Parents
Henry Rogers and Abbie Gifford had been raised in working-class families of Mayflower lineage in the small coastal fishing town of Fairhaven, adjacent to New Bedford, in Bristol County, Massachusetts. Long a whaling port, the industry was in serious decline as they became teenagers. Childhood sweethearts, they were both among the graduates of Fairhaven's first high school class in 1857. Afterwards, Henry went to work on a local railroad and saved carefully for several years. Petroleum was replacing whaling oil for lighting, and at 21, he invested his $600 savings, and in 1861, set out with a friend for the newly-discovered oil fields of Venango County, Pennsylvania .
In 1862, Henry returned to Fairhaven on vacation, and he and Abbie were married. Returning to western Pennsylvania, the young couple lived in a one-room shack near Oil City, where Henry Rogers and his a partner worked at their tiny Wamsutta Oil Refinery for several years. The first daughter, Anne, was born there in 1865. Living frugally and working hard, Rogers drew the attention of oil pioneer Charles Pratt, who hired him. Moving with Abbie and Anne to Brooklyn, he soon became Pratt's right hand. Rogers developed a process for separating naphtha from crude oil, and received a U.S. patent in 1870. A few years later, Henry Rogers helped negotiate successfully when John D. Rockefeller acquired Pratt interests to become part of Standard Oil.
By 1874, Henry Rogers had become a wealthy principal in Standard Oil, and was living in New York City and maintaining a summer home in Fairhaven. In later years, he became one of the wealthiest men in the United States. He held many investments outside of his key role at Standard Oil. Particularly noteworthy, in the early 20th century, was the 440-mile (710 km) "engineering marvel" Virginian Railway, a low gradient route from southern West Virginia coal fields to the Atlantic port of Hampton Roads, which was built almost entirely from his private fortune, an unparalleled feat. 100 years later a large portion of the former Virginian Railway, which was merged into the rival Norfolk and Western in 1959, forms a key piece of the Norfolk Southern rail network.
Read more about this topic: Mary (Mai) Huttleston Rogers Coe
Famous quotes containing the word parents:
“Even today . . . experts, usually male, tell women how to be mothers and warn them that they should not have children if they have any intention of leaving their side in their early years. . . . Children don’t need parents’ full-time attendance or attention at any stage of their development. Many people will help take care of their needs, depending on who their parents are and how they chose to fulfill their roles.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“Childhood is an adventure both for children and for their parents. There should be freedom to explore and joy in discovery. The important discoveries for both parents and children seldom come at the points where the path is smooth and straight. It is the curves in that path to adventure that make the trip interesting and worthwhile.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“Hollywood keeps before its child audiences a string of glorified young heroes, everyone of whom is an unhesitating and violent Anarchist. His one answer to everything that annoys him or disparages his country or his parents or his young lady or his personal code of manly conduct is to give the offender a “sock” in the jaw.... My observation leads me to believe that it is not the virtuous people who are good at socking jaws.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)