Abbie Gifford Rogers (January 20 1841 – May 21 1894), was the first wife of Henry Huttleston Rogers, (1840-1909), a
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
capitalistCapitalism is an economic and social system in which the means of production are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor...
, businesswoman, industrialist,
financierFinancier is a term for a person who handles typically large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. The term is French, and derives from finance or payment...
, and
philanthropistA philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
.
As children, Abbie and "Hen", each of
MayflowerThe Mayflower was the famous ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from Southampton, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts , in 1620...
lineage, grew up and went to school together in
Fairhaven, MassachusettsFairhaven is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located on the south coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzzards Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean...
, a small coastal fishing town with a
whalingWhaling is the hunting of whales which dates back to at least 3,000 BC. The evolution of traditional Arctic whaling developed with increasing rapidity by early organized fleets in the 17th century; competitive national whaling industries in the 18th and 19th centuries; and the introduction of...
heritage. They were married in 1862, and started their family life together in a one room shack in the newly discovered western
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
oil fieldsPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds.The term "petroleum" was first used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in...
. Although he and Abbie lived frugally for many years, by 1875, Henry Rogers had risen in the
petroleum industryThe petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting , and marketing petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline...
to become one of the key men in
John D. RockefellerJohn Davison Rockefeller was an American industrialist. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil Company and aggressively ran it until he officially retired in 1897. Standard Oil began as an Ohio...
’s
Standard OilStandard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as an Ohio corporation, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
Trust. He invested heavily in various industries, including copper, steel, mining, and railways. The
Virginian RailwayThe Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads....
is widely considered his final life's achievement. Rogers amassed a great fortune, estimated at over $100 million, and became one of the wealthiest men in the United States.
Abbie and Henry Rogers were generous, providing many public works for their hometown of
FairhavenFairhaven is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located on the south coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzzards Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean...
, including the Town Hall which Abbie donated in 1894 shortly before her untimely death. Rogers also financially assisted such notables as
Mark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted...
,
Helen Keller Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree....
, and Booker T. Washington.
Abbie and Henry Rogers had 5 children, four of whom survived to adulthood. She died suddenly on May 21, 1894, following an operation in New York City. After her death, Henry Rogers is said to have immersed himself even more in his work during the 15 years he outlived her. When he died in 1909, he was interred with her at Riverside Cemetery in Fairhaven.
Childhood in Fairhaven, Massachusetts
Abigail Palmer Gifford was the daughter of Mary (née Palmer) Gifford and Captain Peleg W. Gifford. Abbie's father had been a whaling ship captain and participated in the "
Great Stone FleetThe Stone Fleet consisted of a fleet of aging ships purchased in New Bedford and other New England ports, loaded with stone, and sailed south during the American Civil War by the Union Navy for use as Blockships...
" of scuttled ships that blockaded
Charleston HarborCharleston is a city in Charleston County, South Carolina in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is the largest city and county seat of Charleston County. The city was founded as Charlestown or Charles Towne, Carolina in 1670, and moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of...
during the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
. It is said that Captain Gifford loved to discuss his career as a very successful ship-master. The Gifford's home, built in 1835, was located at 36 Green Street in Fairhaven.
As Abbie grew up, one of her schoolmates and neighbors in the small coastal town was young
Henry Huttleston RogersHenry Huttleston Rogers was a United States capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist. -Youth and education:...
, nicknamed "Hen", her future husband. Both Abbie and Henry were descendants of colonists who had arrived at the
Plymouth ColonyPlymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town of Plymouth, Massachusetts...
on the
MayflowerThe Mayflower was the famous ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from Southampton, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts , in 1620...
in 1620.
Whaling, oil, opportunity, roughing it in Pennsylvania
Prior to the second half of the 19th century,
whale oilWhale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of Right Whale and the Bowhead Whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale...
was the primary source of fuel for lighting in the United States. The
whalingWhaling is the hunting of whales which dates back to at least 3,000 BC. The evolution of traditional Arctic whaling developed with increasing rapidity by early organized fleets in the 17th century; competitive national whaling industries in the 18th and 19th centuries; and the introduction of...
industry was the mainstay for many
New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
coastal communities for over 200 years. Among these was
Fairhaven, MassachusettsFairhaven is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located on the south coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzzards Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean...
, founded on land purchased by English settlers of the
Plymouth ColonyPlymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town of Plymouth, Massachusetts...
from a friendly
Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
tribal chief,
MassasoitMassasoit Sachem or Ousamequin ,was the sachem, or leader, of the Pokanoket, and "Massasoit" of the Wampanoag Confederacy. The term Massasoit actually means Great Sachem.-Early years:...
, and his son, who was named
WamsuttaWamsutta , also Alexander Pokanoket as he was called by New England colonists, was a leader of the Wampanoag native American tribe.-Family:...
.
In 1854, natural oil (
petroleumPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds.The term "petroleum" was first used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in...
) was discovered in western
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
. In 1859,
George BissellGeorge Henry Bissell is often considered the father of the American oil industry. He was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, the son of Isaac Bissell and Nancy Wemple....
and Edwin L. Drake made the first successful use of a drilling rig at
Titusville, PennsylvaniaTitusville is a city in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 6,146 at the 2000 census. In 1859, oil was successfully drilled in Titusville, resulting in the birth of the modern oil industry.-History:...
. Production from this single well soon exceeded the entire cumulative oil output which had taken place in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
since the 1650s. The principal product of the oil was
keroseneKerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
. Another related product was
natural gasNatural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills...
. Kerosene and natural gas soon replaced whale oil in North America for illuminating purposes. In New England, whaling reached its peak in 1857, then gradually began a period of decline, partially due to
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
n competition. The situation was aggravated considerably by the American Civil War, as whaling vessels and crews were diverted to assist in blockading the
ConfederateThe Confederate States of America was a separatist political entity existing between 1861 to 1865, established by eleven southern slave states of the United States of America, each of which had previously declared their secession from the United States...
coastal areas and ports. By 1900, the whaling industry had collapsed, due in part to the
discovery and refining of petroleumThe petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting , and marketing petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline...
from the western Pennsylvania oil fields.
Perhaps realizing both the trend and opportunity, in 1861, in
FairhavenFairhaven is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located on the south coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzzards Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean...
, 21 year-old
Henry H. RogersHenry Huttleston Rogers was a United States capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist. -Youth and education:...
pooled his savings of approximately $600 with a friend, Charles Ellis. They set out to western
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
and its newly discovered oil fields. The young partners began their small
Wamsutta Oil RefineryWamsutta Oil Refinery was established around 1861 in McClintocksville in Venango County near Oil City, Pennsylvania in the United States. It was the first business enterprise of Henry Huttleston Rogers , who became a famous capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist.-...
at
McClintocksvilleMcClintocksville, Pennsylvania was a small community in Cornplanter Township in Venango County located in the state of Pennsylvania in the United States.- History :...
near
Oil City, PennsylvaniaOil City is a city in Venango County, Pennsylvania noted especially in the instrumental exploration and development of the petroleum industry. After the first oil wells were drilled nearby in the 1850s, Oil City became central in the petroleum industry while hosting headquarters for the Pennzoil,...
.
The old Indian name "Wamsutta" was apparently selected in honor of their hometown area of New England. In nearby
New BedfordNew Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located 51 miles south of Boston, 28 miles southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about 12 miles east of Fall River. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 93,768, making it the seventh-largest in the...
, the
Wamsutta CompanyWamsutta Company, also known as Wamsutta Mills, was located in New Bedford, Massachusetts, a port known for its whaling ships. The company was named for Wamsutta, the son of an Native American chief who negotiated an early alliance with the English settlers of the Plymouth Colony in the 17th...
had opened in 1846, the first of many
textileA textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw wool fibres, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands...
mills that gradually came to supplant whaling as the principal employment activity in the area.
Rogers and Ellis, and their tiny Wamsutta Oil Refinery, made $30,000 their first year. This amount was more than 3 entire whaling ship trips from back home could hope to earn during an average voyage of more than a years' duration. Of course, he was regarded as very successful when Rogers returned home to Fairhaven for a short vacation the next year.
There, in 1862, Abbie Palmer Gifford married young Henry Rogers, her childhood sweetheart. She returned with him to the oil fields where they lived in a one-room shack along Oil Creek where her young husband and Ellis worked the Wamsutta Oil Refinery.
A short time later, Rogers met
Charles PrattCharles Pratt was a United States capitalist, businessman and philanthropist.Pratt was a pioneer of the U.S. petroleum industry, and established his kerosene refinery Astral Oil Works in Brooklyn, New York. Pratt's product later gave rise to the slogan, "The holy lamps of Tibet are primed with...
. Pratt (1830-1891) had been born in
Watertown, MassachusettsThe Town of Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 32,986 at the 2000 census.- History :Watertown, first known as Saltonstall Plantation, was one of the earliest of the Massachusetts Bay settlements. It was begun early in 1630 by a group of...
. In nearby Boston, he had joined a company specializing in paints and whale oil products. In 1850 or 1851, Pratt moved to New York City, where he worked for a similar company handling paint and oil.
Charles Pratt saw the same trend as Ellis and Rogers and became a pioneer of the natural oil (petroleum) industry. He established a
keroseneKerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
refinery
Astral Oil WorksAstral Oil Works was founded in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, New York by Charles Pratt. Pratt was a pioneer of the petroleum industry who formed Charles Pratt and Company with Henry H. Rogers. The Pratt interests became part of John D...
in Brooklyn, New York. Pratt's product later gave rise to the slogan,
The holy lamps of Tibet are primed with Astral Oil.
In Pennsylvania in the mid 1860s, when Pratt and Rogers met, Pratt had earlier bought whale-oil from Ellis in Fairhaven, and they were already acquainted. The two young men agreed to sell the entire output of their small refinery to Pratt at a fixed price.
This went well at first. However, Ellis and Rogers had no wells of their own, and were dependent upon purchasing crude oil to refine and sell to Pratt. A few months later, crude oil prices suddenly increased due to manipulation by speculators. The young
entrepreneurAn entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. It is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor, and capital to often create and market new goods or services. ... The term is a loanword...
s struggled to try to live up to their contract with Pratt, but soon their surplus was wiped out. Before long, they were heavily in debt to Pratt.
Charles Ellis gave up, but in 1866, Henry Rogers went to Pratt in New York City, and told him he would take personal responsibility for the entire debt. This so impressed Pratt that he immediately hired him for his own organization.
Moving to New York, oil refining
Pratt made Rogers foreman of his Brooklyn refinery, with a promise of a partnership if sales ran over fifty thousand dollars a year. Abbie, Henry, and their baby Anne moved to Brooklyn. In the next few year Rogers became, in the words of
Elbert HubbardElbert Green Hubbard was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher. He was an influential exponent of the Arts and Crafts movement and is, perhaps, most famous for his essay A Message to Garcia.-Life:...
, Pratt's "hands and feet and eyes and ears" (
Little Journeys to the Homes, 1909).
The Rogers continued to live frugally and young Henry worked very hard. Abbie brought his meals to the "works," and often he would sleep but three hours a night rolled up in a blanket by the side of a still. Rogers moved steadily from foreman to manager, and then superintendent of Pratt's
Astral Oil RefineryAstral Oil Works was founded in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, New York by Charles Pratt. Pratt was a pioneer of the petroleum industry who formed Charles Pratt and Company with Henry H. Rogers. The Pratt interests became part of John D...
. Pratt finally gave Rogers an interest in the business as promised. In 1867, with Henry Rogers as a partner, he established the firm of
Charles Pratt and CompanyCharles Pratt and Company was an oil company that was formed in Brooklyn, New York in the United States by Charles Pratt and Henry H. Rogers in 1867. It became part of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil organization in 1874....
.
In the early 1870s, Pratt and Rogers became involved in a conflict with the infamous
South Improvement CompanyThe South Improvement Company was a Pennsylvania corporation in 1871-1872. It was created by major railroad interests, but was widely seen as part of John D. Rockefeller's early efforts to organize and control the oil and natural gas industries in the United States which eventually became Standard...
, which was basically a scheme to obtain favorable net shipping rates of oil owned by
John D. RockefellerJohn Davison Rockefeller was an American industrialist. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil Company and aggressively ran it until he officially retired in 1897. Standard Oil began as an Ohio...
's interests from the
Pennsylvania RailroadThe Pennsylvania Railroad was an American railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
(PRR) and other railroads through a secret system of rebates. Rockefeller and the South Improvement Company scheme outraged independent oil producers in western Pennsylvania and refineries there and afar alike.
The opposition to the South Improvement Company scheme among the New York refiners was led by Rogers. The New York interests formed an association, and about the middle of March, 1872, sent a committee of three, with Rogers, representing the Pratt interests, as head, to
Oil CityOil City is a city in Venango County, Pennsylvania noted especially in the instrumental exploration and development of the petroleum industry. After the first oil wells were drilled nearby in the 1850s, Oil City became central in the petroleum industry while hosting headquarters for the Pennzoil,...
to consult with the Oil Producers' Union there. Their arrival in the oil regions was a matter of great satisfaction to the Pennsylvania independents. Together, they soon managed to forge an agreement with the PRR and other railroads whose leaders eventually agreed to open rates to all and promised to end their shady dealings with South Improvement. The oil men were most exultant, but their joy was to be short-lived, for Rockefeller had already begun forming his
Standard OilStandard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as an Ohio corporation, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
organization and was busy trying another approach, which included frequently buying-up opposing interests.
A short time later, Rockefeller approached
Charles PrattCharles Pratt was a United States capitalist, businessman and philanthropist.Pratt was a pioneer of the U.S. petroleum industry, and established his kerosene refinery Astral Oil Works in Brooklyn, New York. Pratt's product later gave rise to the slogan, "The holy lamps of Tibet are primed with...
with his plans of cooperation and consolidation. Pratt talked it over with Rogers, and they decided that the combination would benefit them. Rogers formulated terms, which guaranteed financial security and jobs for Pratt and himself.
John D. RockefellerJohn Davison Rockefeller was an American industrialist. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil Company and aggressively ran it until he officially retired in 1897. Standard Oil began as an Ohio...
quietly accepted the offer on Rogers' exact terms. In 1874, Charles Pratt and Company (including Astral Oil) became one of the important formerly independent refiners to join Rockefeller's organization, and it was to become part of the
Standard OilStandard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as an Ohio corporation, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
Trust when it was formed. Pratt's son,
Charles Millard PrattCharles Millard Pratt was an American oil industrialist and philanthropist.-Early life:Pratt was born in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest son of Charles Pratt and Lydia Ann Richardson....
(1858-1913) became Secretary of Standard Oil.
Charles Pratts' former protégé,
Henry H. RogersHenry Huttleston Rogers was a United States capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist. -Youth and education:...
, soon rose to become one of Rockefeller's key men of Standard Oil. By 1890, he was a Vice-President and headed the important production committee. Rogers also invested outside of Standard Oil and became one of the wealthiest men in the world. He had interests in oil, gas, steel, copper, coal, and railroads, and eventually founded and built the
Virginian RailwayThe Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads....
at the end of his own career.
After 1874, the Rogers family continued to live in New York City, but vacationed at Fairhaven, where a large mansion was erected for them.
Family and children
Abbie was the mother of five children, four girls and a boy. Another little son had died at birth. Their oldest daughter, Anne Engle Rogers, was born in 1865 in Pennsylvania.
The family moved to New York in 1866. Daughter Cara Leland Rogers was born in Fairhaven in 1867, Millicent was born in 1873, followed by
Mary (who became known as Mai)Mai Rogers Coe was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. She was christened Mary Huttleston Rogers, and was the youngest of four daughters of Henry Huttleston Rogers and Abbie Palmer Rogers ....
in 1875.
Their son, Henry Huttleston Rogers Jr., was born in 1879, and came to be known as Harry. In adulthood, after the death of his father, he became known as Colonel Henry Huddleston Rogers, apparently returning to an earlier spelling of his middle name. The title of Colonel was apparently honorific, not uncommon in those times.
Local historians recall that the children of Henry Huttleston Rogers and Abbie Gifford Rogers were far more than vacationers in Fairhaven. Their roots were deep in the community. They spent time with grandparents and family friends and became knowledgeable about the traditions of the old whaling town.
Anne Engle Rogers Benjamin
Anne married William Evarts Benjamin, a prominent Boston publisher and collector. They had 2 children, Beatrice Benjamin Cartwright and Henry Rogers Benjamin.
Cara Leland Rogers Duff Broughton: Lady Fairhaven
In 1890, Cara Leland Rogers married Bradford Ferris Duff of New York. Their marriage was to end a year later, in 1891, when her new husband, aged twenty-four, died of a lung ailment at the Rogers' Fairhaven residence, making Cara a widow at twenty-three.
In the 1890s, Cara's father had begun to consider a sewer and water project for the Fairhaven community. After much consultation with experts, he had chosen to adopt a sewerage plan developed in England known as the "Shone Sewer System". To manage the project, a young English engineer,
Urban Hanlon BroughtonUrban Hanlon Broughton was an English civil engineer, railroad and mining executive, and Conservative Party Member of Parliament. In 1929, he was in line for elevation to the peerage, but he died in January before the process was finalized...
, was sent to town by the Shone executives to explain procedure and direct the actual work.
During his stay, Cara Duff had become acquainted with the young Englishman. By 1895 the sewer work was well on the way to completion, and Cara Rogers Duff and Urban Broughton had decided to be married. Cara became Mrs. Urban Broughton in late 1895. On Christmas Day, they sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on a honeymoon trip to Europe.
The Broughtons' first child, a son, was born in Fairhaven in 1896, and was named Urban Huttleston Broughton. A second son was born in 1900, and was called Henry Rogers Broughton.
Although Urban Broughton was by birth an English subject, he spent more than twenty-five years in America, many of them in Chicago, Illinois. Urban Broughton became president of Utah Consolidated Mining Co. in 1901, and was chosen a director and a manager of the United Metals Selling Co., the selling agency for Amalgamated Copper Co.. He was also a director of the Atlas Tack Co. in Fairhaven, the Santa Rica Mining Co., and the Butte Coalition Mining Co. in Montana.
After the sudden death of his father-in-law (Henry H. Rogers Sr.) in 1909, Urban Broughton became president of
The Virginian Railway CompanyThe Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads....
.
In 1912, Urban, Cara, and their two sons, Huttleston Broughton, and Henry Broughton, moved to England. They took up residence in Mayfair, London. Urban became a member of
ParliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
(
MPA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
). He found pleasure in this new career, becoming a close personal friend of Prime Minister
Andrew Bonar LawAndrew Bonar Law PC , commonly known as Bonar Law, was a British Conservative Party statesman and Prime Minister. Born in the crown colony of New Brunswick, he is the only British Prime Minister to have been born outside the British Isles. He was also the shortest-serving Prime Minister of the 20th...
. Cara devoted herself to family matters and other domestic duties. Their young sons soon became thoroughly-oriented British subjects.
During
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, both Urban and Cara were very active in the war effort. Urban served the English government in many ways. He published a strong brochure designed to appeal to the good will of America entitled "The British Empire at War".
Cara offered all her efforts to the good of her adopted country as well, sponsoring many types of war work. She was deeply interested in the well-being of Bethnal Green Military Hospital. She gave hospitable parties for wounded soldiers at the family home in Broadoaks, Byfleet.
During the 1920s, the Broughtons visited Fairhaven several times. In 1926, Cara purchased the revolutionary war site of
Fort PhoenixFort Phoenix is a Revolutionary War-era fort located at the entrance to the Fairhaven-New Bedford harbor, south of U.S. 6 in Fort Phoenix Park in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.The fort was built in 1775 and added to the National Historic Register in 1972....
and donated it to the city of
Fairhaven, MassachusettsFairhaven is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located on the south coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzzards Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean...
. Today, it is a park.
Urban Broughton died in 1929, at the age of 72. Earlier in the same year, his name had been pending for elevation to the
peerageThe Peerage is a system of titles in the United Kingdom, which represents the upper ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system. The term is used both collectively to refer to the entire body of titles, and individually to refer to a specific title...
by King
George VGeorge V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 1910 through World War I until his death in 1936...
. On May 2, 1929, the King proclaimed "... Cara Leland Broughton, widow of Urban Hanlon Broughton, may henceforth enjoy the same style and title as if her husband...had survived and received the title and dignity of
Baron FairhavenBaron Fairhaven, of Anglesey Abbey in the County of Cambridge, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1961 for Urban Huttleston Broughton, 1st Baron Fairhaven, with remainder to his younger brother Henry Broughton. He had already been created Baron Fairhaven, of Lode in...
".
The eldest son, Huttleston, was elevated to his father's barony, and became the first Baron Fairhaven, and Cara, the first Lady Fairhaven.
Millicent Gifford Rogers
Millicent (Millie) Gifford Rogers was born in 1873. It is recorded that the child loved to draw sketches and read. She is to have once said on a visit to Fairhaven "
I wish we had a good library!" However, in 1890 she died of heart failure at the age of only 17 years-old.
The grieving Rogers family sought an appropriate means of memorializing her short life. Because she had been an avid reader, especially of poetry, the Rogers decided that they would build and donate to the town of Fairhaven a
libraryA library is a collection of sources, resources, and services, and the structure in which it is housed; it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. It can mean the collection,...
named for her and given in the names of her sisters and brother.
In the same year she had died, land was acquired and plan were begun to erect in Fairhaven a unique and lavish tribute to the arts, the splendid yet functional
Millicent LibraryMillicent Library in Fairhaven, Massachusetts was donated to the town by the family of Millicent Gifford Rogers, the youngest daughter of Abbie Gifford and wealthy industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers. Young MIllicent had died of heart failure in 1890 when she was barely seventeen years old...
. The cornerstone was laid in September, 1891 at quiet morning ceremony with only the family and their clergyman, Rev. J.M. Leighton, in attendance. After prayer, Millie's little brother, Harry, set the cornerstone. Within its confines were a sketch of Millicent, a tracing of the Rogers' ancestry, and a copy of the
Fairhaven Star carrying a picture of the proposed building.
The Millicent Library describes the memorial window to the little girl who wished for a good library in Fairhaven as follows:
- "In the Library, just to the left of the main entrance, is a stunning stained-glass window made by Clayton and Bell of London. In the central panel is the figure of Erato
In Greek mythology, Erato is one of the Greek Muses. The name means "desired" or "lovely", being derived from the same root as Eros, as Apollonius of Rhodes alludes to in Book III of his Argonautica....
, the Muse of Poetry, and her features bear a striking resemblance to those of the girl to whose memory the library was erected."
Mary (Mai) Huttleston Rogers Coe
Mary (Mai) Huttleston Rogers, was the youngest daughter, born in 1875 in Fairhaven. Mai was educated at private seminary schools, spoke fluent French, played the piano, and was interested in art and decoration.
After an earlier marriage which was unsuccessful (her father and family friend
Mark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted...
labeled her first husband a "scalawag"), on June 4, 1900, Mai Huttleston Rogers married William Robertson Coe, a 30 year-old insurance company manager. Coe had met Mai during a transatlantic crossing. Between 1900 and 1910, the William and Mai Coe had four children,
William Rogers CoeWilliam "Bill" Rogers Coe was the first son of William Robertson Coe and Mai Huttleston Rogers Coe. He followed his father into the railway business.Educated at St...
(1901-1971),
Robert Douglas CoeRobert Douglas Coe was a career diplomat and the U.S. ambassador to Denmark from 1953 to 1957.-Biography:He was the second son of William Robertson Coe and Mai Huttleston Rogers Coe. He attended St. Paul's School; later he received an A.B. in fine arts from Harvard University, and completed an M.A...
(1902-1985),
Henry Huttleston Rogers CoeHenry Huttleston Rogers Coe or Hank as he was known to his wife and friends, was the third and youngest son of William Robertson Coe and Mai Huttleston Rogers Coe....
(1907-1966), and
Natalie Mai (née Coe) VitettiNatalie Mai Coe, Countess Vitetti was the only daughter of insurance and railroad executive William Robertson Coe and Mai Huttleston Coe....
(1910-1987).
By 1910, Coe had become president of insurance broker
Johnson & HigginsJohnson & Higgins was one of the largest brokerage firms in the world until it merged with Marsh & McLennan in 1997.-History:Initially founded in 1845 as Jones & Johnson by Walter Restored Jones, Jr. and Henry Ward Johnson, the company acquired its new name in 1854 when A. Foster Higgins replaced...
, and was involved in insuring the hull of the
RMS TitanicThe RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by British shipping company White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, United Kingdom...
which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912. Coe rose to Chairman of the Board of Johnson and Higgins by 1916.
Coe was on the Board of Directors of
The Virginian Railway CompanyThe Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads....
from 1910 until his death in 1955, and headed the company for a brief period during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He was also a director of Loup Creek Colliery and the Wyoming Land Company.
Mai and her husband had a large estate, Planting Fields, built on the
Gold CoastThe North Shore of Long Island is the area along Long Island's northern coast, bordering Long Island Sound. Traditionally, the region has been the most affluent on Long Island and among the most affluent in the New York metropolitan area, which has earned it the nickname "the Gold Coast." Though...
of Long Island, New York. They named the manor house "Coe Hall". Mai and her husband shared a love of
horticultureHorticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation. Some would say that horticulture is the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant...
. Following an extended illness, Mai died in 1924, and was interred nearby. In 1949, their estate was donated by Coe to become
Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic ParkPlanting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, which includes the Coe Hall Historic House Museum, is an arboretum and state park covering over located in the Village of Upper Brookville in the town of Oyster Bay, New York....
.
Henry Huttleston Rogers Jr.
Henry Huttleston Rogers Jr. was born in 1879. He came to be known as Harry. He was the youngest of the Rogers children.
Harry became a favorite of Rogers family friend
Mark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted...
, who
in 1897 dedicated his new book
Following The Equator with the following quipping preface:
- "This Book Is Affectionately Inscribed To My Young Friend,
- - HARRY ROGERS -
- With recognition of what he is and apprehension of what he may become, unless he form himself a little more closely upon the model of - The Author"
As a young adult, Harry often joined his father and family friends on trips aboard their luxury steam yacht
KanawhaKanawha was a 471-ton steam-powered luxury yacht initially built in 1899 for millionaire industrialist and financier Henry Huttleston Rogers . One of the key men in the Standard Oil Trust, Rogers was one of the last of the robber barons of the Gilded Age in the United States...
, built in 1899.
Harry married his first wife, Mary Benjamin. He and his wife traveled to Virginia with his father and Twain on the
Kanawha in September, 1907 when the latter spoke at Robert Fulton Day at the
Jamestown ExpositionThe Jamestown Exposition was one of the many world's fairs and expositions that were popular in the United States early part of the 20th century...
. After their 1929 divorce he married 2, Marguerite von Braun Savell Miles (married 1929-33) and 3, Pauline Van der Voort Dresser (married 1933).
Harry journeyed again with his father and Twain to
Norfolk, VirginiaNorfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 234,403 as of the 2000 census, it is Virginia's second-largest incorporated city behind its eastern neighbor, Virginia Beach....
in April, 1909 for the dedication ceremonies and dinner to celebrate the completion of the
Virginian RailwayThe Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads....
, which turned out to be his father's s final life achievement. After his father's death the following month, Harry took over his father's seat on the Board of Directors of the new railroad, with his brother-in-law, Urban Broughton, serving as the railroad's President.
He assembled a valuable collection of model
sailing shipSailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large sailing...
s, which were donated the
United States Naval AcademyThe United States Naval Academy is an undergraduate college in Annapolis, Maryland, United States, that educates and commissions officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The Academy often is referred to simply as "Annapolis". It is also called "The Academy", "The Boat School", or "Canoe...
at
Annapolis, MarylandAnnapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It has a population of 36,524 , and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington D.C. Annapolis is part of the...
after his death in 1935.
Harry and Mary Rogers had a son, Harry III, and a daughter, Mary Millicent Rogers, a prominent socialite during the 1930s and 1940s whose vast collection of turquoise jewelry and Native American artifacts are housed in the Millicent Rogers Museum in
Taos, New MexicoTaos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico. In New Mexico, a municipality may call itself a village, town, or city . Taos calls itself the "Town of Taos" and was incorporated as such in 1934...
.
1894: A new Town Hall and tragedy
In 1894, Fairhaven received the gift of a new Town Hall from the Rogers Family. Abbie dedicated it to the memory of her mother. The following text about Abbie Rogers is from the
Millicent LibraryMillicent Library in Fairhaven, Massachusetts was donated to the town by the family of Millicent Gifford Rogers, the youngest daughter of Abbie Gifford and wealthy industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers. Young MIllicent had died of heart failure in 1890 when she was barely seventeen years old...
, Fairhaven Massachusetts.
"Mother of six children, Mrs. Rogers is represented as having been of a quiet and retiring disposition, completely devoid of the ostentation often associated with great wealth. Contemporary photographs attest to a shy and gentle charm of feature, and she is known to have cherished a deep affection for Fairhaven and a nostalgia for the simple ways of her childhood.
"She was, therefore, delighted to become the donor of Fairhaven's beautiful new 'Town House,' and on February 22nd and 23d, 1894, she attended dedication exercises and received graciously at the splendid Dedication Ball, in the first gala functions marking the opening of the new building.
"It was not given those attending these happy festivities to know that - but three months later - in May, 1894, this gentle woman was to die in New York City after an operation performed to save her life."
Death
Abbie Palmer Gifford Rogers died unexpectedly on May 21 1894, age 53 in New York City. She had been undergoing an operation to remove a previously undiagnosed tumor. Her widower, Henry Rogers Sr., eventually remarried, but had no children with his second wife. Outliving her one day short of 15 years, after his death on May 19 1909, he was interred beside her in Fairhaven's Riverside Cemetery.
Legacy
The Town Hall in
FairhavenFairhaven is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located on the south coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzzards Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean...
survives, as do many other gifts of the Rogers' family to Fairhaven, where she and her husband grew up. The home of Captain Peleg Gifford (Abbie's childhood home), a two-story gable-end frame house built in the Greek Revival style at 36 Green Street, has been preserved. It and many other historic buildings in Fairhaven are opened periodically for special public tours.
The bronze plaque on the Fairhaven Town Hall, reads:
- This Building was presented to the Town of Fairhaven February 22, 1894 three months prior to the death of the donor Abbie Palmer Gifford Rogers. The people of Fairhaven in expressing their appreciation and gratitude for the gift would also record the sorrow they feel as a community through the loss of one whose life was full of good works. May this structure in its strength and beauty ever stand as commemorative of her character and thoughtful kindness.
See also
- Henry H. Rogers
Henry Huttleston Rogers was a United States capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist. -Youth and education:...
- Fairhaven, Massachusetts
Fairhaven is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located on the south coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzzards Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean...
- Charles Pratt
Charles Pratt was a United States capitalist, businessman and philanthropist.Pratt was a pioneer of the U.S. petroleum industry, and established his kerosene refinery Astral Oil Works in Brooklyn, New York. Pratt's product later gave rise to the slogan, "The holy lamps of Tibet are primed with...
- Standard Oil
Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as an Ohio corporation, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
- Virginian Railway
The Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads....
- William N. Page
William Nelson Page was an American civil engineer, entrepreneur, and capitalist.Page became one of the leading managers and developers of West Virginia's rich bituminous coal fields in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century, as well as being deeply involved in building the railroads and...
- Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted...
- Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, orator, author, presidential advisor, and the dominant leader of the nation's African-American community from the 1890s to his death. Born into slavery and freed by the Civil War in 1865, he led the new Tuskegee Institute, then a teachers'...
External links and further reading
- Elbert Hubbard, 1909, Little Journeys to the Homes
- Tarbell, Ida M. The History of Standard Oil
- The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates - A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present. Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther (contributor). Seacaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, 1996.
- Millicent Library, Fairhaven MA, Henry Rogers homepage
- Mark Twain and Henry Huttleston Rogers in Virginia. Excerpts from their trips together to the 1907 Jamestown Exposition and the 1909 Dedication of the Virginian Railway
- Mark Twain's Correspondence with Henry Huttleston Rogers, 1893-1909
- The Works of Mark Twain, Chapter-indexed, searchable versions of Twain's works.
- Project Gutenberg, where more than 60 works of Twain's are freely available.
- Full text of the biography Mark Twain by Archibald Henderson
- Mark Twain and Henry Huttleston Rogers in Virginia excerpts from their trips together to the 1907 Jamestown Exposition and the 1909 Dedication of the Virginian Railway
- Mark Twain's Correspondence with Henry Huttleston Rogers, 1893-1909
- Mark Twain quotes
- Dr. Booker T. Washington papers - comments about Henry Rogers
- Virginian Railway (VGN) Enthusiasts Group of preservationists, authors, photographers, historians, modelers, and rail fans
- Standard Oil History
- Ohio History
- Some Memories of Cara Leland Rogers Broughton the first Lady Fairhaven material researched and integrated by Mabel Hoyle Knipe Fairhaven, Massachusetts, March, 1984
- The Story of Fairhaven compiled by Thomas Tripp in 1929
- Planting Fields website, Mai Rogers Coe and family history
- Fairhaven Massachusetts Public Schools
- Napoleon Series Henry H. Rogers webpage
- Olean Town history
- Oil History website
- Venango County Pennsylvania Oil History
- Oil Well website
- Henry Rogers and Fairhaven website