The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-01-29
WELDED THE BIRCH
 OVER ROCKEFELLER
Teacher Gives Impressions Of
 John and William
BOTH GOOD STUDENTS
eMaoazine Rockefeller Not the Same as the Rockefeller He Knew Many Years Ago, Says Man Who
 Taught the Magnate.

Milwaukee, Wis.-For two years teach- CT of John D. Rockefeller and of his brother William and sister Lucy, pr. F. M. Rogers, hale and hearty at "A years of age, lives in Hartford. Washington | county. Wis, where he has been practice Ing medicine for the last half century Ihe Doctor is a famous raconteur. and one of tine most pleasant diversions known to tho residents of the village where he has TOT almost a lifetime shared the sorrow ana joys of them all is to draw him out 10 speak of his recolieetions of the RoeKe- fellers.
 1t was ffty-four years ago when
 started to teach school in small one room frame school house in owego, Tioga county, N. Y.," said Dr. Rogers. Tt was in the Lamont school district, and the po-
 pills in fny care were like those Of any other school, normal boys and girls, Witii good health and good appetites, who were neither more nor less mischievous thah the youngsters of today
 "The Rockefellers were good pupils de- pendable at all time, and remarkaDly bright. John at the time must have been Il or 12 years of age, while William was or 10. John was rather large for ms age and had a good face, character anu great will power. He was at all times studlous and his department was eXeel- lent-one of those boys, you know, wno were never tardy and who had worK m them.
 AS was the custom in those days l received small pay for my teaching and was boarded around among the parents of my pupils. The Rockefellers home was only about twenty rods from the school house, and I was there much of the time. Mrs Rockefeller, mother Of the two boys, was a worthy woman of Tar more than ordinary intelligence. and 1t is probably owing to the training her sons received at her hands that they have been so successful. She was fine dis ciplinarian without unnecessary severity and was a Christian woman in every sense of the word.
 William Rockefell was Of some what different disposition from John, who was sedate and dignified at all times Will liam was jolly and mschieyous, though never malicious.
 q remember one incident which will l illustrate the dependabiity of the entire 1 family. In our district the superintendent Prof Charles R. Coburn, was man of unusual severity. He was feared alike by teachers and pupils and was terrible man when he visited the schools in his 1 charge One day I was notified that he contemplated a visit to my school, the date having already been set.
 q worked like a Trojan to get my children into form. but they were terror stricken, apparently. by the impending calamity and I could do little or nothing
 with most of them. When the day arrived
 faced more empty seats than had ever
 seen In my school. The larger boys and l girls had decided to absent themselves and did so to my great modification
 "But John, William and Lucy Rocke- l feller were on hand and recited their les sons with great credit to themselves and l to me. have never forgotten 1t and con slider 1t a. good illustration of the spirit which has brought success to the boys. The old frame house in which the fam l fly lived at that time loks today just as 1t did fifty-four years ago, 1t was pur- chased by John D. Rockefeller and Is be- l ing preserved, unchanged, as a reeollec- 1 tion of a happy boyhood.'
 The practice of his profession has brought Dr. Rogens little in the way of worldly wealth, but it has endowed him with a sunny disposition, and he is not of the number who envy the vast wealth | of his former pupils. Telling tales out Of | are all kindly tales, and one has a differ | ent conception of the magazine Roekefel- l Ter after a talk with the venerable doc-