Samuel Lyle Rogers was born in Waynesville (Haywood County), North Carolina, on December 31, 1859. Rogers was a banker and lifelong public official who held several offices over the course of his life, including clerk of the Macon County Superior Court, chief clerk for the Asheville office of the Internal Revenue Service, Collector for the Internal Revenue Service, Corporation Commissioner for the state of North Carolina, and Director of the U. S. Census. He died in Franklin (Macon County), North Carolina, on May 18, 1925.