Newspaper Pioneer Thomas Avery "Kid" Rogers Had High Perch On Cameron Hill

The pioneer newspaper man Thomas Avery "Kid" Rogers was among the select with a high perch on Cameron Hill.

Rogers was the first resident of Cameron Drive, which was at the north point of the hill that once towered over Chattanooga.

He built a second Cameron Hill house in the early 1900s that was nearby at 603 N. Prospect St. (later Boynton Drive). It was on the uphill side of Prospect near the corner of Fourth. When he built it there were still signs of where cars on an Incline track had once gone up and down Cameron Hill at Fourth. The Rogers home was known for its showplace garden.

T.A. Rogers was born on May 28, 1867, in Ducktown in Polk County. He was the son of Hamilton and Sarah Daves Rogers. His mother was the daughter of Green Daves, a noted character and pioneer settler of Fannin County, Ga. Green Daves was a soldier in the Cherokee Removal under General Winfield Scott.

Hamilton Rogers had joined the Confederate forces in the 37th Georgia Regiment. He fought at Chickamauga and other battles around Chattanooga, as well as in Virginia.

A few years after the Civil War, the Rogers family moved to Loudon, Tn., where Hamilton Rogers was a contractor. When there was a cholera outbreak, Hamilton Rogers died of the fever. Alfred Daves, brother of Sarah Daves Rogers, hurried to Loudon and arranged to take the widow and her seven children in a wagon over the Unaka Mountains to Fannin County.

The family farmed for two years at Ellijay, then moved to Cartersville. Thomas A. Rogers was able to gain little schooling as he had to help his mother. He was always drawn to newspapers, and when he was 14, he worked at the Free Press at Cartersville. When he was 16, the family moved to Chattanooga. He worked in the composition department for Harry S. Griscom at the People's Paper, then he was employed by J.B. Pound at the Chattanooga News..

By the time he was 18, Kid Rogers had been admitted to the International Typographical Union. He got his nickname because he was so young and holding down a newspaper job.

He joined the Times in 1892 with a position in the job room. He became a proof reader and gained a reputation as the fastest and most accurate reader of the day. Rogers worked as a reporter and telegraph editor before going on the city desk. He remained at the Times for nearly 50 years in various capacities.

Rogers was an alderman for the Fourth Ward - the section that included Cameron Hill. He was part of the group that ousted the "machine" that had been dominating the city government. He was active in the Civic League that fought for good government.

T.A. Rogers ran for the state House on the Reform ticket and won a seat. He was in the General Assembly when legislation was passed setting up the commission form of government for Chatttanooga. Rogers served two years on the election commission.

He lived on Cameron Hill until near the end of his life. Rogers was at Alexian Brothers on Signal Mountain when he died in August of 1941.

His wife was Martha Marie Pechman, who was born in Germany. She came to Chattanooga with her family when she was a young child. Mrs. Rogers was described as being charitable to a fault and someone who had helped and made friends with hundreds of less fortunate white and black people. Martha Pechman Rogers died in 1937.

Emmett Rogers, the only child of T.A. and Martha Rogers, grew up at the Cameron Hill home. He graduated from Chattanooga High and completed four-year course work at the famed Chicago Art Institute in only two years, as recounted by John Shearer who reviewed the Rogers scrapbooks.

Emmett Rogers' early jobs including being an assistant/secretary to Chattanooga Mayor T.C. Thompson and working as a fuel administrator under Judge W.E. Wilkerson. He was also a reporter for such publications as the Times and the Chattanooga News.

He became a first lieutenant in the Army Signal Corps after the outbreak of World War I, but was unable to serve due to an eye injury that occurred while playing basketball.

Among his World War I era stories as a reporter included covering the return of Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Alvin C. York from Tennessee and the case involving Baroness Von Zollner. She had been questioned and tried as a possible German spy after being found with an American solider at the Hotel Patten.

He also went to work about this time for the local Signal Amusement Co., which operated theaters in the area. Mr. Rogers did art and promotional work for them, drawing on both his talents and experience as a newsman.

That was his role when the Signal Amusement Co. under such people as Frank Dowler and Judge Wilkerson, who likely helped him get the job, announced plans for a theater that was going to be by far the finest in Chattanooga and maybe even the South. That theater was the Tivoli, which opened on March 19, 1921.

Emmett Rogers went on to become the manager of the new Tivoli.

The Rogers home at the north end of Cameron Hill was among those torn down during Urban Renewal.