"Moses-Logan Rodgers"{April 27,1845-October 22,1900}

Was born a slave in Kentucky and came to California in 1849.He became prominent during the Gold Rush as a successful mining engineer,making a lucrative career excavating gold mines he owned in Hornitos in Mariposa County.Many sought his intelligence and professor opinion of metals.He quickly became known as as an expert in the state,and investors went to him
for advice regarding mining claims.He became such an expert at it that in post-Civil War he was appointed superintendent of several mines(Mount Gaines Mine & Washington Mine).The stockholders of these mines were both African American & whites.
Moses best known mine,for which he was a stock-holding supertendent,was the Washington Mine,which he established in 1869.It was a successful operation,which employed Chinese workers.There were years when this mine took out over a half million dollar in gold.The Washington Mine,in the mid-1880s,was one of the area's largest,employing over 30 men.Five main shafts and over 10,000 feet underground workings brought the gold/silver ore to the surface where it was hand sorted and then sent by wagon to the mine's concentration mill.A merced newspaper said of Moses "there is no better mining man in the state."
The house which he built in 1898 at 921 South San Joaquin St.,Stockton,California,is registered at The National Register of Historic Places.He built for his wife Sarah and their five daughters,to all whom he gave a good education California afforded.One daughter Vivian Rodgers graduated from the University of California,of Berkeley with the class of 1909 majoring in Science & Letters.