Virginian in 1909--Rogers

[NW Mailing List]

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
May 21, 1909

FUNERAL OF HENRY H. ROGERS THIS AFTERNOON
------
Services Will be Held at Church of Which His Lifelong Friend is Pastor

    New York.  May 20--Funeral services in this city for Henry H. Rogers will be held at the Church of the Messiah, a Unitarian institution, of which Rev. Dr. Robert Collyer, a life-long friend of Mr. Rogers is pastor.  Friday morning, Dr. Collyer will conduct the services, after which the body will be taken to Fairhaven, Mass., Mr. Roger's native town, for interment.  Services also will be held there in the Unitarian church on Saturday.
    The Rogers home is silent save for the muffled tread of prominent callers who began arriving Wednesday afternoon to extend their sympathies to the widow and children.  Conspicuous among them was Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain), for many years the most intimate friend of the late financier.  Mr. Clemens left his country place near Redding, Conn., Wednesday morning intending to visit the Rogers home, only to be confronted with the sad news of his old friend's death when he arrived at the Grand Central station.  Mr. Clemens was too moved to fully express his feelings.
    "It is terrible--terrible," he said briefly.  "I am inexpressibly shocked," and with tears in his eye, he quickly moved away and hurried to the Broughton residence, where he joined a number of Mr. Rogers' associates who had gathered there.
    Harry C. Phipps was one of the first to arrive at the residence, and he was followed shortly by John D. Ryan, president of the Anaconda Copper Company.  Telegrams soon began pouring in to the house, among the early ones being a message from John D. Rockefeller at Hot Springs, Va., who had repeatedly warned Mr. Rogers to cease his hard work.  Thomas F. Ryan was notified of Mr. Rogers' death as he was sailing for Europe on the Lusitania.  "The financial world loses one of its greatest men," he said, "and the financial world will be greatly shocked."
    Mr. Rogers was a man of many friends and an enthusiastic yachtsman.  His fortune is variously estimated at from $50,000,000 [The first numeral is blurred on the microfilm; the best interpretation is shown.] to $75,000,000, which will make his son, H. H. Rogers, Jr., one of the richest men in the country.  Mr. Rogers first wife died 15 years ago and he is survived, in addition to his second wife, by four children, the son mentioned and following daughters: Mrs. W. E. Benjamin, Mrs. Urban H. Broughton and Mrs. William R. Coe.
------
[Virginianphiles will recognize two names in this article that graced Virginian equipment, viz., the business car Fairhaven, built new in February 1925, and the tugboat, W. R. Coe, built new in 1957.]

Gordon Hamilton
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20090314/471b8b37/attachment.html>