3^4 



HISTORY OF THE WHEEL AND ALLIANCE. 



honored him with office of almost every kind in the gift 

 of her citizens. In 1875 he was elected Secretary of the 



Florida State Grange. 

 He served that Order 

 with credit to himself 

 and constituents until 

 1878, when the Grange, 

 in Florida, became ex- 

 tinct. In 1885 he was 

 elected to the State Con- 

 stitutional Convention, 

 and has the honor of 

 creating the office of 

 Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture, provided for in 

 the State Consitution. 

 In 1888 he could have 

 Robert F. Rogers. been nominated for Com- 



missioner of Agriculture, but declined the nomination to 

 accept, from the hands of his county, the nomination for 

 State Senator, to which office he was elected by the largest 

 majority ever given anyone in his county. In the State 

 Senate of 1889 he introduced and carried through the bill 

 organizing the Bureau of Agriculture and the Bureau of 

 Immigration. He was the author and prime mover of 

 many other measures looking to the elevation of farming. 

 At the annual meeting of the State Alliance in January, 

 1889, he was elected President, and the Order so pros- 

 pered under his administration that at the annual meeting 

 in January, 1890, he was re-elected without a dissenting 

 vote. He is a logical and forcible speaker and a Christian 

 gentleman of dignified appearance. He was a delegate 

 from Florida to the Convention of the National Farmers' 

 Alliance at St. Louis in December, 1889, and worked 

 hard to secure the next meeting of the National body in 



