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.]] John Davison Rockefeller ( and was bitterly attacked by Muckraking journalists. However he spent his last forty years primarily focused on philanthropic pursuits, including education and public health, eventually giving away about half of his wealth and by the time he died his reputation was quite benign. He was a devout Northern Baptist and supported many church activities throughout his life.
EARLY LIFE Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York , second of six children to William Avery Rockefeller ( November 13 , 1810 - May 11 , 1906 ) and Eliza Davison ( September 12 , 1813 - March 28 , 1889 ). William was a traveling salesmen of dubious products, such as "cancer cures," a philanderer and bigamist. As he was frequently gone for extended periods, Eliza struggled to maintain a semblance of stability at home. Young Rockefeller's contemporaries described him as articulate, methodical, and discreet (Chernow 1998). When he was a boy, his family moved to western New York from Richford to Moravia and, in 1851, to Owego, where he attended Owego Academy. In 1853 his family bought a house in Strongsville, near Cleveland, Ohio . At fifteen, John entered Central High School in Cleveland. He and his brother, William, lived in a house near their school. John joined the Erie Street Baptist Church, which later became the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, where he became a deacon at the age of nineteen and a trustee at the age of 21. He left high school in 1855 to take a business course at Folsom Mercantile College, completing the six-month course in three months. After six weeks of looking for a job, the 16-year-old Rockefeller finally found employment as an apprentice bookkeeper at Hewitt & Tuttle, commission merchants and produce shippers, for 50 cents a day. His seriousness, diligence, and honesty led to steadily increasing responsibilities and pay over the next two years. Nevertheless, Rockefeller reached the point where he felt he was no longer getting paid according to his contribution and, in 1859, left to form his own produce commission business with a partner, Maurice Clark. Clark & Rockefeller quickly became a successful firm, and its partners accumulated enough capital to invest in other Cleveland businesses. In 1863, they invested in an oil refinery with chemist Samuel Andrews . Rockefeller married Laura Celestia ("Cettie") Spelman ( September 22 , 1839 - March 12 , 1915 ), on September 8 , 1864 in Cleveland. The couple had four daughters and a son. The eldest daughter, Bessie (1866-1906), married Charles Strong , a philosopher. The second daughter, Alice (1869-1870), died in infancy. Alta (1871-1962), married E. Parmalee Prentice , a lawyer. The youngest daughter, Edith (1872-1932), married Harold Fowler McCormick , a friend of John, Jr., and son of Cyrus McCormick , inventor of the mechanical harvesting reaper. His only son, John D., Jr. (1874-1960), married the daughter of the most powerful leader in the Senate, Nelson W. Aldrich , and eventually inherited much of the family fortune and continued his father's philanthropic work. In 1865 Rockefeller had gotten so involved in the oil business, and was so confident of its future growth, that he sold out his share of the commission business to his partner Clark, then applied the proceeds toward a significant investment in another refinery, and formed the partnership of Rockefeller & Andrews . At about the same time Rockefeller's brother, William Rockefeller , started another refinery. In 1867, Rockefeller & Andrews absorbed this business, and Henry M. Flagler joined the partnership, forming Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler . In 1870, the two Rockefellers, Andrews, Flagler, and a silent partner, Stephen V. Harkness , formed the Standard Oil Company, with John D. Rockefeller as president. STANDARD OIL By the early 1870s, Cleveland had become established as one of the five main refining centers in the U.S. (besides Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, and the region in northeastern Pennsylvania where most of the oil originated), and Standard Oil had established itself as the most profitable refiner in Cleveland. When it was found out that at least part of Standard Oil's cost advantage came from secret rebates from the railroads bringing oil into and out of Cleveland, the competing refiners insisted on getting similar rebates, and the railroads quickly complied. By then, however, Standard Oil had grown to become one of the largest shippers of oil and kerosene in the country. The railroads were competing fiercely for traffic and, in an attempt to create a cartel to 'stabilize' freight rates, formed the South Improvement Company . Rockefeller agreed to support this cartel if they gave him preferential treatment as a high volume shipper which included not just steep rebates for his product, but also rebates for the shipment of competing products. Part of this scheme was the announcement of sharply increased freight charges, which touched off a firestorm of protest which eventually led to the discovery of Standard Oil's part of the deal. A major New York refiner, Charles Pratt And Company , headed by Charles Pratt and Henry H. Rogers , led the opposition to this plan, and the railroads soon backed off. Undeterred, Rockefeller continued with his self-reinforcing cycle of buying competing refiners, improving the efficiency of his operations, pressing for discounts on oil shipments, undercutting his competition, and buying them out. In six weeks in 1872, Standard Oil had absorbed 22 of his 26 Cleveland competitors. Eventually, even his former antagonists, Pratt and Rogers saw the futility of continuing to compete against Standard Oil, and, in 1874, they made a secret agreement with their old nemesis to be acquired. Pratt and Rogers became Rockefeller's partners. Rogers, in particular, became one of Rockefeller's key men in the formation of the Standard Oil Trust. Pratt's son, Charles Millard Pratt (1858-1913) became Secretary of Standard Oil. For many of his competitors, Rockefeller had merely to show them his books so they could see what they were up against, then make them a decent offer. If they refused his offer, he told them he would run them into bankruptcy, then cheaply buy up their assets at auction. Most capitulated. ==could, but only by legitimate means. But they had never played fair, and that ruined their greatness for me.” (Tarbell's father had been driven out of the oil business during the South Improvement Company affair.) Ohio was Amoco]]; Standard of California, which became Chevron ; Standard of New Jersey, which became Esso (and later, Exxon ); Standard of New York, which became Mobil ; and Standard of Ohio, which became Sohio . Rockefeller, who had rarely sold shares, owned stock in all of them. PHILANTHROPY From his very first paycheck, Rockefeller tithed ten percent of his earnings to his church. As his wealth grew, so did his giving, primarily to educational and public health causes, but also for basic science and the arts. He was advised primarily by Frederick T. Gates after 1891, and, after 1897, also by his son. Rockefeller believed in the Efficiency Movement , arguing that "To help an inefficient, ill-located, unnecessary school is a waste...it is highly probable that enough money has been squandered on unwise educational projects to have built up a national system of higher education adequate to our needs, if the money had been properly directed to that end." 168 He and his advisors invented the conditional grant that required the recipient to "root the institution in the affections of as many people as possible who, as contributors, become personally concerned, and thereafter may be counted on to give to the institution their watchful interest and coöperation." p 183 In 1884, he provided major funding for a college in Atlanta for black women, that became Spelman College (named for Rockefeller's in-laws who were ardent Abolitionist s before the Civil War). Church groups rejected some of his money, calling it "tainted." Rockefeller gave $80 million to the University Of Chicago under William Rainey Harper , turning a small Baptist College into a world-class institution by 1900. His General Education Board , founded in 1902, was established to promote education at all levels everywhere in the country. It was especially active in supporting black schools in the South. Its most dramatic impact came funding the recommendations of the Flexner Report of 1910, which had been funded by the Carnegie Foundation For The Advancement Of Teaching ; it revolutionized the study of medicine in the United States Despite his personal preference for homeopathy, Rockefeller, on Gates's advice, became one of the first great benefactors of medical science. In 1901, he founded the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City. It changed its name to Rockefeller University in 1965, after expanding its mission to include graduate education. It claims a connection to 23 Nobel laureates. He founded the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission in 1909, an organization that eventually eradicated the Hookworm disease that had long plagued the South. The Rockefeller Foundation was created in 1913 to continue and expand the scope the work of the Sanitary Commission, which was closed in 1915. He gave nearly $250 million to the Foundation, which focused on public health, medical training, and the arts. It endowed Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, the first of its kind. It built the Peking Union Medical College into a great institution; it helped in war relief, 1914-16; it employed William Lyons Mackenzie King of Canada to study industrial relations. Rockefeller's fourth main philanthropy, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Foundation, created in 1918, supported work in the social studies; it was later absorbed in the Rockefeller Foundation. All told, Rockefeller gave away about $550 million. Oddly enough, Rockefeller was probably best known in his later life for the practice of giving a dime to children wherever he went. He even gave dimes as a playful gesture to men like tire mogul Harvey Firestone and President Hoover . During The Great Depression , Rockefeller switched to giving nickels instead of dimes. LEGACY As a youth, Rockefeller allegedly said that his two great ambitions were to make $100,000 and to live 100 years. He died on May 23, 1937, 26 months shy of this 100th birthday, at The Casements , his home in Ormond Beach, Florida . He was buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. Rockefeller had a long and controversial career in industry followed by a long career in philanthropy. His image is an amalgam of all of these experiences and the many ways he was viewed by his contemporaries. These contemporaries include his former competitors, many of whom were driven to ruin, but many others of whom sold out at a profit (or a profitable stake in Standard Oil, as Rockefeller often offered his shares as payment for a business), and quite a few of whom became very wealthy as managers as well as owners in Standard Oil. They also include politicians and writers, some of whom served Rockefeller's interests, and some of whom built their careers by fighting Rockefeller and the "robber barons." Biographer Allan Nevins, answering Rockefeller's enemies, concluded:
Biographer Ron Chernow wrote of Rockefeller: What makes him problematic--and why he continues to inspire ambivalent reactions--is that his good side was every bit as good as his bad side was bad. Seldom has history produced such a contradictory figure." Ron. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. 1998 Notwithstanding these varied aspects of his public life, Rockefeller may ultimately be remembered simply for the raw size of his wealth. In 1902 an audit showed Rockefeller was worth about $200 million--compared to the total national wealth that year of $101 billion. His wealth grew significantly after 1911 as the demand for gasoline soared, eventually reaching about $900 million, including significant interests in banking, shipping, mining, railroads, and other industries. By the time of his death in 1937, Rockefeller's remaining fortune, largely tied up in permanent family trusts, was estimated at $1.4 billion. Rockefeller's net worth over the last decades of his life would easily place him among the very wealthiest persons in history. As a percentage of the United States economy, no other American fortune, not Bill Gates 's or Sam Walton 's, would even come close. The Rockefeller wealth, distributed as it was through a system of foundations and trusts, continued to fund family philanthropic, commercial, and, eventually, political aspirations throughout the 20th century. Grandson David Rockefeller was a leading New York banker, serving for over 20 years as CEO of Chase Manhattan (now the retail financial services arm of JP Morgan Chase). Another grandson, Nelson A. Rockefeller , was Republican governor of New York and influential in national politics. A third grandson, Winthrop Rockefeller , served as Republican Governor Of Arkansas . Great-grandson, John D. "Jay" Rockefeller IV is currently a Democratic Senator from West Virginia. Rockefeller has passed into popular culture as the embodiment of wealth. Oysters Rockefeller was named for him because the dish was so 'rich'. The Rockefeller family was a major benefactor in funding the reconstruction effort in France after World War I . As a consequence, Rockefeller (along with the Rothschild s) was considered in that country the canonical Billionaire --synonymous with extreme wealth. John D. Rockerduck is a Disney character popular in Europe who is a foil of Disney's other well-known rich duck, the avaricious Scrooge McDuck . SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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