The History of Rodgers Creek Fault & it's Namesake
- Nicole Myers
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
Rodgers Creek Fault is a prominent fault within the San Andreas Fault System. It is responsible for the uplift of Sonoma Mountain and the formation of San Pablo Bay. It was originally mapped in 1922 as a northwest extension of the Hayward Fault. Modern science imaging confirms that the 2 major faults within the San Andreas Fault System, the Hayward Fault & the Rodgers Creek Fault, are in fact one fault with a bend in it that is responsible for the formation of the San Pablo Bay. The Hayward Fault section of the fault continues southeast and creates the Berkeley Hills. There are many faults within the San Andreas Fault System, but the Rodgers Creek-Hayward Fault has the highest probability of producing a major San Francisco Bay Area earthquake. The fault is alternately called Rodgers or Rogers, and sometimes Roger's or Rodger's.
Rodgers Creek Fault is named for William Rodgers, a past owner of the Temelec House in Sonoma. In the above image locate the yellow line labeled 4 (Bennett Valley), and look for the southern/bottom end of that line. That is the approximate location of the Temelec House. A stream that runs through the Temelec House property, uphill of the Temelec House structure, flows parallel to the Rodgers Creek Fault (the orange line in image above, the dark red line in the image below) until the stream veers more eastward towards the house in which Rodgers lived. In the image below the small black dot on the creek highlighted in blue is the more exact location of Temelec House. This is the Rodgers Creek, after which the fault is named, and Rodgers/Rogers once owned the land through which the creek flows.
I have spent years trying to learn who Rodgers was, being the namesake of a fault that guarantees that many of us who live in Sonoma County will say "Rodgers Creek Fault" with fear, anger, and/or sadness as some point in our lives. It will produce a significant, damaging and deadly earthquake at some point in the future. And yet the story behind the naming of Rodgers Creek Fault was not easy to come by, but with the help of many people, especially Joe Cochrane, I discovered historical records that document the life story of William K. Rodgers, and it is fraught with deception and drama. The most complete record from which much of this information is summarized is "William Kissane Rogers - A Forgotten Anti-Hero from Another Time" by Joseph A. Kissane (see link at the bottom of the blog). I highly recommend you read it because it is rich with details. Because Joseph A. Kissane uses the spelling Rogers in his article, I chose the same spelling for the story to follow, even though the maps most commonly spell the name Rodgers. One last note...I admit I have made a assumption, that Rogers Creek is named after William K. Rogers. I cannot find any direct evidence that the creek is named after this notorious man...but he owned Temelec from 1865-1892 & some of the place name directories listed at the bottom of this blog note that it should be called Kissane Creek. And even if my assumption is wrong, and it is just a coincidence, Rogers' story is too fascinating not to tell.
William K. Rodgers is a pseudonym for William F. Kissane, the son of a wealthy Catholic immigrant family from Ireland with a reputation for scandal. William was born in Tipperary, Ireland in June 1824 and grew up with 8 siblings. As a young man he was a intelligent and did well in school, but was also suspected of arson at a young age. The family of 11 moved to New York in 1838 after a family scandal caused them to leave Ireland behind. Some of the family moved around for several years until they landed in Cincinnati, Ohio with William and established themselves in high society, befriending Cornelius Vanderbilt. After he graduated from school he ran in high society circles and began a career rife with questionable or absent ethics, and is suspected of yet another arson event was associated with one of his business ventures. He was an ambitious man.
In 1852 William was in a group that bought the Steamboat Martha Washington for the purposes of transporting goods from Ohio to California to turn a profit. They chose to over-insure their cargo for nefarious purposes, but the captain was not aware of the plan and he too planned to make some extra money on the side and brought on paying passengers. William switched the valuable cargo for hail bails before the boat floated down the Mississippi. On the 3rd night a fire broke out and 15 people died when the boat sank. The authorities learned about the fake cargo and suspicious fire and charges were filed. With the support of a top notch legal team the case dragged on for a couple years. William spent some time in jail and his reputation became that of a villain even though he was eventually acquitted. Witnesses were disappeared & threatened, suspicious fires occurred. William's legal fees were in part paid through his talents for counterfeiting and forgery, and upon the end of the legal battles he moved to New York where he employed his talents among the city's high society while he swindled banks, until he was arrested. He escaped by jumping from the window of a moving train, changed his appearance & identity, but was eventually arrested and stood trial in New York in 1854-1855, and was subsequently sent to Sing Sing prison. After 9 months he was paroled thanks to friends in high places, another suspicious fire at Sing Sing that destroyed his prison records, and the suspicious death of a man who was trying to bring him to justice.
Several of his family members moved to San Francisco to escape the family scandal, and some changed their surnames. His brother now went by Reuben Lloyd, the namesake of Lloyd Lake in Golden Gate Park, who became close friends with William Randolph Hearst. When William was paroled his family decided he was a danger to their reputation and with help from friends, like William Walker, they conspired to have him leave the country. Reuben had William go to Nicaragua to join William Walker in 1856.
William Walker had set out from San Francisco to "take over" Nicaragua in 1855. He led one of the many "Banana Wars" that were instigated by many parties, including the United Fruit Company, to control Central America for commercial & transportation purposes. He had organized a group of Americans with rough pasts and fighting experience and they left a trail of death and destruction as William Walker took power as the supreme commander of the Army of the Nicaraguan Republic. When William Kissane arrived Walker had him assume the name William K. (Kissane) Rogers, so that he could eventually inherit his cousins assets under false pretenses. William Walker was poised to become the President of Nicaragua and Rogers was commanded to take control of Nicaragua's resources by any means necessary. He fought in many battles and was accused of kidnapping women, leading raids on the citizens, and collecting royalties liberally. He earned the nickname "Confiscator General" while also being accepted into high society. Vanderbilt also had interests in the region as a transportation route; he aimed to have a canal constructed across the Isthmus of Nicaragua but used an overland route to transport his goods in the meantime. When Walker and Rogers took control of Vanderbilt's transport company, not knowing it was his company, the governments with interests in the region, including the the USA, England, and the surrounding countries rallied and attacked Walker's regime. Walker ordered that the capitol be destroyed, and Rogers pillaged and burned the city. He escaped on a boat, almost died of malaria, and then rejoined Walker. Then he was recognized as Kissane by a man from Ohio, who told others of Rogers criminal infamy. Rogers executed him as he begged for his life.
In 1857 Walker, Rogers, and company returned to the US having failed to retake Nicaragua. They tried again later that year, but when Walker made his final attempt in 1858 it ended in failure and the death of Walker. Rogers was reported as killed, though in fact he had not joined the 1858 trip. It is suspected that he arranged to have false reports spread in New Orleans.
William K. Rogers assumed the title of Colonel and took his (likely) embezzled fortune and moved to San Francisco where he entered society with the reputation of an officer and a man of wealth. He was associated with gold mine speculation & reportedly had inherited additional wealth from his Aunt (remember that he took his cousins name ;)
He reunited with Elizabeth Hathaway, whom he had met and become enamored with in Nicaragua. William and Elizabeth married at the estate of Lord Fairfax in Marin County. In 1865 he bought Temelec Estate in Sonoma. Some reports suggest he paid in gold. He added buildings & gardens creating a grand estate, and was among the first in the region to add indoor plumbing. He and Elizabeth had 7 children together. He was elected to the Sonoma Board of County Supervisors in 1873 and served for many years, known as "Supervisor Rodgers". And then his past caught up with him.
While Ulysses Grant was touring California after his presidency, he sent his aid to find lodging in the Sonoma region. The aid traveled to the Temelec Estate and was refused by William Rogers. The aid found Rogers excuses suspicious and he began to investigate Rogers, who got wind of it and resigned from the Board of Supervisors. By coincidence this aid also happened to be from Cincinnati, Ohio and was directly associated with family and friends who were "burned" by Kissane (pun intended). Eventually he was discovered that Rogers was Kissane and an outstanding indictment from his days in New York thirty years prior was pursued. Rogers was arrested in 1887 and soon his sordid deeds were made public nation-wide. The case was eventually dismissed in New York, the statute of limitations had expired. Around the same time Rogers investments failed and he lost Temelec House to the bank in 1892. He and his family moved into one of his brother's houses in San Francisco. He survived the 1906 earthquake and lived another seven years. He died in his daughter's home in Berkeley CA on May 1913.
Today Rodgers name is used to refer to a creek, and fault that will cause regional destruction, someday. Thanks to historical documents the likely origin of the name has not been lost to time, even if few know the sordid history of Rodgers aka Kissane and how a proposed visit from Ulysses S. Grant was the downfall of the life he had built on scandal, theft, and murder. The history of place names often reveals stories that should not be forgotten.
Sources:
"Place Names of California's Old Wine Country" by David L. Durham (2000)
"The Stories Behind Sonoma Valley Place Names" by Arthur Dawson (1998)
Article by Gaye LeBaron published in The Press Democrat on January 10, 1982
Photographs Written Historical and Descriptive Data published by Historic American Buildings Survey, National Park Service: https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/pnp/habshaer/ca/ca1100/ca1116/data/ca1116data.pdf
William Kissane Rogers - A Forgotten Anti-Hero from Another Time by Joseph A. Kissane: https://temelec.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/william-kissane-rogers-journal-version.pdf
WIlliam Walker and the Steamship Corporation in Nicaragua by Willian Oscar Scroggs, The America Historical Review Vol. 10, No. 4, Jul. 1905 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1834476?seq=3
Who's fault is it? by Jeff Elliott. April 9, 2012: http://santarosahistory.com/wordpress/2012/04/whose-fault-is-it/
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