David Dunham Rogers
(1850-1919)

Died aged c. 69

David Dunham Rogers, born in 1850, was one of Daytona’s earliest settlers in 1874 and one of its founding fathers in 1876. A graduate of Cooper Union Institute in New York City, he was Daytona’s first surveyor. For four decades he made surveys and produced hundreds of maps from Jacksonville to Key West, but concentrated on Volusia County, especially Daytona Beach and other towns along the Halifax River. In 1884 he had the first wagon road graded across the peninsula from river to ocean. He built the first ice plant in 1886. In 1888 he built the first bridge to cross the river in Daytona (today’s Main Street bridge). His daughter, Dr. Josie Rogers, was Daytona’s first female physician and only female mayor. David Dunham Rogers built their second home in 1879 at 436 North Beach Street. Just before he died in 1919, he gave that property to the City of Daytona Beach for a riverside park.

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