Aurelia S. Rogers – Born October 4, 1834 in Deep River, Connecticut and died August 19, 1922 in Farmington, Utah.
Aurelia was a daughter of Orson Spencer and Catherine Curtis. Her mother died in the exodus of the Saints from Nauvoo when Aurelia was only 12 years of age. Her father had been called as a missionary to England and soon left Aurelia in charge of 5 younger children in Iowa with a promise from other families that they would help her and the younger ones get to the Salt Lake valley. It was 1849 before she saw her father again while she and the younger children were living in a dirt dugout in Salt Lake City.
When Aurelia’s father returned from England he had a new wife (Martha Knight) and was called to another mission to Europe in 1852 where he was forced out of Prussia. In 1853 he was called to the Cincinnati, Ohio Mission where he served until July 1855 before being asked to become a newspaper editor for the Church in St. Louis by Apostle Erastus Snow.
In St. Louis Aurelia’s father also served as Stake President for a short time and supervised Church activities in the Mississippi valley which took him to Indian Territory in the area of what would become Oklahoma. He apparently became sick with malaria from his visit to Oklahoma and died in St Louis on October 15, 1855.
From this we see that Aurelia was without parental guidance most of her younger years while acting the role of a mother to her younger siblings.
Arriving in the Salt Lake Valley during 1848 it was only 3 years later, 1851 that she married Thomas Rogers and moved to Farmington Utah. She gave birth to twelve children, losing five before they matured.
Aurelia once expressed her concern for the rowdy boys in Farmington to Relief Society President Eliza R. Snow, wondering what the girls would do for husbands when they got older. Soon President John Taylor had authorized a new organization in her Ward and on August 11, 1878 Aurelia Rogers was set apart as the first Primary President. She taught her Primary children obedience, faith in God, prayer, punctuality and good manners.
During 1894 she was called as a Utah delegate to the Women’s Suffrage Convention in Atlanta Georgia. During 1895 she was elected a delegate to the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C.
She was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.