John D. Rockefeller

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John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8,1839- 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist.

Rockefeller, the country's richest man and the richest individual in modern history, was born in upstate New York and moved several times before settling in Cleveland, Ohio.

Rockefeller began working as an assistant bookkeeper at the age of 16 and ventured into several company alliances from age 20 focusing on oil refining.

In 1870, Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company.

He owned it until 1897 and was the company's largest shareholder. As kerosene and gasoline increased in importance, Rockefeller's fortune increased, and he became the country's richest individual, with a sliver of 90% of all oil in the country at his peak.

Oil was used around the world as a light source before electricity was invented, and as a fuel after the automobile was invented.

Early life

Rockefeller was the second child born in Richford, New York, to con artist William Avery Rockefeller Sr. and Eliza Davison. William Jr., Mary, and four younger siblings were among his four younger brothers, as well as twins Franklin (Frank) and Frances. His father was of English and German descent, while his mother was of Ulster Scot descent. William Sr. was first a lumberman and then a traveling salesman who sold elixirs to locals, who were labeled "Big Bill" and "Devil Bill." He lived a vain existence and returned to his family infrequently, unfettered by traditional morality. Bill was known for executing schemes throughout his life. Bill and his mistressee Nancy Brown had a daughter named Clorinda who died young in between Lucy and John's births. Bill and Nancy had another daughter Cornelia, who was born between John and William Jr.

Eliza, both a homemaker and a devout Baptist, had trouble at home as Bill was often away for extended stretches of time. She also coped with his philandering and his double life, which included bigamy. Eliza was thrifty by nature and by necessity, and she taught her son that "willful garbage makes a wretched desire." John did his share of household duties and raised turkeys, selling potatoes, and candy, before lending small sums of money to neighbors. He followed his father's suggestion to "trade dishes for platters" and always get the best part of any offer. Bill once boasted, "I cheat my boys every chance I get." I want to make 'em sharp.' However, his mother was more influential in his upbringing and beyond, though he deviated himself further from his father as his life progressed. "I was trained to work, to save, and to give," he later said.

When he was a boy, his family moved from Moravia, New York, to Owego, New York, where he attended Owego Academy. In 1853, his family migrated to Strongsville, Ohio, where he attended Central High School in Cleveland, the first high school in Cleveland, and the first free public high school west of the Alleghenies. Then, he took a ten-week business course at Folsom's Commercial College, where he learned bookkeeping. Despite his father's absences and frequent family moves, he was a well-behaved, intelligent, and studious boy. His contemporaries characterized him as reserved, earnest, methodical, and discreet. He was a natural debater who spoke directly and was able to articulate himself. He had a deep love of music and wished to pursue it as a possibility in life.

Personal life

Against long-circulating claims that his family has French roots, genealogists established the German origins of Rockefeller and traced them back to the early 17th century. Johann Peter Rockenfeller (baptized September 27, 1682 in Rengsdorf's Protestant church) immigrated from Altwied (today, a district of Neuwied, Rhineland-Palatinate) with three children to North America and settled in Germantown, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania.

The name Rockenfeller refers to the now-abandoned village of Rockenfeld in Neuwied's district.

Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman (1839–1915), the niece of Harvey Buell Spelman and Lucy Henry, married in 1864. They had four daughters and one son together, but they didn't know it at the time. "Her judgment was always more correct than mine," he said later. I would be a poor man if she had good advice.

The Rockefeller fortune, which was distributed as a result of a network of foundations and trusts, continued to support family philanthropic, commercial, and, eventually, political aspirations during the twentieth century. David Rockefeller, John Jr.'s youngest son, was a leading New York banker, serving for more than 20 years as CEO of Chase Manhattan (now part of JPMorgan Chase). Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, the son of New York and the 41st Vice President of the United States, was the Republican governor of New York and the 41st Vice President of the United States. Winthrop Aldrich Rockefeller, his fourth son, served as Arkansas' Republican governor. Abigail Aldrich "Abby" Rockefeller and John Davison Rockefeller III, both grandsons, became philanthropists. Laurance Spelman Rockefeller, a grandson, became a conservationist. John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV, a great-grandson from 1985 to 2015 as a West Virginia Democrat senator, and another Winthrop served as lieutenant governor of Arkansas for a decade.

John D. Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York, and later became 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. It attracted huge audiences to various Protestant churches, especially Baptist ones, and urged believers to pursue such ideals as hard work, sacrifice, and charitable deeds in order to establish "the Kingdom of God on Earth." Early in his life, he and his brother and mother Eliza used the local Baptist church, the Erie Street Baptist Church (later the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church) — an independent Baptist church that later became affiliated with the Northern Baptist Convention (1907-1950; modern American Baptist Churches United States).

His mother was deeply religious and disciplined, and had a major influence on him in religious matters. His mother would encourage him to give the congregation his few pennies during the church service. He began to associate the church with charity. "Make as much money as he could," a Baptist preacher once advised him, "make as much money as he could" and then give as much as he could." Rockefeller recalled "It was at this moment, that the financial plan of my life was established" at that time. He considered money making a "God-given gift."

A devout Northern Baptist, Rockefeller, would read the Bible daily, attend prayer meetings twice a week, and even led his own Bible study with his wife. Burton Folsom Jr. has written this: Burton Folsom Jr. has pointed out that:

Rockefeller's Cleveland, Ohio, church will endorse Baptist missionary education, fund universities, and heavily participate in religious activities. If heading to the South, he would contribute a great deal of money to churches belonging to the Southern Baptist Convention, several Black churches, and several other Christian denominations. He paid for the freedom of two slaves and gave a Roman Catholic orphanage. As he increased wealthy, his contributions became more generous, particularly to his church in Cleveland; but, it was demolished in 1925 and rebuilt with another structure.

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Pre-Standard Oil career

Hewitt & Tuttle, a small produce commission firm in Cleveland, hired him as an assistant bookkeeper in September 1855, when Rockefeller was 16 years old. "All the methods and technologies of the office" helped him work long hours and delighted, as he later remembered. He was particularly good at estimating transportation costs, which continued to serve him well later in his career. A large part of Rockefeller's jobs involved liago canal owners, ship captains, and freight agents. He learned that published transportation rates that were supposed to be fixed could be changed depending on the weather and time of freight, as well as the use of rebates to desired shippers. When Hewitt told him to do so, hefeller was still owed the responsibility of collecting debts. Rockefeller found a persistent pestering strategy rather than relying on his father's method of collection debts. Rockefeller's three-month apprenticeship earned him $16 a month. He made $31 a month in his first year, but it was boosted to $50 a month. He was $58 a month in his last year.

Rockefeller's two main aspirations, according to reports, were to make $100,000 (equivalent to $2.91 million in 2021 dollars) and live 100 years as a youth.

Rockefeller, along with a partner, Maurice B. Clark, started the produce commission business in 1859 and raised $4,000 ($120,637) in 2021 dollars). Clark introduced the concept of the collaboration and gave the goal $2,000. At the time, the Rockefeller had only $800 to invest, but he borrowed $1,000 from his father, "Big Bill" Rockefeller, at a ten percent interest. Rockefeller's career began to grow each year. Clark & Rockefeller's first and second years of business brought in $4,400 (on nearly half a million dollars) and $17,000 worth of revenue, respectively, and their sales increased with the outbreak of the American Civil War, when the Union Army ordered massive amounts of food and equipment. Clark & Rockefeller considered crude refining when the Civil War was coming to an end, and with the possibility of those war-time revenues coming to an end, Clark & Rockefeller looked toward crude refining. Rockefeller managed his company and recruited replacement troops when his brother Frank served in the Civil War, while Rockefeller tended his farm and recruited replacement soldiers. He contributed to the Union cause, as did many wealthy Northerners who did not want to fight. "I wanted to go into the army and do my part," Rockefeller said. "But it was clearly out of question." There was no one to take my place. We were in a new market, and if I hadn't stayed, it would have stopped—and with so many people dependent on it."

Rockefeller was an abolitionist who voted for President Abraham Lincoln and embraced the then-new Republican Party. "God gave me money," the guy said, although he did not apologize for it. Following Methodist preacher John Wesley's dictum, he felt at ease and righteous, "gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can." At the time, the federal government was subsidizing oil prices, driving the price up from $35 per barrel in 1862 to as high as $13.75. Thousands of speculators are trying to make their fortunes. The majority of people failed, but those that did not fail were not worried about being safe. They'd blow holes in the ground and gather up the oil as they could, often leading to rivers and rivers of flooded with sluggish oil in the place of water.

There was a demand for kerosene oil in the form of a kerosene. Coal had been used to extract kerosene from earlier, but its laborious extraction process and high price discouraged widespread use. Despite the high cost of freight transportation and a government levy during the Civil War (the government levied a twenty cents a gallon on refined oil), revenues on the refined product were substantial. About $13 a barrel, with a profit margin of about $5 to $8 per barrel, the refined oil price was in 1863. At that time, the capital expenditures for a refinery were modest – from $1,000 to $1,500 – with only a handful of guys required to operate. In this period of a burgeoning industrial city in Cleveland, the partners switched from food to oil, creating an oil refinery in 1863. Andrews, Clark & Company, was the refinery, which was owned directly by Clark & Rockefeller, chemist Samuel Andrews, and M. B. Clark's two brothers. At that time, the commercial oil industry was still in its infancy. Whale oil had become prohibitive to the masses, so a simpler, general-purpose lighting fuel was needed.

Although other refineries will hold the 60 percent of the oil product that became kerosene, but with a 40 percent increase in rivers and massive sludge piles, Rockefeller converted the gasoline to fuel the refinery and sold the remainder as lubricating oil, petroleum jelly, and paraffin wax, as well as other by-products. Tar was used for paving and naphtha delivery to gas plants. In the same way, Rockefeller's refineries employed their own plumbers, significantly lowering the cost of pipe-laying in half. When Rockefeller bought the wood and had them built for himself, the Barrels that cost $2.50 each ended up only $0.96. Rockefeller purchased the Clark brothers for $72,500 (equivalent to $1 million in 2021 dollars) at auction in February 1865, the firm of Rockefeller & Andrews was later described as a "critical" move by oil industry historian Daniel Yergin. "It was the day that determined my future," Rockefeller said. He was well positioned to profit from postwar reconstruction and westward expansion aided by railroad expansion and an oil-fueled economy. He borrowed heavily, reinvested earnings, adapted quickly to emerging markets, and fielded observers to keep up with the quickly expanding market.

William Rockefeller Jr., John's brother, established another refinery in Cleveland in 1866 and welcomed John into the company. Henry Morrison Flagler became a partner in 1867, and the firm of Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler was established. By 1868, the company owned two Cleveland refineries and a marketing subsidiary in New York, with Rockefeller still investing in the company's successful lending, monitoring costs, and using refineries' waste; it was the world's largest oil refinery. Andrews & Flagler, a founder of the Standard Oil Company, was Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler.

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