Henry H. Rogers

Henry Huttleston Rogers (January 29, 1840 – May 19, 1909) was a United States capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist.

During the Gilded Age, in the spirit of Horatio Alger, "Hen" Rogers, a child of working-class parents, worked his way to the top and became one of the key men in John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust. He also made many investments of his own in natural gas, copper, steel, coal, and railroad industries, and amassed a fortune such that he was listed in a 1996 study as one of the 25 all-time most wealthy individuals in United States history.

His final business achievement was the building of the Virginian Railway (VGN) from the bituminous coal fields of southern West Virginia to port near Norfolk at Sewell's Point, Virginia, in the harbor of Hampton Roads. Working as a silent partner with civil engineer and coal mining manager William Nelson Page, he planned and built his new railroad right under the noses of the big railroads and their leaders, despite their collusion. Financed almost completely from Rogers' personal fortune, the VGN was completed in 1909 at a cost of $40 million. The extremely efficient low-gradient railroad used technology not available 50 years earlier to compete very profitably. Small enough to generate a family-type loyalty among its employees, it brought well-paying jobs and opportunity to dozens of communities across the southern tier of Virginia and West Virginia. For many years, it was labeled both an engineering marvel and the "richest little railroad in the world." Long-sought by its competition, it finally merged with Norfolk and Western Railway in 1959, forming part of today's Class 1 railroad network for Norfolk Southern.

While he was considered ruthless in business matters, with a public image as a robber baron and the nickname of "Hell Hound Rogers", far fewer people at the time he was alive realized that Henry Rogers also had a much kinder and generous side. His hometown of Fairhaven, Massachusetts enjoyed his family's many infrastructure gifts. Rogers' late life friendships included such diverse persons as Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller, and Ida M. Tarbell. Under the close watch of the newspapers of the era, his famous friends Mark Twain and Booker T. Washington often joined him on cruises aboard his luxury yacht Kanawha, where it was only later learned he shared much more than just a friendship with Dr. Washington.

Unlike John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, who left industry and then became philanthropists, Rogers did both at the same time. During his lifetime, Henry Rogers maintained a very secretive "low-profile" in his philanthropy. It was only after Rogers' sudden death at age 69 of an apoplectic stroke in May, 1909 that Dr. Washington felt he could publicly reveal that, in addition to being a close friend, Henry Rogers had in fact been working quietly to support his projects. Washington disclosed that, over a period of more than 15 years, Rogers had been funding over 65 small country schools and several larger institutions in the South to train teachers for the betterment and education of African Americans. Dr. Washington not only credited Rogers with substantial financial aid and encouragement, but specifically with instituting the then-innovative procedure of matching funds. Rogers felt that as well as extending the financial reach, their participation contributed to the beneficiaries' self-esteem and steps to self-sufficiency. In the following years, other wealthy self-made men such as Julius Rosenwald, an immigrant German-American clothier's son who became president of Sears Roebuck and Company, would embrace the matching funds concept, and stimulate communities to raise millions of dollars locally, eventually building thousands of schools across the South through the Rosenwald Fund and other projects.

Henry Huttleston Rogers was a man who knew how to get the most from natural resources. Development of oil, natural gas, copper, and coal and the transportation to move them were all within his expertise. However, his investments in Building the Virginian Railway and providing funding, advice, and encouragement to Dr. Washington's efforts for the betterment of African American education clearly show he had an eye on the value of human resources as well.