In the early years of the steel industry the iron master did not produce his own coke. He bought it. But as the industry became more and more integrated it became obvious that the two operations must go hand in hand if costs were to be kept down, and to-day most of the larger manufacturers produce all the coke they need in their steel operations. One of the first and certainly the most important mergers combining steel and coke interests was that which brought together Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, and later resulted in giving to the Steel Corporation, when it absorbed the Carnegie Steel Co., control of the vast coal mines and numerous coke ovens originally owned by Frick and his associates. Long before his death, which took place December 2, 1919, Frick had earned the right to be reckoned as one of the outstanding figures in American industrial history. Like many other Americans who have achieved great success he began life without advantages, starting his business career as an errand boy and later occupying the position of a clerk in a distillery at Mount Pleasant, Pa., in the middle of what is now the big Connellsville coke-producing district. At that time the American coke industry was in its infancy. The young clerk perceived its possibilities and out of a very slender salary, by frugal living and many privations, saved enough to make some small investments in coal properties. Later, when the coke industry was in the dumps, and most of those connected with it could see nothing but disaster, Frick, convinced of a great future for coke, managed to enlist the aid of a Pittsburgh banker and purchased a number of properties at bargain prices, organizing H. C. Frick & Co., which later became the H. C. Frick Coke Co. In a few years the clerk had risen to be the dominating figure in the coke trade. When Carnegie decided that economical manufacture of steel implied the acquisition of coke properties he secured control of the Frick Company and later negotiated a partnership with Frick, merging the two companies. Eventually, after a lawsuit and much bitterness between the two men, Frick and Carnegie separated. But when the Steel Corporation took over the Carnegie Company, Frick was induced to become a member of the Finance Committee, and it is generally recognized that his financial acumen was of enormous assistance to the big Corporation in the days before it had established itself firmly. Frick remained a director of the Corporation and one of the most influential members of its Finance Committee until the day of his death. Frick left an enormous fortune. Although he left substantial legacies to his children and others, the mass of fortune was distributed among public institutions for the good of the community.