Samuel Rogers was born in Franklin, North Carolina in 1859. He was a clerk of the Superior Court of Macon County, North Carolina from 1892 until 1893; collector of internal revenue for the western district of North Carolina from 1895 until 1897; and a member of the North Carolina State Corporation Commission from 1899 until 1911. He was director of the Bank of Franklin at the time of his appointment as director of the Census Bureau. Rogers oversaw the census of 1920, and played a key role in drafting the authorizing legislation for that census. He died in 1925.