The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1909-05-28
BEGAN As NENSBOY
AND ROGERS DIED AS KING OF
MODERN FINANCE.
SUCCUMBS 10 ApOrltW
sio Standard Oil Man Dies After Long
Siege, Leaving Fortune OF
Fifty Millions.

New York. Special: III. III. Rogers,
,he standard Oil capitalist. died at
hIe residence. East Seventy-eighth
street Wednesday morning. He
arose about and about he began
- feel in. complaining of lumbness
and nausea.
A nhysician was hurriedly summon
al MS heart action was weak and
n was apparent that he was suffer
inc from stroke OF apoplexy. This
was the second illness Of this nature
suffered by Mr. Rogers, the first hav-
ING occurred in July. 1907. In spite
Of an that could be done for him, Mr..
Rogers sank rapidly and the end came
peacefully at o'clock.
Following the seizure of apoplexy
III 1907. Mr. Rogers began putting his
affairs iu order and he had been prac-
tjcally out Of the stock market for
months. His interests in all of the
corporations with which he had been
identified were placed in other hands
during The last year. This step was
taken i'm order TO safeguard his prop
critics In the event of sudden death.
Henry II Rogers was born in Fair
hayea Mass. His father was a sea
captain who never got rich.
Young Rogers had the experience
common 10 poor boys in a small place.
He earned So week as a barefooted
erranl boy for a grocer. and there are
still old people in Fairhaven who re-
member Henry. the bright-eyed lad
who used 10 deliver groceries at their
back doors
The traditions OF the boyhood and
youth of Rogers are hazy. In his
prime he was too busy working ST
lently industriOusly. earnestly to mas
ter every detail of the great business
Of which he became the practical
head, to attract public attention. The
most vivid pen picture of him ever
given IS that OF Thomas w. Lawson.
IN his story Of "Frenzied Finance"
lawson wrote of the man whom he
had known Intimately:
Away from the spell Of dollar
making. this remarkable man is one
Of the most charming and lovable be
ings ! have ever encountered: a man
whom any man or woman would be
proud 10 have for a brother; a man
whom any father or mother would
give thanks for as a son; man
whom any woman would be happy TO
know as her husband. and man
whom any hoy or girl would rejoice
TO call father.
But once he passes under the bale
nj influence OF the machine he be
comes relentless, ravenous, pitiless as
a shark knowing no law of God or
man IN the execution of his purpose
Between him and coveted dollars may
come no kindly human inhuences-all
are thrust aside. their claims disre-
garded in ministering TO this strange,
cannibalistic money hunger which. in
truth. grows by what IL feeds upon.
New Bedford, just across the bay
from Fairhaven. Mass, was great
whaling town in the days when
Henry II. Rogers was a boy. Sperm
eli was its chief industry, and there
were sperm oil refineries there.
The oil industry must have appeal
cd 70 the imagination OF the young
man, but instead of going of in a
Whaler he went of overland TO the
pennsylvania oil fields, where the pro-
ducuon Of petroleum was yet In its
Infancy
John D. Rockefeller already had
seen the possibilities OF petroleum
and was laying the foundations for
MS fortune. Henry II. Rogers went
ousily 20 work and laid the founda-
uons hat were 10 bring him millions
second only to those of the great head
Of the biggest trust.
II was not long before Rogers was
one Of the big four in the Standard |
OA TIE was second in power. in
nuence and ability only to John ID.
rockefeller himself. After him came |
William Rockefeller and John ID. |
Archbod, the two men upon whom
ueNolyes the now tangled affairs and
threatened existence of the big trust