e, he
built a Grammar Manual-Training School and presented it to the town. It
was called the Rogers School. Such a gift to a town is enough to work
the local immortality of the giver. But the end was not yet. In a few
years, Rogers--or Mrs. Rogers, to be exact--presented to the village a
Town Hall, beautiful and complete, at a cost of something over two
hundred fifty thousand dollars. Next came the Millicent Public Library,
in memory of a beloved daughter.

When his mother passed away, as a memorial to her he built a church and
presented it to the Unitarian denomination. It is probably the most
complete and artistic church in America. Its cost was a million dollars.

The Fairhaven Waterworks System was a present from Mr. Rogers. And
lastly was the Fairhaven High School, as fair and fine an edifice, and
as completely equipped, as genius married to money could supply. The
only rival this school has in America is the Stout High School in
Menominee, Wisconsin, which is also the gift of an individual. No
municipality in the world has ever erected and completed so good a
school--the taxpayers would not allow it. Into our schoolteaching go the
cheese-paring policies of the average villager. In truth, George
Bernard Shaw avers that we are a nation of villagers.

The big deeds of the world are always done by individuals. One-man power
is the only thing that counts. The altruistic millionaire is a necessity
of progress--he does magnificent things, which the many will not and can
not do. So we find the model town of Fairhaven molded and fashioned by
her First Citizen. Everywhere are the marks of his personality, and the
tangible signs of his good taste.

The only political office to which Henry H. Rogers ever aspired was that
of Street Commissioner of Fairhaven. He filled the office to the
satisfaction of his constituents, and drew his stipend of three dollars
a day for several years. Good roads was his hobby. Next to this came
tree-planting and flowers. His dream was to have the earth transformed
into a vast flower-garden and park and given to the people.

His last item of public work was an object-lesson as to what the
engineering skill of man can do. He took a great bog or swamp that lay
to the north of the village and was used as a village dumping-ground. He
drained this tract, filled in with gravel, and then earth, and
transformed it into a public park of marvelous beauty.

The last great business effort of H. H. Rogers