assiduities that knew no abatement or intermission, and to feel his constant attraction towards a higher life and a blessed future.         R.N. PRICE.

Morristown, Tenn.

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