Henry H. Rogers Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Henry Huttleston Rogers (January 29, 1840–May 19, 1909), was a United States capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier and philanthropist. He was one of the key men in John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust. He later developed the Virginian Railway, while one of his Standard Oil associates, Henry Morrison Flagler developed the Florida East Coast Railway. Both railroads formed part of today's US rail network.Born into a working class family in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, he worked in his father’s grocery store as a teenager, and was in the first graduating class of the local high school. He hired on with the Old Colony Railroad as a brakeman, and saved carefully.
In 1861, he pooled his $600 savings with a friend, and set out for western Pennsylvania to the newly discovered oil fields, where he found and developed his fortune, associating himself with Charles Pratt, whose firm in turn later became part of the Standard Oil Trust.
He was married to his childhood sweetheart for over 30 years until her death; they had four children. Rogers was an energetic man, and amassed a great fortune, estimated at over $100 million. He invested heavily in various industries, including copper, steel, mining, and railways.
His final achievement, working with partner William Nelson Page, was the building of the Virginian Railway (VGN) from the coal fields of southern West Virginia to port near Norfolk at Sewell's Point, Virginia in the harbor of Hampton Roads. Financed almost entirely from Rogers’ own resources, it competed with the Chesapeake & Ohio; and Norfolk & Western; Railways for coal traffic. Built following his policy of investing in the best route and equipment on initial selection and purchase to save operating expenses, the VGN enjoyed a more modern pathway built to the highest standards, and provided major competition to its larger neighboring railroads, each of whom tried several times unsuccessfully to acquire it.
Although Rogers died just as the railroad was completed, the 600 mile Virginian Railway followed his philosophy throughout its profitable history. It operated some of the largest and most powerful steam, electric, and diesel locomotives throughout its 50 year history, resulting in a following of railway enthusiasts which continues to the present day. The VGN was merged into the Norfolk & Western; in 1959. Much of the former VGN trackage in Virginia is still in use in 2004 as the preferred route for eastbound coal trains for Norfolk Southern Corporation.
The diverse Rogers, who was at times known as a fierce businessman nicknamed ‘hell hound Rogers’, was also a modest but generous philanthropist who apparently never forgot his roots. He gave generously of time and money to his hometown of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, where he helped fund a church, public schools, and dedicated the Millicent Library in memory of his young daughter who had died. In 1893, he became friends with Mark Twain, whose finances he helped reorganize, and Helen Keller, whose college education he and his wife helped make possible. Rogers was also a friend of Dr. Booker T. Washington. It was later revealed in Dr. Washington's papers that Rogers had funded many small country schools and larger institutions in the South for the betterment and education of negroes.
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