John D. Rockefeller, 1839-1937
John Davison Rockefeller (July 8, 1839 - May 23, 1937) was the guiding
force behind the creation and development of the Standard Oil Company, which grew to dominate
the oil industry and became one of the first big trusts in the United States,
thus engendering much controversy and opposition regarding its business practices
and form of organization. Rockefeller also was one of the first major philanthropists
in the U.S., establishing several important foundations and donating a total
of $540 million to charitable purposes.
Rockefeller was born on farm at Richford, in Tioga County, New York,
on July 8, 1839, the second of the six children of William A. and Eliza (Davison)
Rockefeller. The family lived in modest circumstances. When he was a boy,
the family moved to Moravia and later to Owego, New York, before going
west to Ohio in 1853. The Rockefellers bought a house in Strongsville, near
Cleveland, and John entered Central High School in Cleveland. While he
was a student he rented a room in the city and joined the Erie Street Baptist
Church, which later became the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church. Active in its
affairs, he became a trustee of the church at the age of 21.
He left high school in 1855 to take a business course at Folsom Mercantile
College. He completed the six-month course in three months and, after looking
for a job for six weeks, was employed as assistant bookkeeper by Hewitt
& Tuttle, a small firm of commission merchants and produce shippers.
Rockefeller was not paid until after he had worked there three months, when
Hewitt gave him $50 ($3.57 a week) and told him that his salary was being
increased to $25 a month. A few months later he became the cashier and bookkeeper.
In 1859, with $1,000 he had saved and another $1,000 borrowed from his
father, Rockefeller formed a partnership in the commission business with
another young man, Maurice B. Clark. In that same year the first oil well
was drilled at Titusville in western Pennsylvania, giving rise to the petroleum
industry. Cleveland soon became a major refining center of the booming new
industry, and in 1863 Rockefeller and Clark entered the oil business as
refiners. Together with a new partner, Samuel Andrews, who had some refining
experience, they built and operated an oil refinery under the company name
of Andrews, Clark & Co. The firm also continued in the commission business
but in 1865 the partners, now five in number, disagreed about the management
of their business affairs and decided to sell the refinery to whoever amongst
them bid the highest. Rockefeller bought it for $72,500, sold out his other
interests and, with Andrews, formed Rockefeller & Andrews.
