The Story of Pittsburgh 
Coal and Coke : 
B® 
tHE recent death of Henry Clay Frick was a great 
loss to the financial and industrial centers, not 
only of this country, but of other countries also. 
Mr. Frick was undoubtedly acknowledged to be the 
“Coke King of the World.” It is a singular coincidence 
that the passing away of Andrew Carnegie, the “Steel 
King,” should so soon be followed by the death of his 
sne-time partner, Mr. Frick. 
The two co-operated for many years, but were business 
opponents later in life. Mr. Frick was born at West Over- 
ton, Westmoreland County, Pa., on December 19, 1849, 
and was therefore about threescore and ten years old when 
he died. At the age of ten he was a boy on a farm, and 
he received very little education such as one gets in the 
schools, but his practical business education, obtained in 
the great world of industrial activity, was wide to an 
extraordinary degree. He did, however, enjoy a short 
term at Chester Military Academy, after a few years in 
the elementary school at West Overton, and he also spent 
a few months at Otterbein University, Ohio. 
At the age of 16, Mr. Frick began his business career 
as a clerk in a dry goods store, and later went as book- 
keeper to a mill owned by his grandfather, Abraham 
Overholt. He had an almost intuitive knowledge that the 
coke industry, then in its infancy, was destined to become 
one of vast importance, and he invested all his savings, 
and all the money he could borrow from his relatives, in 
coke ovens. He was successful as a coke operator from 
the very beginning, and in 1878, he and his partner owned 
200 ovens. Then came the panic of that year, but not-