George W. Rogers, 28, male, served as a deputy sheriff in Cleveland County when he was mortally wounded during a manhunt near Rison on August 14, 1925. He and Deputy Ulyss Melvin Baldwin were part of a posse of seven deputies searching a residence tied to two brothers who had escaped from the Cleveland County Convict Farm. As the search unfolded inside the home, one of the brothers opened fire repeatedly, and the tight quarters turned the raid into an ambush, leaving three deputies hit.
Rogers and Baldwin were rushed north to a hospital in Pine Bluff, but both succumbed to their injuries while surgeons fought to save them.
The shock of the killings rippled through Cleveland County, where the fallen officers were mourned together and laid to rest in Greenwood Cemetery at Rison, their graves drawing heavy crowds in the days that followed. Contemporary notices and later memorials placed Rogers’ death in mid-August 1925 and recorded him among the men “lost to gun violence” on that date, linking his final hours to the same burst of gunfire that felled Baldwin during the escapees’ pursuit.
Accounts from the period and subsequent officer memorials describe the shooters only as two fugitive brothers from the county’s convict farm and do not name them or detail the outcome of any subsequent arrests or prosecutions. Available records focus on the deputies’ last call and the community’s response; none of the sources located provide confirmation that the suspect or suspects were captured or brought to trial.
