a
genius for trade. He was a salesman--that is to say, he was a diplomat
and an adept in the management of people. Where and how could he use his
talent best?

When Sumter was fired upon, it meant that no ship flying the Stars and
Stripes was safe. The grim aspect of war came home to New Bedford with a
reeling shock, when news arrived that a whaler, homeward bound, had been
captured, towed into Charleston Harbor, and the ship and cargo
confiscated. It was a blow of surprise to the captain and sailors on
this ship, too, for they had been out three years and knew nothing of
what was going on at home. Then certain Southern privateers got lists of
the New England whale-ships that were out, and lay in wait for them as
whalers lie in wait for the leviathan.

Prices of whale-oil soared like balloons. New England ships at home tied
up close or else were pressed into government service. The high price of
oil fanned the flame of speculation in Pennsylvania.

Henry H. Rogers was twenty-one. It was a pivotal point in his life. He
was in love with the daughter of the captain of a whaler. They were
neighbors and had been schoolmates together. Henry talked it over with
Abbie Gifford--it was war or the oil-fields of Pennsylvania! And love
had its way, just as it usually has. The ayes had it, and with nearly a
thousand dollars of hard-earned savings he went to the oil-fields. At
that time most of the crude oil was shipped to tidewater and there
refined. In the refining process, only twenty-five per cent of the
product was saved, seventy-five per cent being thrown away as worthless.
It struck young Rogers that the refining should be done at the wells,
and the freight on that seventy-five per cent saved. To that end he
entered into a partnership with Charles Ellis, and erected a refinery
between Titusville and Oil City.

Rogers learned by doing. He was a practical refiner, and soon became a
scientific one. The first year he and Ellis divided thirty thousand
dollars between them.

In the Fall of Eighteen Hundred Sixty-two, when he went back to
Fairhaven to claim his bride, Rogers was regarded as a rich man. His
cruise to Pennsylvania had netted him as much as half a dozen whales.
The bride and groom returned at once to Pennsylvania and the simple
life. Henry and Abbie lived in a one-roomed shack on the banks of Oil
Creek. It was love in a cottage all right, with an absolute lack of
everything that is supposed to make up civilization