Name
This Famous Person Game
By John LaGasse and Pamela Bull LaGasse, EdD
As a youth, this famous person had two great ambitions in life: to make
$100,000 and to live 100 years. His life ended only 26 months shy of his 100th
birthday, and in the U.S. business world, he is recognized as one of the
wealthiest men of all time. His philanthropic foundation endowed universities,
supported education reforms, gave money to black schools in the South, and
created medical research institutes that revolutionized the study of medicine in
the United States.
Lisa Barnett of Bremen, Ala. and Terry Drummond of
Cordova, Ala., correctly identified John D. Rockefeller. Terry is the President
of the Cordova Historical Society.
John Davidson Rockefeller was born in
Richford, New York, on July 8, 1939. He was the second of six children born to
Eliza and William Avery Rockefeller. His father, a traveling patent medicine
salesman, was gone for long periods of time, leaving his mother to maintain the
stability of the home. John moved several times with his family. He attended
Owego Academy, and at age 16, he went to work as a bookkeeper in a produce
commission house.
In 1859, he became a partner in his own trading business
with a young Englishman named Clark. Their company grossed more than $450,000 in
the first year of business. Clark did the fieldwork, and Rockefeller controlled
the office management, bookkeeping and the banking relationships of the company.
Later that year, during the Pennsylvania Oil Strike, Rockefeller and Clark
started an oil refinery with Samuel Andrews, who had technical expertise in the
field.
In two years, Rockefeller became the company's senior partner, and
then he bought Clark's share of the business. The company became Cleveland's
largest refinery. In 1864, John D. Rockefeller married Laura Celestia (Cattie)
Spelman. They had four daughters and one son, John, Jr. In 1865, Rockefeller
started a second refinery with a firm using his brother William's name. The
company opened a sales office in New York City during 1866.
The Standard Oil
Company was chartered in 1870 with Rockefeller, his brother William, S. V.
Harkness (a financial backer), and Samuel Andrews. The company had a capital of
one million dollars and paid a dividend of 40% in the first year of business.
During this time, Standard Oil owned 10% of the refinery business amid
competitive chaos. Transportation of the product was the chief bottleneck of the
industry.
Rockefeller organized a controversial defensive alliance with other
Cleveland refineries. This included a rebate agreement from the railroad that
brought opposition from the Pennsylvania oil producers and public opinion.
Rockefeller still hoped to bring order in the industry. He bought most of
Cleveland's refineries and then some others in New York, Pittsburgh and
Philadelphia. His new transportation methods included the use of railroad tank
cars and pipelines. By 1879, Standard Oil was refining 90% of American oil.
In 1882, Rockefeller created America's first great "trust". At this time,
the law forbade one company owning another company's stock. Standard Oil placed
its acquisitions in H. M. Flagler's hands as a "trustee". The Standard Oil Trust
had stock in over 40 businesses. It was the world's largest and richest
industrial organization with a capital of over $70 million. The exposé of the
oil empire by muckraking journalists, Henry Demarest Lloyd and Ida Tarbell,
condemned Rockefeller, along with other "robber barons," of unfair business
practices.
Rockefeller relinquished control of daily operations to his son
John, Jr. in 1896, although he retained the title of president until 1911. John,
Sr. retained all of his stock in the company. Also in 1911, the U.S. Supreme
Court ordered the Standard Oil Trust to be broken into 34 new companies, each
with its own board of directors. This led to the dissolution of the illegal
monopoly of the Standard Oil-controlled companies refining kerosene and related
products.
From his first paycheck, Rockefeller gave 10% of his earnings to
charity. Intensely religious and active in the Baptist church, he entered into
many philanthropic endeavors as he began to accumulate wealth. Rockefeller
endowed the University of Chicago with $80 million, and in 1901, the Rockefeller
Institute of Medical Research was chartered. His lifetime philanthropies have
been estimated at $550 million. By 1913, Rockefeller's fortune topped $900
million. John retained a staff of experts to help him develop and charter the
Rockefeller Foundation "...to promote the well being of mankind throughout the
world."
John D. Rockefeller, Sr. died at the Casements, in Ormond Beach, Florida, on
May 23, 1937 and was buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. He is still
recognized as one of the all-time richest Americans. History remembers this
philanthropic giant as a controversial businessman, as well as a frugal man, who
delighted in giving dimes to children wherever he went, a playful gesture he
also bestowed on his friend Harvey Firestone and President Herbert
Hoover. -------- John LaGasse Jr., and his wife, Pamela Bull LaGasse, EdD,
consign antiques at Isabelle's Antiques and Collectables in Arcadia, Fla. Pat
teaches history at North Port High School, and John is a full-time volunteer in
her class.
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