L. W. Rogers

L.W. Rogers as he appeared at the time of his leaving the editorship of Railroad Trainmen's Journal in 1892.

Louis William Rogers (May 28, 1859 – April 18, 1953), 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.

Biography

Early years

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. 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.

In the 1880s Rogers also became a public lecturer on Freethought and its underlying philosophical doctrine of Rationalism. Rogers was soon absorbed by the Theosophical movement, lecturing extensively and publishing numerous books and pamphlets on reincarnation, life after death, karma, and sundry matters of philosophical idealism.

As one of the most prominent American exponents of esoteric mysticism, Rogers would be elected vice president of the TSA in 1918, serving in that capacity until 1920, when he would ascend to the presidency of that organization. Rogers would remain as president of the Theosophical Society for more than a decade, standing down in 1931.

Following his time at the helm of the TSA, Rogers served as the editor of two of the organization's periodicals — Ancient Wisdom, which he edited from 1935 to 1936, and The Voice, from 1951 to 1952.

Death and legacy

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