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 John Davison Rockefeller ( 1839-1937 ) of Kykuit, Pocantico Hills and New York City, New York

Biographical sketch :

Born into a family where a devout Baptist mother sheltered her children from their abusive bigamist father, John Davison Rockefeller learned to bear responsibility at an early age. After schooling at Central High School of Cleveland and a short commercial course at Folsom, John D. Rockefeller got his first job as assistant bookkeeper of Hewitt & Tuttle, commission merchants on Merwin Street, Cleveland. There he learnt the trade and in 1859, he was able to start his own mercantile business, in association with Maurice B. Clark. Clark & Rockefeller prospered during Civil War, thanks to lucrative contracts to supply the Union armies. In 1863, the partners backed Samuel Andrews in the erection of an oil refinery at Cleveland. In these days, Rockefeller visited the oil regions and was appalled by the anarchic conditions he found there. He nevertheless stuck to his share in the oil refinery and in 1965 bought out the Clark brothers, paying with his share in the commission business and 72'500 $. The firm of Rockefeller & Andrews soon found additional capital from Henry Morrison Flagler and his wealthy relative Stephen Vanderburgh Harkness. Together with Rockefellers brother William and the latter’s brother-in-law Oliver Burr Jennings, these men made up the original founders of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, which emerged from their refining business in 1870. Standard Oil then was only one of many refineries in Cleveland, albeit a well endowed and profitable one. Through the South Improvement scheme Rockefeller and his partners get special rebates from railroads as well as kickbacks for oil carried for non-participating firms. A scandal arose around these unfair practices and the scheme was put to an end in 1972. But by that time Standard Oil had increased its capital to $ 2.5 million, merged with Clark & Payne and acquired 18 refineries in Cleveland. Now firmly controlling the refining capacity of Cleveland, John D. Rockefeller extended the Standard Oil’s influence on the other refining centers, New York, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, bringing in such major players as Pratt, Rogers, Warden, Lockhart, Vandergrift and John Dustin Archbold from the oil regions. By 1882, when the Standard Oil Trust was officially created with a capital of $ 70 million, the firm controlled 95% of America’s oil refining capacity as well as the essential part of the country’s pipeline systems. John Davison Rockefeller owned about 25% of the capital of Standard Oil, which in the years following the trust agreement became one of the most profitable business enterprises in the world. Because of health problems, he retired from active business in 1892, but remained a director of the various Standard Oil companies for many more years. Heavily criticized for his role in building the oil trust, John Davison Rockefeller succeeded Jay Gould as America’s most hated millionaire. Always generous to causes which suited his Baptist education, John Davison Rockefeller devoted his later years to repair his image by large scale philanthropies. He left his business in the able hands of his lieutenant John D. Archbold and groomed his son John Davison Rockefeller jr for the administration of the Rockefeller foundations, to which he left about half of his large fortune, the first billion dollar accumulation in American history. From his marriage to Laura Celestia Spelman, Rockefeller also had three daughters. He built himself a country estate “Kykuit” in the Pocantico Hills of New York, with ample space for his family to settle around it

>> John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company
from Francois Micheloud

>> John D. Rockefeller - biography
at The Rockefeller Archive Center / A Division of Rockefeller University

 John D. Rockefeller : Richest Man Ever (Giants of American Industry) 
 Author        : Ellen Greenman Coffey
 Publisher    : Blackbirch Marketing, 2001

  Search at BN : Out of Print, Used & Rare 

 The Rockefellers - An American Dynasty 
 Author        : Peter Collier and David Horowitz
 Publisher    : Summit Books, 1976

  Search at BN : Out of Print, Used & Rare 

 The Myth of the Robber Barons 
 Author        : Burton W. Folsom jr
 Publisher    : Young America's Foundation, 1996

  Search at BN : Out of Print, Used & Rare 

 John D. : the Founding Father of the Rockefellers 
 Author        : David Freeman Hawke
 Publisher    : Harper & Row, 1987

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 Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders (4 volumes) 
 Author        : John N. Ingham
 Publisher    : Greenwood Press, 1983

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 John D. Rockefeller - The Heroic Age of American Enterprise - 2 Volumes 
 Author        : Allan Nevins
 Publisher    : Charles Scribner's Sons - New York, 1940

  Search at BN : Out of Print, Used & Rare