L.W. Rogers

Louis William Rogers commonly known as "L.W.," was an American teacher, railway brakeman, trade union functionary, socialist political activist, and newspaper editor. Rogers is best remembered in this context as one of the key officials of the American Railway Union jailed in conjunction with the Pullman Strike of 1894. After more than two decades in and around the labor movement, Rogers shifted his activity to mysticism as a prominent lecturer, writer, and long-time President of the Theosophical Society in America.

Louis William Rogers was born in the state of Iowa in the Midwestern United States on May 28, 1859. Trained as a teacher, Rogers taught in the public schools of Iowa and Kansas for a period of five years, beginning late in the 1870s.

Rogers later went to work as a brakeman, a crew member of a locomotive train who helped regulate the speed through the manual application of brakes. He worked across a number of midwestern railways, including the Kansas City, Springfield & Memphis, the Wabash & Western, the Santa Fe, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. Rogers was fired from his position on the latter road during the Burlington railroad strike of 1888, when he supported the locomotive engineers striking the road. Following his dismissal Rogers toured the Burlington route engaging in public speeches on behalf of the strikers, traveling from Illinois all the way to Colorado on his mission.

Leaving actual railway work after his dismissal from the Burlington & Quincy, Rogers launched his first newspaper, the Railroad Patriot in St. Joseph, Missouri. The paper proved to be short-lived, terminating publication the following year.

With his newspaper having folded, in 1889 Rogers moved to the state of Colorado, where he first became active in the Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen (BRB), known from 1890 as the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (BRT). He edited two short-lived newspapers in Colorado, the Denver Patriot and the Vona Herald" as the 1880s came to a close

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In September 1889, Rogers was chosen as a delegate to the national convention of the BRB, which selected him as editor of the official organ of the union, the Railroad Brakemen's Journal. He continued in this capacity until the end of 1892.

In the 1880s Rogers also became a public lecturer on Freethought and its underlying philosophical doctrine of Rationalism.

Early in the 1890s Rogers returned to the Midwest, moving first to Galesburg, Illinois, then to Chicago, and finally in 1892 to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. There Rogers established a new newspaper, the Age of Labor, which he published and edited until its 1893 merger with The Labor Advocate, one of the prominent labor newspapers of the day.

In 1893 Rogers helped to establish the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor.

Louis Rogers died on April 18, 1953, in Santa Barbara, California.