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.
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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.