Elisur (or Elizur) H. Rogers was born on 1 May 1825, the son of Abijah H. Rogers and Harriet Chidsey of North Branford, New Haven County, Connecticut. In January 1849 Rogers, then a resident of North Bristol, left Connecticut for the California gold fields, as a member of a joint-stock company called the Montague Mining and Trading Association. He was among 50-odd members (enumerated in the New Haven Register for 24 January 1849) who sailed for California on the schooner G. H. Montague; they made the passage from New Haven to San Francisco via Cape Horn in just over five months (23 January to 27 June 1849). From San Francisco the Montague ascended the Sacramento River to its tributary the Feather, whence many of the company set out for the mines. Rogers himself was plagued by illness, possibly dysentery, from early July, and could do little productive labor. He died on 15 November, by which time many other members had fallen sick and died, and the company, apparently, had been dissolved.