Palestine daily herald. [volume] (Palestine, Tex.) 1902-1949, 1909-05-19
You When Store Offering
HENRY H. ROGERS DEAD
Head of All Standard Oil interests
Died Suddenly Today at New
York Residence.
(HeraId Specially

(Herald Specially
New York, May 19.-Henry H. Rog-
ers, the head of all the Standard Oil
interests, died here today suddenly at
his residence. Mr.. Rogers has been in
more or less bad health for the past
few years, but his death came as
shock.
Henry H. Rogers was the executive
vice president of the Standard Oil
company, and was frequently called
the real master of Standard OIL" 1t
has been said by many that it was
he, and not John D. Rockefeller, who
evolved the idea of an oil monopoly.
However this might be, it is certain
that after the retirement of Mr. Rock
efeller from active business the con-
duct of the affairs of the Standard
Oil company and it's great allied in
terests was absolutely in the hands of
Mr.. Rogers.
Mr.. Rogers began his career as a
newsboy in the town of New Bedford,
Mass, and was born not far away in
the village of Fair Haven. New Bed
ford at that time was the home port
of great fleet of American whalers.
That was before the days of oil
wells, and in the heyday of the sperm
oil trade. Young Rogers knocked
about among the whalers and oil re-
fineries with his eyes open and an in
creasing appreciation of the CONNER
cial values of oil. Then came the dis
.covery of coal oil in Pennsylvania, an
event that instantly took the life out
of the sperm oil industry. Rogers
Joined the rush to the oil fields and
found profitable employment. Here
he began to give evidence of the gen
tius for organization and executive
ability that later was to make him a
multi-millionaire. He was prolific in
ideas for saving and marketing the
product of the wells, and some of the
ideas were so good that he was en-
foyed by one of the big operators to
!tlsal,a a-a+ ----- l1 Illais apnPi e14,raant
= him confidence in himself and
'lSsIsdated him to new endeavors.
4 Rogers finally proposed a scheme
(which, at that time, was most daring.
This was that the owners of all pro-
ducing wells should pool their pro-
duct and market it through one con-
Germ, the purpose being by controlling
the output, reducing the cost of hand
ling, fixing a uniform cost for certain
grades and stopping competition, to
increase profits. Some of the larger
operators took up the proposition and
this was the inception of the Standard
Oil company. Before long Rogers
conceived the idea of buying out all
the small producers and organizing
the larger ones into a combination
that would control the oil trade of
the country. The capital was found
and the project was carried out as
far as the refusal of certain producers
to sell would permit
With his wonderful executive abil-
ity once recognized Mr.. Rogers was
in demand for many big enterprises.
There was the matter of putting the
Standard Oil company's products into
all the markets of the world, and Mr..
Rogers had hand in the successful
accomplishment of this task. Then
there were competitors abroad to be
eXterminated. Later Mr.. Rogers came
into prominence in connection with
his vast copper operations in the Mon
tana and other fields. He also held
heavy financial interests in various
banks, gas companies and street rail
ways. His wealth has been estimated
at close to $1OO,OOO,OOO.
Mr.. Rogers was never known as
one of the nations very rich men
who went in for any special form of
charity or philanthropic work. His
sentimental fondness for the town of
birth, however, was evidenced by his
lavish expenditure of money for Fair
Haven. To his native town he gave
more than $4,OOO,OOO for the erection
of municipal buildings, the laying out
of streets and parks, to say nothing
of his generous gifts to the poor and
needy residents. He gave to the town
the Rogers School, built at cost of
100000, and a high school building
which cost $750,OO0 A town hall cost
tanother 100000. AS a monument to
his daughter he erected the Millicent
Rogers Library, costing $95O,OOO, and
as a memorial to his mother, Mrs.
Mary Eldredge Rogers, he built the
First Unitarian church and its ele-
giant parsonage, costing $1,O0OO00.
Mr.. Rogers was twice married. His
first wife, by whom he had three
daughters and a son, was Abbie T.
Clifford of Fair Haven. She died in