Andrew was my third great uncle. He was the son of Aleri Rodgers and Mary Davidson. Andrew Jr. as he was called, was his Uncle Andrew's namesake. He was a lad with a good mind and was given the opportunity in Illinois to go on with his education when he had finished the country school in the Sugar Tree Grove neighborhood (Hale School). He had a year or more at school in Macomb, Illinois, and then his thoughts turned toward the ministry. In the Spring of 1845, young Andrew, accompanied by his brother, Alexander, joined a wagon train headed for Oregon. So the weeks and months went a long and the party arrived at Wai-Lat-pu near Walla Walla, Washington. There Andrew met Dr. and Mrs. Marcus Whitman who were in charge of a mission for the Indians. Their settlement was not far from the spot where the Oregon trail emerged from a stretch of rough mountain trail and wagon trains stopped there to rest before continuing down the Columbia River valley. In these trains were sometimes children, made orphans by the hardships of the journey and Mrs. Whitman had taken some of them into her home. The Whitmans felt these children needed schooling and when they had talked with Andrew they urged him to stay with them as a teacher. They also offered him the opportunity to study for the ministry in the Congregational Church and Andrew gladly accepted. He lived and taught at the mission for two years, taking time to discharge his responsibility to his family by travelling the rest of the trail so as to report to them about the Williamette and lower Columbia valleys. He also took time to ride over the praries to other missions where he borrowed books needed in his theological studies. By the fall of 1847, he felt that he should move on but he never did, for the Indians descended on the mission one day, killing almost all of the white persons living there, including Dr. and Mrs Whitman and Andrew. As a side note: the indians called him Hushus Muk Muk which meant yellow hair. Although the sign by the great grave spells his name without a D (Rogers), his fathers name had the D, (Rodgers)which is evidence in numerous documents, including the bible page which is shown here.