Fanny Rogers (maiden name: Fanny Montgomery Lewis) was born around 1817 in Pennsylvania to Joseph S. Lewis and Frances Montgomery. Her father was a civic leader in Philadelphia who served as president of the Schuylkill Navigation Company and chairman of the city’s Watering Committee. Fanny married chemistry professor Robert E. Rogers on March 13, 1843, and they spent the next nine years living in Charlottesville, Virginia. They did not have any children together. In 1852, they returned to Philadelphia, where Robert worked as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. By 1860, the family employed two Irish servants, and Fanny owned at least $4,350 of property in her own name. Three years later, in February 1863, she suffered a severe sore throat, which quickly “assumed a malignant and unmanageable form.” She died a few days later, on the evening of February 21, 1863, and was buried in Philadelphia’s Laurel Hill Cemetery.