Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-07-25
A sELF-MADE MILLIONAIRE.
How Henry G. Prick Became "the Coke
kinR'LHi. Relations with Carnegie.


ments. SAYS the New York World. has been az
much subject for wonder and discussion in
Pennsylvania as Andrew Carnegie, whom he
succeeded in the management Of the vast steel
and iron works around Pittsburg controlled by
| the corporal on to which they belong. There
are many simiiarities between the two men. as
we'll as many differences, but the marvellous
success they achieved unaided in amassing mill
| lions and raising themselves to great power and
influence within very few years has made
them the subjects OF much curiosity and no Lit :
| tie admiration.
Mr.. Prick. however, began to come into
prominence about the time Mr.. Carnegie had
ready to retire. He was also younger than Mr..
Carnegie, having reached his forty-second year
only in December last. Unlike Mr.. Carnegie,
he was born in the heart Of the very region he
afterward came to dominate and where all the
years Of his active life have been spent.
Although the active manager OF the great
Carnegie steel and iron industries, Mr.. Prick
did not become directly connected with this
branch Of commerce until very few years ago.
His success was achieved in coke, and he came
to be called "the Coke King. Coke Is an i'm
portant element in the manufacture of steel
and iron, producing heat and conditions in the
reduction of the ores not to be attained through
the use Of coal or natural gas, although these
are used in other parts Of the process.
The manufacture of coke. however, remained
. separate industry. 1t was in this way that
Mr.. Prick came into position to rule in the
steel and iron business BY energy. far sight
edness and shrewd business talent be began to
monopolize and bring under his own manage
ment the scattered elements Of the coke indus
try. Coke being made in o primitive way, with
inexpensive machinery, multitude OF small
producers we're at work in western Pennsyiva-
MI nrOdnct
scattered and unrelated that the iron and steel
men relied upon natural competition to keep
the price down. and. Us long a. they knew that
the coke men were fighting each other, they
knew that they could buy coke cheaper than
they could make it themselves.
IN COMMANDING POSITION.
1t was far different, however. when Henry C.
Prick acquired control of the coke business. He
not only controlled the output and selling price
Of coke, but he went further back to the base Of
supplies and bought enough coal mines to keep
his ovens supplied indefinitely. Then he was
in u position to dictate terms to the steel and
iron men, and they we're quick to zee it. This
was only ten years ago,
Andrew Carnegie was the first to recognize
that Mr.. Frick must be considered in any calcu-
latiou as to the steel and iron business. Mr.
Prick at that time was associated with T.. NJ
and ". Ferguson in the manufacture Of COKE
under the name of II. c. Frick 4 Co. For
81 500, 900 Carnegie Bros. Co. bought q half
interest ia the business. That WAS in January
1882. In the following April the II. G. Frick
Coke COMPANY started with Mr.. Prick as
president. and in 1899 the capital was increased
to 81. OO0, 900.
David A. Stewart. one Of the original partners
of Andrew Carnegie, died in December, 1883,
and Mr.. Carnegie induced Mr.. Prick to come
into the company. The vast Carnegie and
Prick industries, the one in iron. the other in
L. L. ka.x la, xa1 T.,
sphere Mr.. Frick displayed the same business
ability which had made him successful in all his
earlier ventures and when all the Carnegie
steel and iron interests we're united in new
corporation last June Mr.. Frick was made
chairman Of the board OF directors and manager
Carnegie.
FRIcK's PERSONALITY.
1t was thus, in the events growing out Of the
Homestead strike, that Mr.. Frick was regarded
as personifying the corporation. The person
ality and methods Of Mr.. Prick were at the same
time familiar TO everybody in that region for
he had been born and brought up in the imme-
date neighborhood. and smany mill hands Of
middle age remembered him rs boy
They also knew that the develop
ment Of the industry was in large
degree owing to HE sagacity. and TINT through
Improvements and economical methods he had
the allied branches of manufacture.
Mr.. Prick Is prominently a self-made mil
lionaire. His father was a farmer in moderate
circumstances. who lived in West 0yerton. Pa.
Young Prick began his business life as q dry
goods ele-k in Mount Pleasant. The only edu-
cation he bad received had been obtained in the
common schools Of Fayette county. He left the
dry goods store to become bookkeeper in the
distillery of his grandfather at Bradford.
In the heart OF the coke region, and before he
was twenty one years old, Harry Prick, rs he
was called. began to take a deep interest in the
acquired knowledge Of men and their man.
agement, and his earliest ambition Of COM
mercial nature was to enter business on his own
account as an employer of labor. With this
end in view be lived economically and saved
his money. He had barely attained his major
ity when he left the distillery and went into the
coke business with A. o. Tintsman and JOS.
Rist, and the young firm. with the boy its
senior partner. was called Frick d Co. They
began with 800 acres Of land and fifty ovens
This was a very moderate equipment with
which to engage in the business, even in those
days
Young Prick. however. was determined to
succeed He had good health and Judgment
sound common sense and was perfectly willing
to work long and arduously to insure the sue
cess which he believed he would attain. He
was successful in the coke business from the
outset
Mr.. Frick. with many Of his neighbors, was
deeply interested in opening up that part Of the
country through the building of railroads, and
much to his delight the Mount Pleasant and
Broad Ford railroad wNs built during the first
year of his life employer. It opened up the
northern end of the region, where new COM
mercial activity set in aud many additional coke
ovens were built.
HE TOOK DESPERATE CHANCES.
Speaking yesterday Of Mr.. Tricks career one
who has known him long said: He was essen il.
tally . speculasor, and he took a gambler s
chances in his largest business ventures. II
the card had turned the other way he would
have been ruined again and again. This was
especially so when be started in on his scheme
to control the Connellsville coke regions Tints-
man and Rist his first partners. got into diff
cuIiies and he bought them ont and continued
the business alone. Then he was only twenty
four years old.
The panic of 1878 knocked the bottom out
Of the coal and iron Industries OF western
Pennsylyania for the time being; the mills were
shut up and everything hattened out Prick be-
ieved there big boom coming in the near
future. Nobody else believed it. Old and
shrewd business men who had spent their lives
in the business told Prick he would certainly be
ruined il he banked on such BOOM
Nevertheless he began to bnv all the coke
ovens he could. Those be could not buy he
leased. He got them all cheap, for nobody else
had such rosy views he, and when he had
/ sal RI all al