Will Rogers was born on November 4, 1879 in a home his father had built near the Verdigris River bottom lands in the Cooweescoowee District of Indian Territory. His parents were Mary and Clem Rodgers. They named there first son William Penn Adair Rodgers after a distinguished Cherokee, William Penn Adair, who served as his people's delegate in Washington. Will's father had also served with him during the Civil War.

When it was time for Will to go to school he was sent to stay with his sister Sallie. Their home was across the river from the Rogers ranch and near Drumgoul, which was soon to be young Will's first school. It was a little one-room log cabin, all Indian school, jsut four miles east of Chelsea. It was often difficult for Clem to be patient with Will. For he was a stubborn little boy. The activities Will enjoyed the most during his childhood were the rides with his father and the days where he spent every idle moment attempting to improve his roping skills. He had quite a few lariat's taken away at school. Will did p

oorly in school most of the time, mainly because of his lack of interest. All he cared about was roping so that was all he cared to do. His father was constantly sending him to one school or another because he was constantly unsatisfied with Will's progress. One time Will even attended a girl's school, because the president also had a boy Will's age. When Will's mother, Mary Rodgers, died of typhoid fever when he was ten it left a lonely, lost feeling That persisted long after he was successful and famous. When Will returned abruptly from one of his schools, Scarritt College, this gave his father an occasion for serious thought. He hoped that the strict discipline of Kemper Military Academy would do what his other schools had failed. At first military disipline was a novelty however grew tired of sitting at his desk. So Will asked each of his three sisters for ten dollars and he left school to become a cowboy. He would never again return to school.

Will's first encounter with show business would come along as he was trying to get home from Argentina, were he had run out of money and had no way home. He meet the owner of Texas Jack's Wild West Circus and he was offered a roping job. This would launch him into a career that would last him a life-time. His vaudeville debut was a rope-throwing act in New York City in 1905 in which he later achieved wide popularity for the humorous monologues that he accompanied with his rope tricks. After 1914 Will appeared in several of the ann

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