HENRY HUTTLESTON ROGERS was born in Fairhaven in 1840, the second of three children of Rowland and Mary (Huttleston) Rogers. As a boy he delivered newspapers, worked as a grocery clerk and was baggage master for the Fairhaven Branch Railroad. At the age of twenty-one, he left Fairhaven for the oil fields of Pennsylvania, where he and a partner, Charles Ellis, started their own oil refinery. Later Rogers became manager of the Charles Pratt Oil Co., which merged in 1872 with the Standard Oil Company. Rogers eventually became president of six and vice-president of thirteen of the Standard Oil Trust companies. He was also part of U.S. Steel, Amalgamated Copper, and several gas companies and railroads. Near the end of his life he financed the 500-mile Virginian Railroad.

Rogers married his high school sweetheart, Abbie Gifford, and summered in Fairhaven with his five children. In 1895 he built a large mansion near Fort Phoenix in the southern part of town overlooking the bay. Most of this house was demolished in 1915 and none of the main house is left today.

In 1885, with the building of a grammar school, Rogers began a series of benefactions to his hometown, giving Fairhaven some of the most beautiful public buildings in the country. Besides the spectacular architecture gracing the town, Fairhaven has Rogers to thank for its public water system, roads, and Cushman Park, which was a boggy pond before Rogers had it filled and landscaped.

Rogers was a close friend of author Mark Twain, who often visited the Rogers family in town, often arriving on Rogers’ 225 foot steam yacht Kanawha. At Twain’s suggestion, Rogers gave financial assistance to Helen Keller, who dedicated one of her books to him. Rogers also provided Booker T. Washington with funds for the establishment of schools for southern blacks.

At the time of his death in May of 1909, Henry Huttleston Rogers was worth between 100 and 150 million dollars, placing him at number 22 in the list of the top 100 wealthiest people in American history.

A monument, which now stands on the west lawn of Fairhaven High School, was dedicated to Rogers in 1912.

To the right is a list of links describing the legacy of Henry H. Rogers in his hometown.

Rogers School (1885)

100 Pleasant St. at corner of Center St.

The first gift of Henry H. Rogers, this elementary school is the town’s oldest public school building still in use. Built at a time when greater interest in education was sweeping the country, the school incorporated the best features in schoolhouse design, including a spacious auditorium on the third floor. Originally the building had living quarters for the custodian, assuring security and the uninterrupted operation of the furnace on cold winter nights.

When the building’s exterior brick began to discolor just five years after the school’s construction, Rogers had all the brick removed and replaced. Fairhaven did not have electric service when the school was built. It was wired for lights in 1890. Today, with an addition and two portable classrooms added to the rear, the building is still used as an elementary school.

Millicent Library (1893)

45 Center Street

Fairhaven’s Italian Renaissance-style library is named for Rogers’ daughter Millicent, who died in 1890 at the age of 17. Designed by noted architect Charles Brigham, the library is ornamented with molded terracotta reliefs, red slate roof and a large stained glass window by Clayton and Bell of London, depicting Millicent as the Muse of Poetry.

After giving a speech dedicating the Town Hall across the street, Rogers’ friend Mark Twain visited the library. “I’m glad to have seen it,” Twain wrote to the trustees. “It is the ideal library, I think.” Twain sent the library an autographed set of his books with a note commenting, “They are not instructive, but I feel sure you will like the bindings.”

The library was operated with revenue from the private Fairhaven Water Company until 1968 when the water company was taken over by the town. Now funded primarily by the town, operations are overseen by a board of trustees.

The Millicent Library, open Monday through Saturday, houses a collection of memorabilia relating to Captain William Whitfield’s 1841 rescue of Manjiro Nakahama. The guest book has been signed by Emperor Akihito of Japan, who visited in 1987.

Hours of operation are: Monday 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Tuesday 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Wednesday 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Thursday and Friday 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

http://www.millicentlibrary.org/

Fairhaven Town Hall (1894)

40 Center Street

Financed by Rogers as a gift to the town from his first wife, Abbie, this French Gothic building was the second of Rogers’ buildings to be designed by Charles Brigham. Originally, it housed all of the town government offices, as well as the Post Office and the police station with three iron-barred jail cells. It is still home to many of the town’s municipal offices.

The interior features English oak paneling, solid brass fixtures and leaded, stained glass windows. The tower houses a four-faced clock. The magnificent auditorium on the second floor, restored in the 1990s, has been the site of many town meetings, dances, concerts, plays and theatrical performances. Humorist Mark Twain, a close friend of Rogers, appeared on stage here on February 22, 1894, as the keynote speaker at the building’s dedication ceremony.

Town Hall is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

George H. Taber Lodge (1901)

20 Center Street

Rogers’ effort to boost business in the center of town resulted in the construction of the Masonic Building, the third floor of which contains the ornate meeting place of the George H. Taber Lodge, A.F. & A.M., named for Fairhaven and Massachusetts’ oldest living freemason, who was related by marriage to Rogers. Originally named Concordia Lodge, the group was given the building under the condition the lodge be renamed to honor “Uncle George.”

Rental of the first floor for business use helps the lodge maintain the building. At one time the Post Office was located on the first floor.

Unitarian Memorial Church (1904)

102 Green Street

The bell tower of this English perpendicular Gothic “cathedral” reaches 185 feet above its manicured green, a particularly inspiring sight from near or far. Dedicated in memory of Rogers’ mother, Mary Eldredge (Huttleston) Rogers, the church was designed by Charles Brigham. It was built of local granite quarried near Fort Phoenix and limestone transported from Indiana. European stone cutters and craftsmen fashioned a multitude of gargoyles and other figures inside and outside the building. The breathtaking stained glass windows were designed by painter Robert Reid of New York.

The lovely Tudor style manse, now used as a Sunday school, also graces the church grounds, bringing a touch of Old England to New England.

In July and August the church sanctuary is open for tours on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Tabitha Inn (1905)

71 Center Street

Built to accommodate an increase in visitors to Fairhaven, this well-appointed Elizabethan style hotel was named after Rogers’ maternal great-grandmother, Tabitha (Crowell) Huttlestone. At the time it was built, the Tabitha Inn was considered one of the finest small accommodations outside of Boston or New York. Mark Twain and other notable friends of the Rogers family stayed here. Following the death of Mark Twain, his personal valet, Claude Joseph Beuchotte, was hired by Col. Henry “Harry” Rogers Jr. to manage the inn.

In 1929, the Tabitha Inn became the property Barney Zeitz, who lived one block away at the corner of Center and Green streets. Zeiterion Realty Corp. operated the hotel until
WWII, when the building housed Coast Guard cadets. In 1944, the Tabitha Inn was purchased by the Fall River Diocese of the Catholic Church for use as a nursing home. It’s name was then changed to Our Lady’s Haven. A 150-room brick addition was built to the rear in the 1953.

Fairhaven High School (1906)

12 Huttleston Avenue (Route 6)

A member of the first graduating class of the town’s original wooden high school (demolished in the 1920s), Henry H. Rogers chose to build an educational palace to instill in Fairhaven students a sense of the glories associated with learning. He consulted with the top educators of the day while planning the new school.

The Elizabethan-influence design is by Charles Brigham and includes marble floors, oak paneling, stained glass windows and a lovely auditorium with a beamed ceiling and carved wooden gargoyles. The library/media center was once an octagonal gymnasium that contained the first indoor basketball court in an American high school.

The school was built with its own electric generating plant, operated by a custodian who lived in an apartment located on the third floor. The basement level once housed industrial arts rooms and a home economics kitchen and facilities for agricultural studies. Those well-appointed classrooms and a student garden behind the school were eliminated in the 1930s when the first addition (now demolished) was built.

A legend that nothing could be attached to the exterior of the high school or ownership would revert back to the Rogers family led to the installation of an underground passage from the original building to the addition. Later, free-standing fire escapes were build, again without altering the original structure. When the newest wing of the building was added in the late 1990s, it was determined that the legend was unfounded, allowing the addition to be attached directly to the Rogers building.

The new wing, completed in the year 2000, added updated teaching and lab facilities and improved the high school handicap accessibility, continuing Rogers’ aim to provide for the town’s future.

Cushman Park (dedicated 1908)

Between 1903 and 1906, the stagnant Mill Pond, which had connected to the harbor at one time, was filled with earth moved by a small steam train from an area north of Bridge Street. The pond had consisted of about 5 acres of standing water surrounded by low marsh.

This major engineering project, overseen by Joseph K. Nye, also diverted the Herring River underground and raised the level of parts of Bridge Street. The original landscaping included many trees, flowering shrubs and flower beds.

This public park, which now includes some of the high school’s athletic facilities, is named for Rogers’ ancestor Robert Cushman, one of the planners of the Pilgrim’s voyage to America. Officially given to the town in 1908, this was Rogers’ last gift to Fairhaven before his death in May 1909.

Rogers' Boyhood Home

39 Middle Street (private home)

After the marriage of Rowland and Mary Eldredge (Huttleston) Rogers in 1833, the couple lived in this Middle Street house, which had been the home of Mary’s grandparents Ruby and Stephen Merrihew. Ruby, who had married Jethro Allen Jr. after the death of her first husband, lived until 1835 and the Rogers may have been her caretakers during her last two years. The home was deeded in trust to Mary Rogers through the will of her mother Rhoda Huttleston in 1841.

Henry Huttleston Rogers, along with his siblings Eliza and Rufus, were raised here. Henry left home for Pennsylvania in 1861. His father Rowland died later the same year.

In 1888, a two-story addition was added to the home of Mary E. Rogers, where she dwelt until shortly before her death in 1899.

Rogers Mausoleum (1893)

Riverside Cemetery, 274 Main Street

Designed by Charles Brigham and installed in Riverside Cemetery in 1893, the mausoleum, modeled after the Temple of Minerva in Athens, is the final resting place of H.H. Rogers, his first wife Abbie, three of their children, Rogers’ parents, sister, daughter-in-law Mary and grandson H.H. Rogers III.

Fairhaven Water Co. (1893)

Mill Road

Henry H. Rogers financed the Fairhaven Water Company and had the town’s first public water system installed in 1893. The design and operation of the water system was supervised by Joseph K. Nye, the son of Nye Oil Works founder William F. Nye. All of the water company’s stock was given to the trustees of the Millicent Library, who used the revenue for operation of the library until 1968. Since then, the town has run the water system under the Department of Public Works.

Atlas Tack Factory (1902)

South and Pleasant Streets

Little remains today of the Atlas Tack Company factory, built by Rogers in 1902 to house one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of tacks, nails, bottlecaps and other small hardware. Originally the American Tack Co., located on the former Rodman Wharf on Fort Street, Atlas Tack was formed in 1895 when Rogers acquired the Fairhaven company and consolidated it with several other tack manufacturing firms.

It was the town’s largest employer during much of the 20th century. The factory was closed in 1985 and most of its structures were subsequently razed. Cleanup of the property under the supervision of the Environmental Protection Agency was completed in 2007. Today only the office building on Pleasant Street remains standing.

Rogers Genealogy

Mary Eldredge Huttleston
b. September 10, 1811, New Bedford (now Fairhaven), MA; dau. of Henry Huttleston and Rhoda Merrihew; d. November 9, 1899, Fairhaven, MA; bur. Riverside Cemetery, Fairhaven, MA

She m. March 21, 1833, Rowland Rogers, b. March 21, 1809, Mattapoisett, MA; son of Abisha Rogers and Judith Cushman; d. November 14, 1861, Fairhaven, MA; bur. Riverside Cemetery, Fairhaven, MA.

Children (ROGERS)

1.Eliza Soper, b. September 7, 1834; d. June 2, 1849; bur. Old Burial Ground, Fairhaven, MA; moved to Riverside Cemetery, Fairhaven, MA

2. Henry Huttleston, b. January 29, 1840

3. Rufus Allen, b. February 22, 1843; d. December 25, 1909, Chicago, IL; bur. Riverside Cemetery;
He m. ca 1868, Maud Thurman; children: Rufus, Marion.

* * * *

Henry Huttleston Rogers
b. January 29, 1840; son of Rowland Rogers and Mary E. Huttleston; d. May 19, 1909, New York, NY; bur. Riverside Cemetery, Fairhaven, MA.

He m. (1) November 17, 1862, Abby Palmer Gifford, b. January 20, 1841, Mattapoisett, MA; dau. of Capt. Peleg Gifford and Amelia L. Hammond; d, May 21, 1894, New York, NY; bur. Riverside Cemetery, Fairhaven, MA.

He m. (2) June 4, 1896, Emilie Augusta (Randal) Hart.

Children: (ROGERS) by wife Abby

1. Anne Engle, b. February 5, 1865, Titusville, PA; she m. 1886, William Evarts Benjamin.

2. Cara Leland, b. November 24, 1867, Fairhaven, MA; d. March 18, 1939, England; she m. (1) November 17, 1890, Bradford Ferris Duff; d. 1892; she m. (2) November 12, 1895, Urban Hanlon Broughton; d. 1929; following the death of her husband, she was granted the use of the title Lady Fairhaven of Lode by King George V.

3. male, b. December 24 or 25, 1870, NY, d. December 25, 1870, NY

4. Millicent Gifford, b. January 30, 1873, NY, d. August 31, 1890.

5. Mary "Mai" Huttleston, b. September 26, 1875; d. December 28, 1924; she m. (1) 1893, Joseph Cooper Mott, divorced 1896; she m. (2) June 4, 1900, William Robertson Coe.

6. Henry "Harry" Huttleston (or Huddleston), b. December 28, 1879; d. 1935; he m. (1) November 7, 1900, Mary Benjamin, divorced 1929; he m. (2) Daisy Von Braun; he m. (3) 1933, Pauline Van Der Voort Dresser.