Discover Smith Mountain Lake
SUMMER 2016
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his roots through the Mayflower. He was born and raised
in Massachusetts, and it was his keen business acumen that
eventually caused him to take an interest inVirginia.
Energy production was a key factor in Henry Huttleson
Rogers’ career, which began in an entrepreneurial oil refining
partnership, which eventually led to his patent for refining
naphtha and a prominent position in Standard Oil, where he
pioneered the idea of moving oil and natural gas over great
distances through pipelines. Later in life, he recognized the
value of small railroads that were focused on the transport of
raw materials, and that led to a speculative interest inVirginia.
His original plan was to start up a small railroad to bring coal
out ofWest Virginia and then act
as a ‘feeder’ to larger railway
systems. He reasoned that the
larger systems would buy him
out, and he would make a small
profit for his trouble. When the
larger railways tried to leverage
the fledgling rail line out of
business, not knowing that he was
the ‘big player’ in the venture, he
used his clout and a great deal of
his own fortune to forge a new
railway “from the mountains
to the Sea”. Thus, the Virginian
Railway was born.
Rogers had a reputation for
being a ruthless business tycoon,
but people who knew him
personally held him in especially
high regard. He was a renowned
philanthropist, who numbered such luminaries as Samuel L.
Clemens (Mark Twain) and Booker T.Washington among his
personal friends. At the urging of Clemens, Rogers financed
the higher education of Helen Keller, and provided her with
a monthly stipend thereafter. He was quite impressed with
Booker T.Washington, and financed a number of the latter’s
projects in whole or in part.
Perhaps the most curious detail of Henry Rogers’ life was his
friendship with Clemens. He had rescued the aging author
from financial ruin by offering his business expertise to help
untangle a morass of poorly managed business interests. On
the verge of bankruptcy, Clemens presented the details of a
bankruptcy ruling that ordered him to pay his debts back at
50 cents on the dollar. Rogers advised, “Sam, you can afford
to be money poor; you cannot afford to be character poor.
You must pay back 100 cents on the dollar.” With Rogers
managing his business affairs, Clemens did exactly that.
Thereafter, the two often shared company at one another’s
home. This led to a string of insane practical jokes, which
often involved petty thievery. In a letter to Mrs. Rogers,
Clemens makes a casual reference to having ‘inadvertently’
packed:
… some articles that was laying around....two books,
Mr. Rogers’ brown slippers, and
a ham. I thought it was one
of ourn. It looked like one we
used to have, but it shan’t occur
again, and don’t you worry.
A subsequent reply from Rogers
himself matter-of-factly states:
… let me remind you that I shall
want the trunk and the things
you took away from my house
as soon as possible. I learn that
instead of taking old things,
you took my best. Mrs. Rogers
is at the White Mountains. I
am going to Fairhaven this
afternoon. I hope you will not
be there.By the way,I have been
using a pair of your gloves in the
Mountains, and they don’t seem
to be much of an attraction.
Clemens accompanied Rogers on his first and only tour of
the newly completed Virginian Railway, during which both
men traveled in Rogers’ personal railway coach, Dixie.
They stopped at every station, and marked the occasion of
their visit. Rogers died suddenly six weeks later, following
a stroke. Shortly thereafter, Booker T. Washington went on
a previously-arranged speaking tour, following the same
itinerary, in the very same railway car. One can only imagine
the impressions they all made on the folks in Huddleston.
