Early years thumb|250px|left|The White House on the Verdigris River, Will Rogers' birthplace, near Oologah, Oklahoma Rogers was born on his parents' Dog Iron Ranch in the Cherokee Nation of Indian Territory, near present-day Oologah, Oklahoma, now in Rogers County, named in honor of his father, Clement V. Rogers.Cunningham, Frank. General Stand Watie's Confederate Indians. (p. 50). University of Oklahoma Press. 1998. The house in which he was born had been built in 1875 and was known as the "White House on the Verdigris River". His parents, Clement V. (Clem) Rogers (1839–1911) and Mary America Schrimsher (1838–1890), were both mixed-race with Cherokee ancestry, and considered themselves Cherokee.Yagoda, p. 8 Rogers quipped that his ancestors did not come over on the Mayflower, but they "met the boat". His mother was one quarter-Cherokee and born into the Paint Clan.Carter, Joseph H. and Larry Gatlin. The Quotable Will Rogers. Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2005:20.
Early years thumb|250px|left|The White House on the Verdigris River, Will Rogers' birthplace, near Oologah, Oklahoma Rogers was born on his parents' Dog Iron Ranch in the Cherokee Nation of Indian Territory, near present-day Oologah, Oklahoma, now in Rogers County, named in honor of his father, Clement V. Rogers.Cunningham, Frank. General Stand Watie's Confederate Indians. (p. 50). University of Oklahoma Press. 1998. The house in which he was born had been built in 1875 and was known as the "White House on the Verdigris River". His parents, Clement V. (Clem) Rogers (1839–1911) and Mary America Schrimsher (1838–1890), were both mixed-race with Cherokee ancestry, and considered themselves Cherokee.Yagoda p. 8 Rogers quipped that his ancestors did not come over on the Mayflower, but they "met the boat". His mother was one quarter-Cherokee and born into the Paint Clan.Carter, Joseph H. and Larry Gatlin. The Quotable Will Rogers. Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2005:20.