John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller was born on the 8th of July 1839 in a small village called Richford, New York. He entered the world as the second child of William A. Rockefeller Sr. and Eliza Davison. His father worked as a lumberman before becoming a traveling salesman who claimed to be a botanic physician selling elixirs. Locals knew him by nicknames like Big Bill or Devil Bill because he led a vagabond existence and returned home infrequently. The family moved several times across Upstate New York before settling in Cleveland, Ohio. While his father conducted schemes and maintained a double life with a mistress named Nancy Brown, his mother remained a thrifty Baptist homemaker. She taught John that willful waste makes woeful want and showed him how to save money from an early age. Young John earned extra cash raising turkeys, selling potatoes, and lending small sums to neighbors. He followed his father's advice to trade dishes for platters but ultimately distanced himself from the man who bragged about cheating his sons.
Standard Oil Company emerged on the 10th of January 1870 when Rockefeller abolished his previous partnership with Andrews and Flagler. By 1872, the company absorbed twenty-two of its twenty-six Cleveland competitors in what became known as The Cleveland Massacre. Standard Oil controlled about ninety percent of the nation oil production by 1900 through aggressive business strategies including secret transportation rebates and differential pricing. The firm supplied kerosene via tank cars and tank wagons while bypassing existing wholesale jobber networks. It developed over three hundred oil-based products ranging from tar to chewing gum. Rockefeller envisioned pipelines as an alternative transport system after clashing with Pennsylvania Railroad president Thomas A. Scott in 1877. The company maintained dominance despite competition from Russia and Asia by adapting to produce gasoline for automobiles which was once considered a waste product. By 1882, Standard Oil had created one of the first oil futures markets through certificates issued against stored oil.
Ida Tarbell published The History of the Standard Oil Company in 1904 documenting espionage price wars and heavy-handed marketing tactics used by the trust. Her work prompted huge backlash though she stated she never had animus against their size only that they had not played fair. The Supreme Court ruled on the 15th of May 1911 that Standard Oil violated federal antitrust laws under the Sherman Antitrust Act. The court ordered the trust broken into thirty-four separate entities including companies that became ExxonMobil Chevron Corporation and others. Rockefeller retained his nominal title as president until 1911 but kept his stock shares throughout the legal battle. He held over twenty-five percent of Standard's stock at the time of the breakup. His personal wealth jumped to nine hundred million dollars within ten years following the dissolution. The combined net worth of the new companies rose fivefold proving immensely profitable for him despite the government intervention.
Rockefeller spent much of the last forty years of his life defining the structure of modern philanthropy from his estate Kykuit in Westchester County New York. He founded the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in 1901 which later changed its name to Rockefeller University after expanding its mission. The institute claims a connection to twenty-three Nobel laureates. In 1909 he created the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission which eventually eradicated hookworm disease plaguing rural areas of the American South. The General Education Board funded recommendations of the Flexner Report of 1910 transforming medical education across the United States. He gave eighty million dollars to the University of Chicago turning a small Baptist college into a world-class institution by 1900. Rockefeller also established Central Philippine University in 1905 making it the first Baptist and second American university in Asia. By 1923 the Rockefeller Foundation funded a hookworm eradication campaign through the International Health Division using collaboration between healthcare workers and government officials.
John D. Rockefeller was born in Richford New York then part of the Burned-over district where evangelical revivals drew masses to Protestant churches. His mother urged him to contribute pennies to the congregation during church service associating the church with charity. A Baptist preacher once encouraged him to make as much money as possible and then give away as much as possible. Rockefeller read the Bible daily attended prayer meetings twice a week and led his own Bible study with his wife Laura Spelman Rockefeller. He supported Baptist missionary activity funded universities and deeply engaged in religious activities at his Cleveland Ohio church. The Euclid Avenue Baptist Church he attended was demolished in 1925 and replaced with a new building. He adhered to total abstinence from alcohol and tobacco throughout his life supporting the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment which banned alcohol in the United States. He believed prohibition failed to discourage drinking and later supported repealing the amendment into the Republican party platform.
An audit in 1902 showed Rockefeller was worth about two hundred million dollars compared to the total national GDP of twenty-four billion dollars. His personal wealth reached nine hundred million dollars on the eve of World War One including significant interests in banking shipping mining railroads and other industries. By 1913 his fortune was estimated at nine hundred million dollars representing almost three percent of the US gross domestic product. According to some methods of wealth calculation Rockefeller's net worth over the last decades of his life would easily place him as the wealthiest known person in recent history. No other American fortune including those of Bill Gates or Sam Walton would even come close when measured against percentage of national GDP. At death in 1937 his remaining fortune tied up in permanent family trusts was estimated at one point four billion dollars while total national GDP stood at ninety-two billion dollars. He died of arteriosclerosis on the 23rd of May 1937 less than two months shy of his ninety-eighth birthday at The Casements home in Ormond Beach Florida.
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Common questions
When was John D. Rockefeller born and where did he grow up?
John Davison Rockefeller was born on the 8th of July 1839 in Richford, New York. He grew up in a small village called Richford before his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio.
What happened to Standard Oil Company on the 15th of May 1911?
The Supreme Court ruled on the 15th of May 1911 that Standard Oil violated federal antitrust laws under the Sherman Antitrust Act. The court ordered the trust broken into thirty-four separate entities including companies that became ExxonMobil Chevron Corporation and others.
How much money did John D. Rockefeller have when he died on the 23rd of May 1937?
At death in 1937 his remaining fortune tied up in permanent family trusts was estimated at one point four billion dollars while total national GDP stood at ninety-two billion dollars. He died of arteriosclerosis on the 23rd of May 1937 less than two months shy of his ninety-eighth birthday at The Casements home in Ormond Beach Florida.
Which medical institutions did John D. Rockefeller found or fund during his life?
He founded the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in 1901 which later changed its name to Rockefeller University after expanding its mission. In 1909 he created the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission which eventually eradicated hookworm disease plaguing rural areas of the American South.