John D Rockefeller Biography

John Davison Rockefeller, Sr. was an American industrialist and philanthropist who was instrumental in the development of the oil industry and developed the contemporary philanthropic framework. Rockefeller firmly thought that his purpose in life was to amass as much wealth as possible and then utilise it wisely to better humanity's condition. In 1870, Rockefeller aided in the establishment of the Standard Oil Company. Rockefeller created Standard Oil into the world's largest and most successful firm during a forty-year span, making him the world's richest man.

John D Rockefeller’s business practices were always in the limelight and his business career was tumultuous. The newspapers of the time, as well as the journalists who wrote for them, criticised him vehemently. In the 1911 Standard Oil antitrust settlement, his business was found guilty of monopolistic practises in Federal Court and was split up. Four of Standard Oil's successor firms, Exxon (which was known as Esso until 1973), Mobil, Amoco, and Chevron, are still among the world's top fifty companies, indicating the company's vast scale and impact.

In the late 1890s, Rockefeller relinquished active management of Standard Oil in exchange for a major portion of the company's stock. He devoted the last four decades of his life to philanthropy and charitable endeavours, primarily in the areas of education and public health. His fortune aided in the development of medical research in North America, as well as the abolition of hookworm and yellow fever. The majority of his fortune was contributed through a number of expert-run foundations. He was a fervent Northern Baptist who funded a number of church-related organisations throughout his life.

The Rockefellers had four daughters and one boy before his wife Laura Celestia ("Cettie") Spelman died (John D. Rockefeller, Jr.). Following Rockefeller's retirement from business and subsequently philanthropy, his son was mainly tasked with carrying on his father's responsibilities at Standard Oil and, more importantly, with distributing his fortune for the general good.

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John Rockefeller Profile

Where was JD Rockefeller Born? 

Richford, New York, U.S

John D Rockefeller Birthdate: July 8, 1839

John D Rockefeller Deathdate: May 23, 1937

Where did John D Rockefeller Die?

The Casements

Ormond Beach, Florida, U.S

John D Rockefeller Company:  Standard Oil Company

John Rockefeller Invention: Founded the University of Chicago, Rockefeller University, Central Philippine University, General Education Board, and Rockefeller Foundation.

Early Life

John D. Rockefeller was born on a farm in Tioga County, New York, on July 8, 1839, the second of six children of William A. and Eliza Davison Rockefeller. He and his family relocated to Moravia, then to Oswego, New York, when he was a child. In 1853, he and his family moved to Strongsville, Ohio, where they purchased a home. John D. was a student at Cleveland's Central High School. At the age of 21, he became self-sufficient by renting a room and became a member of the Erie Street Baptist Church, where he eventually became a church trustee.

In 1855, he dropped out of high school to enrol in a six-month business course at Folsom Mercantile College, which he completed in three months. He went on to work as an assistant bookkeeper for Hewitt & Tuttle, a small firm of commission merchants and produce shippers, where he was eventually promoted to cashier and bookkeeper. He later created a commission business partnership with Maurice B. Clark in 1859, utilising his savings and money borrowed from his father. In Titusville, western Pennsylvania, the first oil well was drilled in 1859.

A few years later, in 1863, both Clark and Rockefeller, together with a partner, Samuel Andrews, who had refining experience, entered the petroleum refining industry. Andrews, Clark, & Co. was founded by them both. Despite the fact that the company still paid commissions, it was moving on a new path. Andrews, Clark & Co., a partnership of five members, put the firm up for sale in 1865. For $72,500, Rockefeller purchased the company and founded Rockefeller & Andrews with Andrews.

Standard Oil

Cleveland had established itself as one of the five major refining centres in the United States (along with Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, and the region in northwestern Pennsylvania where most of the oil originated) by the early 1870s, and Standard Oil had established itself as Cleveland's most profitable refiner. When it was discovered that at least half of Standard Oil's cost advantage stemmed from covert railroad rebates carrying oil into Cleveland, other refiners demanded comparable discounts, which the railways gladly granted. Standard Oil, on the other hand, had grown to become one of the country's leading shippers of oil and kerosene at that time.

The railroads were vying for traffic and formed the South Improvement Company in an attempt to "stabilise" freight rates by forming a cartel. Rockefeller decided to support the cartel in exchange for special treatment as a high-volume shipper, which included significant discounts for his goods as well as rebates for the shipment of competitor items. The announcement of drastically higher freight prices was part of this plot. This sparked a storm of criticism, culminating in the discovery of Standard Oil's portion of the bargain. The railroads abandoned their protests after a major New York refiner, Charles Pratt and Company (directed by Charles Pratt and Henry H. Rogers), spearheaded the opposition to this plan.

Rockefeller was unfazed, and he maintained his self-reinforcing cycle of buying rival refineries, enhancing the efficiency of his operations, pressuring for oil shipment discounts, undercutting his competitors, and then buying them out. In just six weeks in 1872, Standard Oil had absorbed 22 of its 26 Cleveland competitors. Even his erstwhile adversaries, Pratt and Rogers, eventually realised that competing against Standard Oil was futile, and in 1874, they formed a secret arrangement to be acquired by Standard Oil. Pratt and Rogers became partners with Rockefeller. Rogers, in particular, was a significant figure in the founding of the Standard Oil Trust by Rockefeller. Charles Millard Pratt (1858-1913), Pratt's son, became Secretary of Standard Oil.

Monopoly

Standard Oil gradually took control of all oil production in the United States. Many state legislatures at the time had made it difficult to form a business in one state and operate in another. As a result, Rockefeller and his associates controlled several firms in dozens of states, making overall management of the company difficult. The Standard Oil Trust was founded in 1882 by Rockefeller's lawyers as an innovative type of partnership to consolidate their holdings. The size and riches of the partnership received a lot of attention.

Standard Oil's business operations sparked a major controversy, despite enhancing the quality and availability of kerosene products while significantly lowering their cost to the public (the price of kerosene plummeted by over 80% over the company's lifetime). Throughout its existence, the company was assailed by journalists and politicians, in part because of its monopolistic methods, which fueled the antitrust movement.

The History of the Standard Oil Company by Ida Tarbell, published in 1904, was one of the most powerful attacks on Rockefeller and his company. Tarbell was formerly regarded as a notable muckraker. Despite the fact that her work resulted in a massive backlash against the corporation, Tarbell claimed to have been astonished by its scope.

Ohio was particularly aggressive in enforcing its antitrust laws, eventually forcing the separation of Standard Oil of Ohio from the rest of the firm in 1892, resulting in the trust's dissolution. Rockefeller proceeded to consolidate his oil holdings until New Jersey's incorporation laws were amended in 1899, thus allowing the trust to be re-created in the form of a single holding company. Standard Oil had over 90 % of the market for kerosene products at its peak.

By 1896, Rockefeller had completely disengaged from Standard Oil's policymaking. He did, however, keep his title of president until 1911. He also kept all of his Standard Oil shares.

The United States Supreme Court ruled in 1911 that Standard Oil, which had a 64 % market share at the time, was founded on illegal monopoly activities and ordered that it be divided up into 34 separate firms. Continental Oil, which later became Conoco; Standard of Indiana, which later became American Oil Company (and later Amoco); Standard of California, which later became Chevron Corporation; Standard of New Jersey, which later became Esso (and later, Exxon); Standard of New York, which later became Mobil; and Standard of Ohio, which later became Sohio, to name a few. All of them were held by Rockefeller, who rarely sold stock.

Philanthropy

Rockefeller began tithing ten percent of his earnings to his church with his first paycheck. His generosity increased in tandem with his riches, primarily to educational and public-health initiatives, but also to basic sciences and the arts. From 1891, he was principally advised by Frederick T. Gates, and after 1897, he was also advised by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

He and his advisers created the conditional grant, which required the recipient to "plant the institution in the affections of as many individuals as possible who, as contributors, become personally interested, and can then be counted on to give the institution their vigilant interest and assistance."

In 1884, he contributed significantly to the establishment of Spelman College in Atlanta, which was named after Rockefeller's in-laws, who were strong abolitionists prior to the Civil War. Denison University and other Baptist universities received significant gifts from Rockefeller.

Under the leadership of William Rainey Harper, Rockefeller donated $80 million to the University of Chicago, which transformed a modest Baptist College into a world-class university by 1900. Later, he referred to it as "the best investment I ever made."  His General Education Board was established in 1902 to promote education at all levels throughout the country. It was notably active in the South, aiding poor schools. The sponsorship of the Flexner Report of 1910, which had been supported by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, had the most dramatic influence; it changed the study of medicine in the United States.

Despite his personal fondness for homoeopathy, Rockefeller became one of the first significant patrons to medical research, thanks to Frederick Gates' guidance. In New York, he established the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in 1901. After expanding its aim to include graduate study, it changed its name to Rockefeller University in 1965. It claims to have ties to 23 Nobel Prize winners. In 1909, he established the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, which was responsible for eradicating the hookworm illness that had long afflicted the American South. The Rockefeller Foundation was established in 1913 to carry on and expand the activities of the Sanitary Commission, which had been closed since 1915.

He endowed the Foundation with almost 250 dollars million to support public health, medical education, and the arts. It established the first school of hygiene and public health, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. The Peking Union Medical College was transformed into a fantastic institution thanks to the efforts of the foundation. It also assisted in World Military I war relief from 1914 to 1916, and hired Canadian William Lyon Mackenzie King to examine labour relations. The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Foundation (founded in 1918) was Rockefeller's fourth major philanthropy, and it financed social studies work before being merged into the Rockefeller Foundation. Rockefeller gave given 550 dollars million in all.

Legacy

Rockefeller is claimed to have stated as a child that his two greatest aspirations were to make $100,000 and live for 100 years. He died at the Casements, his home in Ormond Beach, Florida, on May 23, 1937, 26 months shy of his 100th birthday. He was laid to rest in Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery.

Rockefeller had a long and tumultuous career in business, followed by a long and illustrious career in philanthropy. His image is a composite of all of these experiences, as well as the many perspectives held by his contemporaries.

Many of his former competitors were driven to bankruptcy, but many others sold out for a profit (or a profitable interest in Standard Oil, since Rockefeller frequently offered his shares as payment for a firm) and became very wealthy as managers and owners in Standard Oil. They also include politicians and writers, some of whom worked for Rockefeller and the "robber barons," and others who established their careers by opposing them.

Throughout the twentieth century, the Rockefeller fortune, which was distributed through a system of foundations and trusts, continued to fuel the family's humanitarian, commercial, and, eventually, political ambitions. Grandson David Rockefeller was a prominent New York banker who served as the Chief Executive Officer of Chase Manhattan Bank for more than 20 years (now the retail financial services arm of JP Morgan Chase). Nelson A. Rockefeller, a Republican governor of New York and the 41st Vice President of the United States, was another grandchild. Winthrop Rockefeller, a third grandson, was the Republican Governor of Arkansas. John D. ("Jay") Rockefeller IV, a great-grandson, was a Democratic Senator from West Virginia.

Rockefeller has become synonymous with riches in popular culture. Because the dish was so "rich," it was called after him: Oysters Rockefeller. After World War I, the Rockefeller family was a major contributor to the reconstruction of France. As a result, Rockefeller (together with the Rothschilds) became the archetypal billionaire in that country, synonymous with enormous wealth. John D. Rockerduck is a prominent Disney character in Europe who serves as a counterbalance to Scrooge McDuck, another well-known rich duck.