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Mrs. Agnes Rogers Walker was born December 8, 1862, at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory.
Father, Houston Rogers, was born near Tahlequah, Indian Territory, and is buried on Rabbs Creek, six miles west and one and one-half miles south of Talala.
Mother, Sidney Ross-Rogers, was born on the old Oliver Ross place on Grand River in the Indian Territory and is buried on Rabbs Creek southwest of Talala.
My parents were former slaves. Clem Rogers was my father's master and Oliver Ross was my mother's. My maternal grandmother was a full blood Cherokee and my grandfather was a negro. Their home was located on Spring Creek, twenty miles northwest of Tahlequah. After the war they settled on my grandmother's allotment of 80 acres in Rogers County, near Talala.
I was born during the war and lived at Fort Gibson until I was about two years old, then moved to Talala. I spent most of my life in Rogers County. My paternal grandparents took the name of their master, Clem Rogers, as was the custom among the slaves.
Our home in Rogers County was a one room log cabin with a log summer kitchen. The cabin faced the east and was built of hewed logs and the kitchen of round logs. We obtained our water supply from a spring near the house.
Our furniture was all home-made with the exception of one bed, and we cooked on a fireplace. My parents were farmers and we raised most of our living. The chief crops in our vicinity were corn, potatoes, and vegetables. Our principal foods were corn bread, milk, butter, sorghum, hog meat and beef.
My father made his farming implements. He had a one horse, wood beam, bull tongue plough, a harrow with wood teeth and the harness was chain. He had one horse and one yoke of steers.
Clem Rogers, father of the famous Will Rogers, was my father's master and was a good friend of the family. He married Mary Schrimsher, a German girl, and brought her to the wild Cooweescoowee country before the Civil War.
