Our Will Rogers Heritage                

 

The Will Rogers Heritage Festival celebrates our city’s ties to one of the most famous men of his time. We are proud to be sanctioned by the Will Rogers Commission and the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma. The wonderful family and staff helped us in many ways to insure that our festival is as authentic a representation as possible of the events and lifestyles of the Will Rogers era, 1875 - 1935. We were honored to have Will’s grandson, a member of the Will Rogers Commission and a member of the Gunter family attend our Festival last year as special guests and expect to have family members join us again this year.

 

 

Will Rogers, one of the most world famous Americans of the twentieth century, might possibly have been born in Guntersville if it had not been for the 1838 Trail of Tears, the forced removal of the Cherokees from Guntersville and the surrounding area. Will’s Great-Great Grandfather, John Gunter, for whom Guntersville is named, settled here around 1785 and married a young Cherokee living here at that time. They had 3 sons and 4 daughters, one of which was Will’s Grand Mother, Elizabeth Hunt Gunter. Elizabeth married Martin M. Schrimsher at Guntersville in 1831. In 1839, soon after the trail of tears this marriage produced, Will’s mother, Mary America Schrimsher, who would later marry Clem Rogers and give birth in 1879 to Will Rogers.The highly acclaimed musical tribute to Will Rogers will once again fill the Dot Moore Auditorium at the Whole Backstage Theater in Guntersville as “The Will Rogers Follies” is performed June 5 – 8 , 2008 as part of the Will Rogers Heritage Festival.


Will’s Relatives on a Visit to Guntersville


 


  

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