USA > Massachusetts > Biographical history of Massachussetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state, 1911, vol 7 > Part 19
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Mr. Rice took little time for relaxation, but enjoyed driving and automobiling from his beautiful home in Adams Street, and took a short European trip each year or two. He attended the First Congregational Church of Quincy.
A noble monument to Mr. Rice's munificence, one which has placed all classes of his fellow citizens under lasting obligations to him, is the City Hospital of Quincy, which he founded in 1890, and for which he gave the land and buildings, making a large addition just before his death and contributing to the endowment fund in his will. This institution had been open scarcely two months when it became the relief station in a terrible railroad accident, in which nearly thirty people were killed and scores were injured.
No better or more touching tribute to a manly and useful life can be offered than these resolutions of regret passed by a leading organization :
"Seldom has the New England Shoe and Leather Association, during its long existence, had to record the loss of a member of such pre-eminent usefulness as is the occasion of our meeting today.
"President, member, friend, in whatsoever relationship we regard him, William B. Rice will always live with us, the exemplar of just conception, effective action and helpful counsel.
"Broad, catholic, tolerant to every honest effort, instant in detection of unworthy method, the tonic of his stimulating presence was an uplifting influence in every relation of his busy life.
"Such a noble personality can never die; with us it will ever remain a stimulus to right purpose."
WILLIAM ELLIS RICE
W ILLIAM ELLIS RICE, son of William and Emeline (Draper) Rice, was born at Ware, Massachusetts, August 6, 1833.
He is from Colonial stock, in the seventh line from his first American ancestor, Deacon Edmund Rice, who, born in 1594, came from Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, England, and settled in Sud- bury, Massachusetts, in 1638.
His genealogical descent is through Thomas, b. 1611; Ephraim, b. 1655; John, b. 1704; Peter, b. 1755; William, b. 1803. His grandfather, Peter Rice, born at Sudbury, Massachusetts, June 25, 1755, moved to Spencer, Massachusetts, and married Olive, daugh- ter of Major Asa Baldwin of Spencer, an officer in the Revolu- tionary Army. Peter Rice was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, a member of Captain Seth Washburn's company that marched from Leicester, and he was one of those actually in the fight at Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.
William, son of Peter, and the youngest of thirteen children all born at Spencer, was the father of William Ellis. He died at Worcester, November 18, 1882, in his eightieth year.
On the maternal side, his grandfather, Hon. James Draper, born at Spencer, February 26, 1778, was the sixth of that name, and in direct descent from James Draper, who, born 1618, came from Halifax, Yorkshire, England, and settled in Roxbury, Massachu- setts. He was born in Spencer and died there in 1868, in his ninety-first year, having served his native town in many capacities, such as Town Clerk, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, Town Treasurer, Overseer of the Poor, and Town Agent. He was also a County Commissioner, a member of the General Court for thirteen years, a Senator, a Magistrate for over fifty years, and the author of "Draper's History of Spencer," published in 1841.
His mother, the eldest daughter of James and Lucy (Watson) Draper of Spencer, was a woman of unusual dignity of character, kindhearted, and sympathetic. She died in 1854.
His parents were residing at his birth in Ware, where his father, in partnership with his elder brother, was proprietor of the gen- eral store of the town; later his parents took up their residence in Worcester. Here he acquired such education as was considered
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WILLIAM ELLIS RICE
necessary to fit for commercial business, including attendance at the High School and at Leicester Academy.
In 1852, at the age of eighteen, he obtained the position of Clerk and Bookkeeper in the counting room of Ichabod Washburn and Company in Worcester, at the time the principal drawers and finishers of the finer grades of iron wire in this country. He re- mained with this firm seven years, acquiring a general knowledge of business and of the manufacture of wire, and then relinquished his position and engaged in similar business, in partnership with Mr. Dorrance S. Goddard, under the firm name of William E. Rice and Company. Business was started in leased premises in Connec- ticut and shortly after moved to Holyoke, Massachusetts, where a large modern plant was erected by the firm, and the venture made successful and prosperous.
In 1865, at the solicitation of Mr. Ichabod Washburn, whose confidence and favor Mr. Rice possessed, this business was joined with Mr. Washburn's larger business under the title of I. Wash- burn and Moen Wire Works. Concurrently Mr. Rice became a stockholder, director, and executive officer in this corporation. From this merger began Mr. Rice's influence and activity in the further development in Worcester of its greatest industry, the man- ufacture of wire. He was in hearty accord with Mr. Washburn in the belief that the business could be greatly expanded with bene- ficial results. Closely following this connection, a plant in the village of Quinsigamond was purchased, and a company incor- porated under the title of the Quinsigamond Iron and Wire Works, for the manufacture of Wire Rods and Wire, with Mr. Rice as its Treasurer and General Manager. This company was very success- ful in business and was merged with the I. Washburn and Moen Wire Works, under the corporate title of Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company, in 1868.
This merger marked an epoch in the enlargement of the wire industry in Worcester, and was the occasion of the purchase of the manufacturing site on Grove Street, at that time occupied in part, under lease, by the I. Washburn and Moen Wire Works; the erection, under a comprehensive plan, of substantial mill build- ings and power plants; and the installation of the continuous rod- rolling system for producing rods of small gauge and in longer lengths than was at the time practiced in this country. This prac- tice was introduced from England, where it was reported upon by
WILLIAM ELLIS RICE
Mr. Rice during his visit to the manufacturing districts. there in 1867. This system, modified and greatly improved by Worcester engineers, has been a potent factor in promoting the growth of the wire industry in Worcester. Mr. Rice, who was a Director in the corporation and its Treasurer, was influential and active in the ex- pansion, as well as in the general conduct of the business, which has resulted in adding so noticeably to the population and to the prosperity of Worcester.
In 1870 Mr. Rice against visited the iron manufacturing dis- tricts of England and Sweden, and arranged for the manufacture of special bars for the continuous rolling system, acquiring for his company the distinction in Sweden of being the first consumer in this country to import rolled iron direct from Swedish manu- facturers.
In 1877 he organized the Worcester Wire Company, for the general manufacturer of wire, with a plant at South Worcester. This also became an exceedingly successful company.
In 1899, Mr. Rice, as President of the Worcester Wire Com- pany, an office he took in 1877, and of the Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company, an office he took in 1891, was instru- mental, in behalf of the stockholders, in effecting the sale and transfer of all the shares of these two corporations, and in merging the business of both in the American Steel and Wire Com- pany. The successful conclusion of this highly important ne- gotiation, whereby a sum in excess of ten million dollars was dis- tributed to holders of stock, permitted his much desired withdrawal from affairs upon which his attention had so long been concen- trated, and his general relinquishment of business pursuits.
Mr. Rice has filled numerous fiduciary positions of importance and been connected in matters of consequence with many corporate and other organizations.
He married, January 11, 1866, Frances Helen, daughter of Thomas L. and Margaret (Bartlett) Randlett of Newburyport, Massachusetts, who died May 3, 1879. December 15, 1881, he mar- ried Lucy Draper, daughter of Moores M. and Sophia A. (Draper) White of the City of New York. He has two children, Christine, widow of the late Hon. Rockwood Hoar, now the wife of Hon. Frederick H. Gillett, and Albert White, A.B. Harvard, 1904, A.M. 1905, Harvard Law School, 1908, now engaged in the practice of law in Boston.
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HENRY HUDDLESTON ROGERS
H ENRY HUDDLESTON ROGERS was born in Matta- poisett, Massachusetts, on January 29, 1840. He died at his home in New York City, on May 18, 1909. His father was Rowland Rogers, born March 21, 1809, died November 14, 1861. His mother was Mary Eldridge Huddleston. His grand- fathers were Henry Huddleston, born in 1772, died January 10, 1832, and Abisha Rogers, born June 23, 1782. His grandmothers before marriage were Rhoda Merrihew, born December 26, 1771, died September 18, 1841, and Judith Cushman, born December 21, 1782.
Mr. Rogers traced his ancestry back to Thomas Rogers who came in the Mayflower in 1620. Among his maternal forbears were the Cushmans, after whom Mr. Rogers named the spacious park he gave to Fairhaven.
His mother, a remarkable woman in many ways, had a power- ful influence over her son and he inherited from her many quali- ties of mind and heart.
Mr. Rogers was a fun loving, and alert boy, popular with his schoolmates in the Fairhaven High School from which he gradu- ated in 1856. In after years he liked to recall his Fairhaven school days and made it a point, whenever possible, to attend the annual re-union and dinner of the High School Alumni Associa- tion. He often furnished the principal attraction on those happy occasions by his presence and lively interest, and by his reminiscent addresses.
After Mr. Rogers graduated from the High School he worked for a time in a general store for $3 per week. Later he took a position with the Old Colony Railroad.
In 1861, he went to McClintockville, Pennsylvania, and there, with Charles P. Ellis, began to produce and refine oil under the firm name of Rogers and Ellis.
When the Civil War began Mr. Rogers was inclined to enlist
HENRY HUDDLESTON ROGERS
but his diversified business and family interests demanded his attention. He, however, gave liberally to sustain the soldiers and was always a loyal friend to the Union.
Actively and aggressively, and with a keen instinct to seize every available means to advance, he built up his oil business and acquired an intimate knowledge of the technical methods employed in the industry; and many improvements were directly due to suggestions or experiments made by Mr. Rogers.
In July, 1867, he accepted a position as Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Salt Company at Natrona, Pennsylvania, which con- ducted in connection with its chemical works one of the largest refineries of crude oil in the Allegheny River oil field.
The next step in Mr. Rogers' business career was taken, when in 1874 an alliance was projected and consummated between the leading oil refineries of Cleveland, Pittsburg, and New York. This was the birth of the Standard Oil Company, which has since become one of the best known commercial and financial enter- prises ever conceived, and which has served a great and useful purpose in the economy of civilization. Its ships are seen in all the great ports of the seven seas. It furnishes permanent and profitable employment for many thousands of men and, as Mr. Rogers once said, "It steadily carried light and comfort to those who before sat in darkness."
Mr. Rogers assisted in directing the great corporation until he was disabled by his first apoplectic seizure in 1907. He once said speaking of trusts, "If any one can convince me that a trust has more evil to it than good, I will gladly forego my present atti- tude." He defined a trust as "a combination of ideas backed by capital."
Mr. Rogers started poor and unknown. All he had to begin with was his hands and his brains. From the little town of Fair- haven with nothing but his ambition and his never wavering af- fection for his mother in his heart, he climbed the hill of difficulty till he stood master of himself, employer of many thousands of men and guardian of many millions of money.
On November 17, 1861, Mr. Rogers was married to Abbie Palmer Gifford, daughter of Captain Peleg Winslow and Amelia Loring (Hammond) Gifford, granddaughter of George W. and Judith (Palmer) Gifford, and of Gideon and Abigail (Hathaway)
HENRY HUDDLESTON ROGERS
Palmer, and a descendant from William Gifford who came from London, England, and settled in Sandwich, Massachusetts, about 1660. . Mr. Rogers' first wife died fourteen years before his own death, and he married for his second wife, Miss Emilie Augusta Randel of New York.
Mr. Rogers' children, all born of the first marriage are: Anne Engle, married William E. Benjamin; Cara Leland, married Urban H. Broughton; Mae Huddleston, married William R. Coe; and Henry Huddleston Rogers, Jr., who married Mary Benjamin; and Millicent G. Rogers, a beloved daughter who died in 1890 at the age of eighteen.
Mr. Rogers built a beautiful summer home at Fairhaven and made to the town a series of notable gifts. The first was a gram- mar school and this is the only building in the town which bears his name. This was followed by a beautiful library building in the Italian renaissance style, named the Millicent Library in mem- ory of his daughter. After the Millicent Library came the splen- did town hall, and then a fine Masonic building, which he asked the local Lodge of Free Masons to name after his old friend, George H. Taber.
After the death of his mother, Mr. Rogers built as a memorial to her, the Unitarian Memorial Church, one of the most beautiful and costly and impressive specimens of the Gothic style of archi- tecture in this country. This church and the parish house and manse, the minister's home, form a group of buildings which Hon. Andrew D. White has pronounced to be one of the most remark- able in the land. They are built of granite taken from the Fair- haven estate of Mr. Rogers and are visited and admired annually by thousands of people who appreciate what is noble and inspiring in art.
This group of impressive buildings stands on a fine lawn in the center of the town, surrounded by rare shrubbery and dwarf ever- green trees. In the stately and lofty tower of the church there hangs a chime of melodious bells unsurpassed in richness of tone and quality. Both the exterior and the interior of this wonderful church are decorated and ornamented with all that art and liber- ality can do to create a miracle of beauty and enduring inspira- tion. The bronze gates of the cloister and the magnificent gates of the south portal, the main entrance to the church, are among
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HENRY HUDDLESTON ROGERS
the finest and richest in the country. The baptistry contains a beautifully designed font. The rich and delicate carvings, the stained glass windows, and the splendid marble with the fan- shaped roof are greatly appreciated by all visitors.
Since Mr. Rogers died, the Unitarian Society of Fairhaven has placed on the east wall of the interior of the church a memorial tablet of marble, bearing this inscription, "In grateful and abid- ing memory of Henry Huddleston Rogers, erected by the Unitarian Society of Fairhaven."
Another striking building given by Mr. Rogers is the new High School, modeled after the English Tudor style as seen at Eton and Winchester. It stands in commanding position at the entrance to the town as one approaches over the bridge across the Acushnet River from the city of New Bedford. In its spacious grounds there is a large stadium for out-door games and sports. Attached to the High School is a fine and spacious gymnasium. This school is equipped in its mechanical, industrial, literary, and scholastic departments with everything conceivable in the way of modern methods of training for young people and it has a staff of teachers of high ability.
Mr. Rogers had a decided opinion that a good high school train- ing was sufficient education for young people. He did not believe in the value of a college education for the average young man or woman, especially for those who have to earn their own living. He said, "The time to set a young man to work is when he gradu- ates from High School. Then the youth is willing and ready to learn. But if you wait until he comes from college, in many in- stances you will find he is spoilt by conceit and by the contraction of habits which unfit him for discipline and application to hard, patient and efficient work."
Another of the attractive and useful buildings Mr. Rogers erected at Fairhaven, is a charming and finely situated hotel, which he named the "Tabitha Inn," in memory of his great-great-grand- mother who bore that name.
Fairhaven is said to have the largest tack and nail factory in the world. This institution is also due to Mr. Rogers who secured its establishment and enlargement in Fairhaven to provide occu- pation at home for the working people of the town.
Besides all these useful and beautiful institutions and build-
HENRY HUDDLESTON ROGERS
ings Mr. Rogers made liberal expenditure on the streets and roads of Fairhaven and no one who visits the town in summer can fail to be pleased with the fine trees and clean streets and miles of excellent sidewalks, that are due to him. Mr. Rogers constructed the waterworks of the town and in many ways besides those here mentioned he contributed to the improvement and attractive- ness of the town.
The people of Fairhaven, after Mr. Rogers' death spontaneously moved to erect to his memory a fitting memorial to express their gratitude for his unmeasured affection and generosity. Accord- ingly they raised and dedicated on the anniversary of his birth, January 29, 1912, a tall and graceful shaft of granite standing on a conspicuous site at the western entrance of the town. On a tablet on the base of this shaft is this inscription, "In grateful recognition of the worth, achievements and benefactions of Henry Huddleston Rogers, the people of Fairhaven have erected this monument."
Just above this inscribed tablet is a lifelike medallion bas-re lief of Mr. Rogers. At the top of the shaft is a powerful electric light. The subscriptions to this memorial came from townspeople who could give modestly and from others down to little children who could contribute only very small sums. The memorial is an enduring and popular testimonial to the gratitude and affection of the entire town.
Besides the great local gifts mentioned above, Mr. Rogers gave liberally to the work of the American Unitarian Association. He established the Robert Collyer Lectureship in the Meadville Theo- logical School in Meadville, Pennsylvania, a training school for Unitarian ministers, and endowed it with $250,000. He gave the town of Mattapoisett, which is within five miles of Fairhaven, a High School building. He gave St. Luke's Hospital in New Bed- ford, with its splendid nurses' home; and to every good cause he was a constant and generous friend.
He was for years the most influential layman in the Church of the Messiah in New York City, of which Rev. Robert Collyer, his close friend, was for more than two decades the honored and dis- tinguished minister.
The most striking and memorable contribution of Mr. Rogers to the industrial life and progress of America was his construc-
HENRY HUDDLESTON ROGERS
tion in the last years of his life of the Virginian railroad from Norfolk, Virginia-Sewall's Point-to the town of Deepwater, on the Kanawha River, in West Virginia. This railroad is 442 miles long, it cost more than $50,000,000 and ninety-five per cent. of the cost was personally met by Mr. Rogers. A prominent jour- nal said at the time the road was completed, "The fact that a single capitalist put up so large a share of the money expended in creating so long and costly an iron highway is an unique event in railroad history."
Mr. Rogers was a man of marked distinction in his personal appearance. He was tall and straight with the bearing of a patrician in every movement, and his fine head and intellectual face impressed all beholders. He had a high and finely molded forehead, Roman features, with a strong and determined chin and jaw, and fine gray eyes. He could be as tender and gentle as a woman and as strong and as aggressive as a lion. Altogether his appearance and manner indicated to even a chance observer a man of unusual ability and character.
If a man is known by his friends, one may judge what Henry Huddleston Rogers was like from the men and women who were drawn to him, Rev. Robert Collyer, Thomas B. Reed, Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens), his most intimate friend, Helen Keller, and Booker T. Washington. These are only representative of the range and quality of Mr. Rogers' friendships. They indicate the diver- sity and the universality of his tastes and interests.
Helen Keller wrote of him after he passed into the unseen, "How glad I am that I can tell the world of Mr. Rogers' kindness to me! He had the imagination, the vision, and the heart of a great man, and I counted it one of the most precious privileges of my life to have had him for a friend. The memory of his friend- ship will grow sweeter and brighten each year until he takes my hand again and we gather roses together in the garden of Para- dise,"
Mr. Rogers gave large sums to Booker T. Washington for his work and helped many industrial schools of the South. And Mr. Washington said of him, "Mr. Rogers was one of the best and greatest men I have ever met, and, as it seems to me, one of the greatest men of his day and age, and he has left many lessons be- hind him which others can follow to their profit."
HENRY HUDDLESTON ROGERS
It was his admiration for Mark Twain's books that led Mr. Rogers to express his desire to help the famous author even before the two men had met. The close friendship during the later years of two such remarkable men as Henry Huddleston Rogers and Samuel L. Clemens is one of the bright chapters of their lives. They were almost inseparable when near enough to visit each other, and many an anecdote and incident could be recounted of their intercourse. Those who admire Mark Twain must never for- get how much the great American humorist owed to the friendship and financial assistance of Mr. Rogers.
He took great pleasure in simple and inspiring sacred music and left a fund to make sure that the Fairhaven Church should always be able to command the best music and choir.
When he died so suddenly on that fatal morning in May, 1909, the news of his death stunned and pained the people of Fairhaven who knew and loved him best. The whole community went in a body to his funeral and manifested a universal grief in which the children of the schools shared, as well as the citizens without regard to creed or condition. They all had the best of reasons to under- stand that when his body was borne to its tomb Fairhaven had lost its best friend and its greatest benefactor.
He was a man who cherished great hopes and he possessed a will and intelligence which made his life one long series of upward steps toward power and efficiency.
To young men his advice was, "Be clean and straight and to lay hold of every opportunity." He believed in a greater future for America than we have yet dreamed of. He did not think we have yet reached the summit of our achievements but that we are only at the cock-crowing and morning star of a day of wonderful expansion and success in things material and spiritual.
Speaking of Mr. Rogers, Dr. Robert Collyer said, "He was my dear friend from the time when I came to New York to the end of his life, and I could depend on him more truly than I can de- pend on the hand that holds this pen. Was it money I wanted- he was the man to give me the money there and then it may be, or soon after, and I cannot remember a time when I had gone abeg- ging in this kind when he did not clasp my hand in a good warm grip and say, 'Come again.' It would not do to tell the story of our intimacy in the closer and more intimate relations, only to say that in my long life I have known no nobler man."
DAVID FOSTER SLADE
D AVID FOSTER SLADE was a descendant in the seventh generation from William Slade, who with Edward Slade, his father, came to this country previous to the year 1659 and first located in Newport, Rhode Island, removing later, about 1680, to Swansea, a part of which became Somerset, Massachusetts.
The family is of Welsh origin and its members have always been active in public affairs, filling many local and state offices at differ- ent periods. They were large landowners in that part of Swan- sea known as the Shawomet Purchase, which in 1790 became the present town of Somerset. William Slade was the owner of a ferry across the Taunton River, which took his name of "Slade's Ferry." The ferry was operated by him and his descendants for nearly two hundred years and was not abandoned until 1876, when "Slade's Ferry" Bridge was opened for public travel, while the farming lands are still owned by the family.
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