"Lots of people had tough lives. My early years were no bed of roses, either. But I don't waste time telling sob stories."

The only other thing mentioned in a story drawn by Jack Kirby (and also written in this case), Captain America's co-creator (with Joe Simon), is that he was descended from a Captain Stephen Rogers who was a farmer and a fighter for the Continental Army. He stopped a Lord Taurey from delivering his message, and so helped America win the war with Great Britain. According to Taurey's descendent, Captain Steven Rogers only had one living descendent in 1976---Steve Rogers.

The trick now is to fill in the gaps, to talk about Steve Rogers' family.

Also, I want you to bear in mind, when we are looking at family resemblances, that Steve is not naturally the godlike well-muscled hero we see today, shown at the top of the article. Before the super-soldier serum, he looked like this:

Keep that in mind.

His ancestor, though, looked like the post-super-soldier-serum Steve Rogers, judging by a portrait painted of him as presented by Jack Kirby.

Captain Steven Rogers' mother had been a sister to Nathan Hale's father, and the two cousins shared many characteristics---a willingness to die for their country if need be, a certain quiet reserve, etc. Captain Steven Rogers married Willa Wayne, a sister to a silversmith named Silas Wayne, and cousin to "Mad" Anthony Wayne. (Silas would be a forefather to Bruce Wayne, also known as The Batman.) Similarly, Steven Rogers' sister Hortense, married Silas Wayne.

He was related to a more famous Rogers. His uncle was Robert Rogers (1731-1795), born in Massachusetts, and who served as an Indian trader and explorer. By 1756, Robert Rogers became Captain of a company of Rangers, and by 1758, he was promoted to Major and given command of nine companies of rangers. He won fame as a daring commander whose men would follow him anywhere during the French and Indian wars, and carried out many bold raids. His men, though, were rowdy and undisciplined, and often got in trouble with their superiors. Rogers, like others in his family, faced constant financial trouble in later years, and died in poverty. Unlike his nephew, Steven Rogers, he stayed loyal to Great Britain through the Revolutionary War.

Captain Steven Rogers had been a blacksmith before the war, and he stopped a traitor from betraying the Continental Army. (I regard the events about "Captain Yankee Doodle"---in which Steve's ancestor, Captain Steven Trevor, became a hero in patriotic garb, not written or drawn by Kirby--- to be a fictionalization and exagerration. Kirby never mentioned it, though he did mention Steven Rogers. Nor did William Taurey, the descendent of the traitor mentioned in the Continental War.)

After the war, Rogers returned to the farming life (with occasional blacksmithing) he had lived once before. He was an honest and hardworking man, but not a supremely successful one. Nor did he keep any slaves, unlike many of the more famous men of the time, like Washington, Jefferson, and others.

Steven Rogers' oldest son was named George Washington Rogers. He married Elaine Gardinier, the daughter of Judith Gardinier and granddaughter of Rip Van Winkle, of whom so many odd tales were told. It is rather fitting that Steve, who had a very long sleep...and his uncle on the Rogers side, who if one writer can be believed, had a much longer one---would be descended from Rip, who had the most famous decades-long "sleep" in history. (One wonders if he fell into a coma instead...)

Rip was descended from the Van Winkles who fought under the command of Peter Stuyvesant, and accompanied him to the siege of Fort Christina. There are many military men in the Rogers pedigree.

George Rogers was a farmer like his father before him. He had three siblings, one brother and two sisters. His brother Benjamin died in the war of 1812, without issue, and his two young sisters died of a fever, also without issue. George was also a talented artist in his spare time, and though he didn't achieve any great renown, a few of his paintings---simple landscapes--- are highly regarded by American art historians today.

Thomas Jefferson Rogers was another farmer, but also was the teacher for a local school. He married a part-Indian woman named Augusta Bumppo, who appears to be the sister of the Fern Bumppo who married into the Root family and was an ancestor of Kilgore Trout---and a descendent from Natty Bumppo, variously known as Hawkeye, Pathfinder, and other names. It is fitting that Steve should be descended from this first serial American hero, and certainly we can see an echo of Hawkeye's moral stance in that of his remote descendent, Steve Rogers. (Later, Steve would be often challenged---and as often befriended--- by another Hawkeye, his fellow Avenger, Clint Barton.) Bumppo was skinny and lanky, and his descendent Augusta was also the same physical type.

She would in turn pass that physical type on to many of her descendents.

Thomas Rogers' youngest son was Steven Rogers the second. Born around 1942, he was of age when the Civil War started, and enlisted in the Union side, as did his three brothers. He was the only survivor of the Rogers clan of that bloody struggle, rising to the rank of Captain in the Union Army. (Interestingly enough, when the war first started, he was not allowed to join because of his skinniness and physical frailty, unlike his brothers. It was only a year or two later, when things got more desperate during the war, that he was allowed to join---and he quickly rose through the ranks thanks to his skill in tactical matters and military planning.)

He resigned his commission after the war, and opened a clothing store in New York City's lower East Side after the war. He married a remote cousin, Brittany Reid. Brittany's mother was named Alicia Wayne, and Brittany was the granddaughter of General Horatio Wayne, Silas Wayne's son, and great-granddaughter of "Mad" Anthony Wayne. Certainly the military genius of "Mad" Anthony was passed on to his descendent, Steve Rogers/Captain America. Alicia had died when Brittany was very young.

Her father was named Britton Reid. Britton evidently married an Estrellita Silver soon after the death of his first wife, and Brittany's half-brothers were Dan Reid Sr. and John Reid. (see the article, "Masked Memories, the story of the Reid family") by Dennis Powers.) John Reid became famous, after the death of his brother in an ambush by Butch Cavendish, as the Lone Ranger, a masked rider of the West. (Dan Reid's grandson would become known as the Green Hornet.)

Britton, John, Dan, and Britt Reid were closely related to the family that produced Whitelaw Reid (1856-1906), an American journalist and diplomat. Reid was a war correspondent for the Cincinatti Gazette during the Civil War. He bought control of the New York Tribune in 1972 (his cousin Britt Reid would also purchase a paper). In 1982, Reid was the Republican party nominee for vice-president, but was defeated. From 1905 till his death, he was ambassador to Britain.

John Reid, the Lone Ranger, and his great-great-great-nephew Steve Rogers had a lot in common. Both were masked men who worked for the common good, both greatly preferred not to kill their foes, both often worked with sidekicks or partners (the Lone Ranger with his Indian friend, Tonto, Cap with Bucky and later the Falcon, and to some extent his other fellow Avengers.) Both were known for their unflinching morality. It is also fitting that Cap should be related to one of the first masked heroes in America.

John Reid's adventures were related by Fran Stryker on radio.

It is regrettable to say that Steven's business venture died, and Stephen himself went into a coma towards the end of his life, wasting away and dying in his comatose sleep.

Steven Roger's son was Calvin Rogers. He became a policeman in the lower East Side of Manhattan, and rose through the ranks to become a Captain, aided a little by his connection to the rich Wayne family. However, he refused to take or give bribes to "grease" his way up through City Hall, which was one reason he never became Commissioner, falling out of favor with a corrupt City Hall.

He married an Eliza Gordon. Eliza's descent was traced in the article, "The Magnificent Gordons", and directly connects the Rogers to the Wold Newton Family. Briefly told, Eliza was the daughter of Hugh Gordon and Francesca Cooke (a descendent of Henry Burlingame, one of the characters in John Barth's SOT-WEED FACTOR). Hugh Gordon was the son of Charles Gordon and Antonia Drummond, and Antonia Drummond was the daughter of Sir Hugh Drummond and Georgia Dewhurst, who were present at the falling of the meteorite at Wold Newton.

Of course, through this family connection, the subsequent Rogers are distantly related to the families that produced Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe, James Bond, Bulldog Drummond, and many another famous hero.

Calvin had two sons. The oldest was Joseph Rogers, who would fight in World War I. So did Joseph's younger brother, Anthony, who was in the battle of the Argonne. Anthony after the war became a chemical engineer. His older brother was not as successful, due to a drinking problem aggravated by post-war trauma.

Anthony disappeared looking for the source of a radioactive gas that had put at least one boy into suspended animation for a few days, in 1927. Philip Nowlan, who had known Anthony, wrote a very odd story called ARMEGEDDON 2419 A.D., where Anthony led the Second American Revolution against oppressors---in the 25th century. This in turn was turned into a comic strip, under his nickname of "Buck". Where Nowlan got his ideas about "Buck" is unknown---whether Anthony left that fantasy as a fictionalized tale before he disappeared, or whether it was a total fabrication by Nowlan or maybe...just maybe...a time traveller brought it back to the 20th century...is unknown.

After all, Captain America would later meet a time traveller called Kang with his fellow Avengers...could Steve Rogers' somehow have learned of his uncle's survival and sent some details (that got distorted) to Nowlan? Yet if so, he would have had to travel back in time before he himself became Captain America...it remains merest speculation at this point.

The idea that "Buck" Rogers and Steve Rogers were uncle and nephew was first mentioned in the aforementioned "Magnificent Gordons".

Joseph, however, was plagued with a drinking problem, and after World War I, had trouble finding a steady job. His exposure to mustard gas during the war had made him sickly, also, although he had won a medal for his quick-thinking during the war, which had saved the troop he was with. He finally got a job as a dock worker, despite his spindly frame and sickly manner. He died of a heart attack when Steve was very young, in 1920.

After her husband died, Sarah Rogers raised her son in the middle of the Depression, and did laundry and housecleaning for others to support them both, until she died when Steve was in his mid-teens, in 1934. Her strong determination and work ethic were a great example to Steve. She was also too proud to beg her brother for money, at the time a fledgling professor of geology and archeology, but someday to be very famous in his line of work.

Sarah's maiden name was Littlejohn, and her brother, and Steve's uncle, was William Harper Littlejohn, better known as "Johnny". (He was also the narrator of Lovecraft's "Mountains of Madness", although Lovecraft renamed him "William Dyer" to avoid any lawsuits.) Johnny, as the readers of the Doc Savage series know, was extremely skinny yet surprisingly tough. He had served in intelligence work during World War I, where he met his future leader, Dr. Clark Savage Jr. In the MAN OF BRONZE, Johnny was described this way.

"Very tall and very gaunt. Johnny wore glasses with a peculiarly thick lens over the left eye. He looked like a half-starved, studious scientist. He was probably one of the greatest living experts on geology and archeology."

His associate Monk Mayfair, once remarked that Johnny looked like "an advance agent for a famine". Like Steve, he has a love for adventure. Can anyone doubt that Steve and "Johnny" are related?

True, Johnny differs in some respects. He has brown eyes rather than blue. (One of his eyes lost its sight due to a World War I injury, but Doc's amazing surgery later restored it.) Johnny is much more the pedagogue than Steve....although certainly Steve has a tendency to lecture sometimes, to Clint Barton/Hawkeye's annoyance. Still, Steve being Johnny's nephew explains a few things...there were probably hundreds of 4F rejects to the army that they might have used for Operation: Rebirth. Where did they hear of Steve's intelligence and courage? Obviously, from his uncle, who worked closely with the government once, and as a Doc Savage aide, still did on occasion. It's possible that General Phillips, who was Steve's military superior and chose him for Operation: Rebirth, was a close friend of Littlejohn's.

Johnny had been in the Antarctic when Joseph Rogers had died. (Actually, Joseph and Sarah had met through Anthony "Buck" Rogers and William Harper Littlejohn, who met in academic circles and introduced their siblings to each other.) He learned a little of Sarah's circumstances, but knew too well her stubbornness to try to help. His heart was broken when Sarah died, though, while he was globetrotting with his adventurous friends.

There was a third sibling, a sister named Helen. She married a man called Jeremiah Ahab, who was descended from a very famous if somewhat imblanced whaling captain of the nineteenth century.

Their son, Jack Ahab, became a chemist for a while at the Monarch Playing Card company. He was thin and spindly like Steve Rogers, but like his uncle William Harper Littlejohn, surprisingly tough for all his spindly build.

What happened next was...a little unclear. Jack Ahab left the employ of the Monarch Playing Card Company. There is some evidence that he may have gotten married and tried to make it as a comedian, only to flop...and that his pregnant wife died from an electrical outlet shorting....but that evidence is not overwhelming and may just be a rumor.

In any case, later that year, a criminal called the Red Hood pulled a series of robberies, at the end running afoul of The Batman in his early carreer as the Red hood tried to rob the Monarch Playing Card Company. He fell into a chemical vat, and the tall, thin character turned into a clownish figure, the chemicals turning his skin-chalk-white, his lips bright red, his hair...green. He became the essence of murderous madness.... the Joker.

It can't be proved that Jack Ahab, Steve's first cousin on his mother's side, and the criminal Joker are one and the same. Yet the same unusual build is true of both men, and the Joker admitted that he used to work for that company as a chemist. Certainly the Joker shows a good deal of chemical knowledge, developing his own toxin that causes people to die but pulling their face into a horrible smile. Like Steve, the Joker is an expert at surviving when other men would die and escaping from places other men would be trapped in. He was famous for using his strong tactical knowledge--abetted by his madness--- to confound The Batman.

Johnny's mother, according to an article by Chuck Loridans, "The Porters", is Ariadne Dryad Porter. The writer makes her the sister of Archimedes Q. Porter, but Philip Jose Farmer specifically says Porter's five siblings died. I respectfully suggest the writer was right in suggesting a relationship, but wrong how close it was.

I think Ariadne was Archimedes' first cousin, also a Porter. She married Isiah Crane Littlejohn, a diplomat for the United States who travelled to many places around the world. (It was during those travels that their son "Johnny" grew to examine different cultures and different rock strata, leading to his love for both archeology and geology.)

Much of Ariadne's ancestry on the Porter side was traced in TARZAN ALIVE, including her relationship to Jane Porter Clayton, Lady Greystoke. We know that Johnny was "named by his mother" so it should not surprise us to find that Ariadne's mother was named Sarah Harper, and was related to the family that would produce William Rainey Harper .

William Rainey Harper (1856-1906) was a famous American Educator, and the first president of the University of Chicago. Born in New Concord, Ohio, he graduated from Yale with a P.H.D....at 18. He became an expert on Hebraic and Semitic languages. "Johnny" was named for his mother's famous cousin, and his famous namesake may have influenced him becoming a professor.

Sarah Harper's brother, Jack Harper was the ancestor of Jim Harper, the policeman who became the guardian of four rambuctious slum kids called the Newsboy Legion---and like his distant cousin, Steve Rogers, would adopt a costumed identity, variously called the Guardian or the Golden Guardian, which included using a shield for protection, in the forties. His adventures...like Steve Rogers...were orginally chronicled by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. (Jim Harper's mother, Jane Duncan, was the daughter of "Clay" Duncan, a scout who managed the young hellions of Simon and Kirby's BOY'S RANCH.)

Later Jim Harper rose to the rank of Captain of Detectives, and was killed in a criminal shoot-out. However, he was cloned by the fledgling DNA project, and his clone still works for it, as chronicled by Jack Kirby.

Jim had an older brother, whose name I haven't determined. He was flying a plane when he crashed on an isolated mesa with his indian servant and young son, Roy. The older Harper died in the crash, but his son grew up there at least into his teenage years, becoming an expert archer. Later he would meet Oliver Queen, The Green Arrow, and become his assistant, Speedy. (That is the original version of the story, by Mort Weisinger.)

Whether, as later writers had it, Roy Harper became the hero known as Arsenal and had a child by a criminal named Cheshire is still being verified.

Ariadne's husband, Isiah Crane Littlejohn, was a diplomat for the United States. His mother was Katherine Crane, and she was descended from a teacher named Ichabod Crane, whom Washington Irving immortalized in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". His gaunt frame was passed on to some of his descendents, but luckily, not his nervous and superstitious nature.

(It is said in the family history that Ichabod, after leaving Sleepy Hollow, travelled abroad, and married a Spanish woman of good family called Consuelo de la Mancha. One wonders if that was a descendent of Don Quixote de la Mancha, immortalized by Cervantes? Like his descendents, Johnny, Steve Rogers, and the Joker, Don Quixote had a gaunt frame. He had a strong streak of idealism and heroism, as his descendent Steve Rogers would have---even if it was misplaced. Like the Joker, he was also caught up in his own madness. Certainly his use of armor anticipates Cap's use of his shield...)

Isiah's father was an obscure politician, never reaching any national prominence. Isiah had two sisters. One, Terri, married the brother of Jane Carter Lee, Jane Porter's mother, and related to both "Light-Horse" Harry Lee, the Revolutionary War hero, and Robert E. Lee, the great Confederate tactician. Mr. Lee (I haven't been able to find out his first name yet) travelled the world, and laid claim to a mine in the Orient. He seemed to have been a robust sort, and his children were not gaunt like their grandmother.

This may have been aided by the influx of Carter blood also. For a short history of the remarkable Carter family, including Peggy and Sharon Carter, the two greatest loves of Steve Rogers' life, consult "The Mysterious Case of the Carters" by Todd Rutt and Arn McConnell. (I suspect Captain "Rip" Carter, the head of a company of Rangers during World War II, and adult mentor to the "Boy Commandos", of being Sharon and Peggy's brother. His adventures were also chronicled by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.) You also might consult "The Carters of Virginia: A Tragedy" by Jess Nevins.

Mr. Lee had two sons. One was William Lee, who knocked around the world, perhaps initially seeking his father's mine, but later to become an intelligence agent, two-fisted adventurer, FBI agent, and detective, as well as, in his own words,

"Beachcomber, boxer, cook, aviator, seaman, explorer, soldier of artillery, infantry and cavalry, suh."

He went under the slang name of "Capt. Easy." Like so many of the family, he had a sidekick, Wash Tubbs, in his adventures, and his adventures were chronicled in the adventure comic strip, WASH TUBBS. (Thanks to Mark Brown for suggesting that Capt. Easy and Terry Lee might be related.)

Whether William Lee/Capt. Easy is related to the William Lee that William S. Burroughs chronicles is still being determined.

William's brother died young, and left an orphan, Terry Lee. Terry, as a teenager, was befriended by Pat Ryan and the Oriental George Washington Confuscious while searching for his grandfather's mine, and they had many adventures together, as chronicled in the comic strip, "Terry and the Pirates" by Milt Caniff. Like his cousin, Steve Rogers, Terry would go into the military, becoming an Air Force pilot during World War II, when he grew up. (Like so many related to Steve, he had blonde hair and blue eyes, also.)

Captain Easy and Terry's father had a sister, who married a military man named Trevor. Their son, Steve Trevor, closely resembled Terry Lee or Steve Rogers--at least, after Steve took the Super-Soldier Serum. Like them, he was a military man and very patriotic, as is especially shown by his near-worship of the flag-wearing Princess Diana, the self-proclaimed Amazon Princess who wore a brief costume modelled after the American flag---otherwise known as Wonder Woman. Her and Steve's adventures were told (in highly exagerrated and fictionalized form) by William Moulton Marston (the developer of the lie detector) and H.G. Peters. Whether any of the later adventures by other writers and artists had any truth to them is still to be determined.

Isiah Crane Littlejohn's other sister, Katrina, married a Swedish businessman, Sven Stjarnhelm, descended from the Grenvilles who were also the ancestors of Eliza Gordon, Steve's grandmother. (See the "Magnificent Gordons" article.)

Their son, Karl N. Stjarnhelm, was entranced by his mother's tales of America, and decided to immigrate to America with his young wife Ericka, after World War I. He shortened the family name to Helm when he came to the States.

Their son, Matt Helm, was the subject of some fictionalized novels by Donald Hamilton, and completely miscast in a series of movies with Dean Martin as the lead. Matt, quite frankly, was an assassin for the U.S. government. Nevertheless, like his cousin Steve Rogers he was blonde-haired and blue-eyed, tall and thin, a self-described "beanpole" although not as much as the original Steve Rogers or "Johnny" were. Like Steve Rogers he served the USA in his own more quiet and deadly way. Unlike Steve Rogers, he was much more cynical.

So Steve Rogers' family tree included many branches populated by adventurers, military men, and patriots, as is only fitting---for the living legend of World War II.

PARTIAL LIST OF SOURCES:

"The Magnificent Gordons" Mark Brown's excellent article, which gives a geneaology for some very famous Gordons, including Calvin's marriage to Eliza Gordon, and the relation of "Buck" Rogers to Steve Rogers.

"The Porters" by Chuck Loridans explores the relation between Archimedes Q. Porter and William Harper Littlejohn.

"The Carters of Virginia: A Tragedy" by Jess Nevins.

"The Mysterious Case of the Carters" by Todd Rutt and Arn McConnell.

"Masked Memories, the story of the Reid family") by Dennis Powers.

THE STAR-SPANGLED SITE, home of all things pertaining to Captain America...

Of course, also TARZAN ALIVE and DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE by Philip Jose Farmer.

Those interested with comments, suggestions, things I have forgotten, things I messed up, contact me at...
E-Mail:al.schroeder@nashville.com

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Speculations Copyright © Al Schroeder. "Captain America", of course, is copyrighted by Marvel Comics Group, although I understand Joe Simon is also applying for the copyright. All other characters copyrighted by their respective owners.