John D. Rockefeller, in full John Davison Rockefeller, (born July 8, 1839, Richford, New York, U.S.died May 23, 1937, Ormond Beach, Florida), American industrialist and philanthropist, founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. [45], A market existed for the refined oil in the form of kerosene. WebHow did John Rockefeller gain his wealth? WebRockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and, through corporate and technological innovations, was instrumental in both widely disseminating and drastically reducing the production cost of oil. [92], The strike, called in September 1913 by the United Mine Workers, over the issue of union representation, was against coal mine operators in Huerfano and Las Animas counties of southern Colorado, where the majority of CF&I's coal and coke production was located. [14][15][16] He was a devout Northern Baptist and supported many church-based institutions. Rockefeller said, "It was the day that determined my career. John D What was John D. Rockefeller remembered for? John D [75] Additional fields were discovered in Burma and Java. WebJohn D. Rockefeller. Even with the high costs of freight transportation and a government levy during the Civil War (the government levied a tax of twenty cents a gallon on refined oil), profits on the refined product were large. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time[1][2] and the richest person in modern history. Johann Peter Rockenfeller (baptized September 27, 1682, in the Protestant church of Rengsdorf) immigrated in 1723 from Altwied (today a district of Neuwied, Rhineland-Palatinate) with three children to North America and settled down in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Tar was used for paving, naphtha shipped to gas plants. John D. Rockefeller, Jr I, 1879)", "Militia slaughters strikers at Ludlow, Colorado", "Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Foundation", "Text of Rockefeller's Letter to Dr. Butler", "John D. Rockefeller Sr. and family timeline", "John D Rockefeller:Infinitely Ruthless, Profoundly Charitable", "The Richest Man In History: Rockefeller is Born", "Financier's Fortune in Oil Amassed in Industrial Era of 'Rugged Individualism', "Toward a 'Universal Heritage': Education and the Development of Rockefeller Philanthropy, 18841913", Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, Standard Oil Co. v. 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Rockefeller, now found in the Cleveland Western Historical Society, This page was last edited on 8 February 2023, at 14:21. [citation needed], Rockefeller, aged 86, wrote the following words to sum up his life:[144]. [76], Standard Oil moved its headquarters to New York City at 26 Broadway, and Rockefeller became a central figure in the city's business community. "I never had an animus against their size and wealth, never objected to their corporate form. Due to be drafted to serve the Union in the Civil War in 1863, the 23-year-old Rockefeller did what many men of means had done: He paid for someone to serve in his place. Today known as Spelman College, the school is an all women Historically Black College or University in Atlanta, Georgia, named after Laura's family. [80] He went on a massive buying spree acquiring leases for crude oil production in Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia, as the original Pennsylvania oil fields began to play out. The Ohio businessman John D. Rockefeller entered the oil industry in the 1860s and in 1870, and founded Standard Oil with some other business partners. John D. Rockefeller He admitted that he had made no attempt to bring the militiamen to justice. Learn about John D. Rockefeller's historic-preservation of early American history at Williamsburg. WebBy 1858, Rockefeller had more responsibilities at Hewitt & Tuttle. WebTwo things about the oil industry, however, bothered Rockefeller right from the start: the appalling waste and the fluctuating prices. [50], In 1866, William Rockefeller Jr., John's brother, built another refinery in Cleveland and brought John into the partnership. The union was forced to discontinue strike benefits in February 1915. Corrections? After the war, he donated land for the United Nations headquarters, a gift that figured prominently in the decision to After the war, he donated land for the United Nations headquarters, a gift that figured prominently in the decision to I would have deplored the necessity which compelled the officers of the company to resort to such measures to supplement the State forces to maintain law and order." Rockefeller finally gave up his dream of controlling all the world's oil refining; he admitted later, "We realized that public sentiment would be against us if we actually refined all the oil. Rockefeller prevailed and the railroad sold its oil interests to Standard. Due to be drafted to serve the Union in the Civil War in 1863, the 23-year-old Rockefeller did what many men of means had done: He paid for someone to serve in his place. WebJohn D. Rockefeller. Few miners actually belonged to the union or participated in the strike call, but the majority honored it. John D. Rockefeller WebJohn D. Rockefeller. David Rockefeller [117] He founded the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission in 1909,[114] an organization that eventually eradicated the hookworm disease,[118] which had long plagued rural areas of the American South. John D. Rockefeller was an American business magnate and philanthropist. [29] He later stated, "From the beginning, I was trained to work, to save, and to give. [133] "[22] Unshackled by conventional morality, he led a vagabond existence and returned to his family infrequently. He wrote in a letter to Nicholas Murray Butler on June 6, 1932, that his neither Rockefeller nor his parents or his father's father and mother's mother drank alcohol. In 1899 these companies were brought back together in a holding company, Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), which existed until 1911, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared it in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and therefore illegal. [58] Eventually, even his former antagonists, Pratt and Rogers, saw the futility of continuing to compete against Standard Oil; in 1874, they made a secret agreement with Rockefeller to be acquired. [citation needed] In February 1865, in what was later described by oil industry historian Daniel Yergin as a "critical" action, Rockefeller bought out the Clark brothers for $72,500 (equivalent to $1million[37] in 2021 dollars) at auction and established the firm of Rockefeller & Andrews. A. D. John. Biographer Allan Nevins, answering Rockefeller's enemies, concluded: The rise of the Standard Oil men to great wealth was not from poverty. John D. Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York, then part of the Burned-over district, a New York state region that became the site of an evangelical revival known as the Second Great Awakening. Seldom has history produced such a contradictory figure. John D. Rockefeller, Jr [81] Amid the frenetic expansion, Rockefeller began to think of retirement. John D. Rockefeller, Jr If we absorb them, it surely will bring up another. During church service, his mother would urge him to contribute his few pennies to the congregation. [62] The railroad, seeing Standard's incursion into the transportation and pipeline fields, struck back and formed a subsidiary to buy and build oil refineries and pipelines. He also gave a grant to the American Baptist Missionaries foreign mission board, the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society in establishing Central Philippine University, the first Baptist and second American university in Asia, in 1905 in the heavily Catholic Philippines. Great-grandson John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV served from 1985 until 2015 as a Democratic Senator from West Virginia after serving as governor of West Virginia,[100] and another Winthrop served as lieutenant governor of Arkansas for a decade. John D. Rockefeller A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. Biography: John D. Rockefeller Grandchildren Abigail Aldrich "Abby" Rockefeller and John Davison Rockefeller III became philanthropists. He was advised primarily by Frederick Taylor Gates[103] after 1891,[104] and, after 1897, also by his son. Money making was considered by him a "God-given gift".[101]. [27] His church was later affiliated with the Northern Baptist Convention, which formed from American Baptists in the North with ties to their historic missions to establish schools and colleges for freedmen in the South after the American Civil War. He ran it until 1897 and remained its largest shareholder. Learn the history behind Byron Benson's building the world's first oil pipeline (1879), defeating John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-D-Rockefeller, PBS - American Experience - Biography of John D. Rockefeller, Senior, Ohio History Central - Biography of John D. Rockefeller, United States History - Biography of John D. Rockefeller. John D. Rockefeller Was the Richest Person To Ever Live [13], Rockefeller was also the founder of the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University and funded the establishment of Central Philippine University in the Philippines. After the war, he donated land for the United Nations headquarters, a gift that figured prominently in the decision to Then he took a ten-week business course at Folsom's Commercial College, where he studied bookkeeping. He quickly found success as it became the largest refinery in the area, and [66], The firm was attacked by journalists and politicians throughout its existence, in part for these monopolistic methods, giving momentum to the antitrust movement. John D. Rockefeller is reported to be the wealthiest man in America with about $150,000,000 and an income of $25,000 per day. Rockefeller had entered the raucous oil business during the Civil War, when oil often sold for a dollar a gallon. WebRockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and, through corporate and technological innovations, was instrumental in both widely disseminating and drastically reducing the production cost of oil. On this day in 1870, Rockefeller incorporated the company that would make him almost inconceivably rich and, in many ways, begin the modern age of oil. He wrote and published his memoirs beginning in 1908. 186365 Rockefeller builds his first oil refinery, near Cleveland. [18] Religion was a guiding force throughout his life and he believed it to be the source of his success. John D There was no one to take my place. John D. Rockefeller, Jr ROCKEFELLER WebROCKEFELLER, JOHN D. (8 July 1839-23 May 1937), industrialist and philanthropist, rose from his position as an assistant bookkeeper for a Cleveland commission merchant to become one of the wealthiest men in the U.S. through his efforts in developing the STANDARD OIL CO. Born on a farm near Richford, NY. With the help of funds from the Rockefeller Foundation, relief programs were organized by the Colorado Committee on Unemployment and Relief. I dropped the worry on the way Standard Oil was the first great business trust in the United States. [142] According to his New York Times obituary, "it was estimated after Mr. Rockefeller retired from business that he had accumulated close to $1,500,000,000 out of the earnings of the Standard Oil trust and out of his other investments. Ohio was especially vigorous in applying its state antitrust laws, and finally forced a separation of Standard Oil of Ohio from the rest of the company in 1892, the first step in the dissolution of the trust. May 15, 1911 | Supreme Court Orders Standard Oil to Be Broken Up WebThe Rockefeller family (/ r k f l r /) is an American industrial, political, and banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes.The fortune was made in the American petroleum industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by brothers John D. Rockefeller and William A. Rockefeller Jr., primarily through Standard Oil (the John D. Rockefeller and his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. John Jr.'s youngest son David Rockefeller was a leading New York banker, serving for over 20 years as CEO of Chase Manhattan (now part of JPMorgan Chase). Facts About John D. Rockefeller Burton Folsom Jr. has noted: [H]e sometimes gave tens of thousands of dollars to Christian groups, while, at the same time, he was trying to borrow over a million dollars to expand his business. He made possible the founding of the University of Chicago in 1892, and by the time of his deathfrom a heart attack in 1937, shortly before his 98th birthdayhe had given it some $35 million. He gave money to the Union cause, as did many rich Northerners who avoided combat. August 2, 1896 An article documents Rockefellers life and his rise to wealth, from poverty to possessing millions of dollars. [86] The court ruled that the trust originated in illegal monopoly practices and ordered it to be broken up into 34 new companies. In 1870 Rockefeller established the Standard Oil Company. The companies' combined net worth rose fivefold and Rockefeller's personal wealth jumped to $900million. The camp was burned, resulting in 15 women and children, who hid in tents at the camp, being burned to death. [6][full citation needed] That was his peak net worth, and amounts to US$24.7billion (in 2021 dollars; inflation-adjusted). But they had never played fair, and that ruined their greatness for me." His image is an amalgam of all of these experiences and the many ways he was viewed by his contemporaries. John D. had spent a lifetime trying to bury the truth about a relative whose actions threatened the entire empire he had worked so hard to build. [97], Against long-circulating speculations that his family has French roots, genealogists proved the German origin of Rockefeller and traced them back to the early 17th century. Standard Oil adapted by developing a European presence, expanding into natural gas production in the U.S., and then producing gasoline for automobiles, which until then had been considered a waste product. [10] His foundations pioneered developments in medical research and were instrumental in the near-eradication of hookworm[11] and yellow fever[12] in the United States. [citation needed], By the end of the American Civil War, Cleveland was one of the five main refining centers in the U.S. (besides Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, New York, and the region in northwestern Pennsylvania where most of the oil originated). It changed its name to Rockefeller University in 1965, after expanding its mission to include graduate education. WebJohn D. Rockefeller was the richest man of his time but, used his wealth to improve our country. WebROCKEFELLER, JOHN D. (8 July 1839-23 May 1937), industrialist and philanthropist, rose from his position as an assistant bookkeeper for a Cleveland commission merchant to become one of the wealthiest men in the U.S. through his efforts in developing the STANDARD OIL CO. Born on a farm near Richford, NY. He would describe the University of Chicago as "the best investment I ever made." He supported the incorporation of repealing the 18th amendment into the Republican party platform. Striking miners were forced to abandon their homes in company towns and lived in tent cities erected by the union, such as the tent city at Ludlow, a railway stop north of Trinidad.[94]. May 15, 1911 | Supreme Court Orders Standard Oil to Be Broken Up He also had a deep love of music and dreamed of it as a possible career. [28] John did his share of the regular household chores and earned extra money raising turkeys, selling potatoes and candy, and eventually lending small sums of money to neighbors. WebAfter dropping out of high school, taking one business class at Folsom Mercantile College, and working as a bookkeeper, Rockefeller establishes his first business, which supplies goods such as hay, grain, and meats. [38], In 1859, Rockefeller went into the produce commission business with a partner, Maurice B. Clark, and they raised $4,000 ($120,637 in 2021 dollars) in capital. "[105], Rockefeller and his advisers invented the conditional grant, which required the recipient to "root the institution in the affections of as many people as possible who, as contributors, become personally concerned, and thereafter may be counted on to give to the institution their watchful interest and cooperation".[106]. Public hostility toward monopolies, of which Standard was the best known, caused some countries to enact anti-monopoly laws. He had an elder sister named Lucy and four younger siblings: William Jr., Mary, and twins Franklin (Frank) and Frances. Second son Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was Republican governor of New York and the 41st Vice President of the United States. [86], In 1902, facing cash flow problems, John Cleveland Osgood turned to George Jay Gould, a principal stockholder of the Denver and Rio Grande, for a loan. In 1892 the Ohio Supreme Court held that the Standard Oil Trust was a monopoly in violation of an Ohio law prohibiting monopolies. Despite personal threats and constant pleas for charity, Rockefeller took the new elevated train to his downtown office daily. In 1972 Congress honored his contributions by creating a memorial parkway between Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, which bears his name. Mr. Rockefeller financed the construction of museums in Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone national parks. Rockefeller family Born in upstate New York, Rockefeller entered the oil business by investing in a Cleveland, Ohio refinery in 1863. This was probably the greatest amount of wealth that any private citizen had ever been able to accumulate by his own efforts. Born in upstate New York, Rockefeller entered the oil business by investing in a Cleveland, Ohio refinery in 1863. American industrialist John D. Rockefeller built his first oil refinery near Cleveland and in 1870 incorporated the Standard Oil Company. Mr. Rockefeller financed the construction of museums in Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone national parks. He paid towards the freedom of two slaves[102] and donated to a Roman Catholic orphanage. [94] Rockefeller denied any responsibility and minimized the seriousness of the event. John D. Rockefeller was an American business magnate and philanthropist. John D. Rockefeller did John D [82], Upon his ascent to the presidency, Theodore Roosevelt initiated dozens of suits under the Sherman Antitrust Act and coaxed reforms out of Congress. Tarbell's father had been driven out of the oil business during the "South Improvement Company" affair. Public hostility toward monopolies, of which Standard was the best known, caused some countries to enact anti-monopoly laws. WebTwo things about the oil industry, however, bothered Rockefeller right from the start: the appalling waste and the fluctuating prices. John D. Rockefeller As a percentage of the United States' GDP, no other American fortuneincluding those of Bill Gates or Sam Waltonwould even come close. John D "[101], Rockefeller would support Baptist missionary activity, fund universities, and heavily engage in religious activities at his Cleveland, Ohio, church. My life has been one long, happy holiday; [5] His personal wealth was estimated in 1913 at $900million, which was almost 3% of the US GDP of $39.1billion that year. A devout Baptist, Rockefeller turned his attention increasingly during the 1890s to charities and benevolence; after 1897 he devoted himself completely to philanthropy. WebAfter dropping out of high school, taking one business class at Folsom Mercantile College, and working as a bookkeeper, Rockefeller establishes his first business, which supplies goods such as hay, grain, and meats. Most failed, but those who struck oil did not even need to be efficient. Instead of using his father's method of presence to collect debts, Rockefeller relied on a persistent pestering approach. [109] Rockefeller also gave considerable donations to Denison University[110] and other Baptist colleges. American business magnate and philanthropist (18391937), For other people named John D. Rockefeller, see, Business partnership and Civil War service, Strike of 191314 and the Ludlow Massacre. [126], Rockefeller became well known in his later life for the practice of giving dimes to adults and nickels to children wherever he went. During the next decade, kerosene became commonly available to the working and middle classes. [citation needed], Rockefeller created the Rockefeller Foundation in 1913[119] to continue and expand the scope of the work of the Sanitary Commission,[114] which was closed in 1915. John D. Rockefellers Standard Oil Company acquiredpipelinesand terminal facilities, purchased competing refineries, and vigorously sought to expand its markets. But by 1932, Rockefeller felt disillusioned by prohibition because of its failure to discourage drinking and alcoholism. Within two years it is the largest refinery in the area. The cartel offered preferential treatment as a high-volume shipper, which included not just steep discounts/rebates of up to 50% for their product but rebates for the shipment of competing products.
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