John Davison Rockefeller once said that, "I believe it is every man's religious duty to get all he can honestly and to then give all he can." (Abels.) John Rockefeller worked his way to the top during his lifetime, becoming the richest man in America at one time. Then he gave good amount of his lifetime earnings to various charities around the world. He earned his fortune through the oil industry and the countless hard hours he put in to make his company the best.
John Davison Rockefeller was born to William and Eliza Rockefeller on July 8, 1839, on a farm in Richford, New York. He was the second of six children raised in a medium class family run mainly by his mother, who was very strict on religion. She taught the kids to stay religious ,work hard, save their money, and give to charity. Rockefeller’s father was gone most of the time on business working as a pitch man claiming he could cure any sickness for a small payment.
At the age of twelve Rockefeller worked lots of odd jobs for his neighbors. Then with the money he earned, he loaned some to a local farmer with a small interest rate, payable over one year. This impressed Rockefeller that he could make money in this way and he kept giving small loans to people earning money throughout his childhood. Also during his childhood his family moved from place to place quite often until they came to stay at Cleveland
Rockefeller went to school at Central High School in Cleveland. He was a good student who almost never got in trouble. During his high school years Rockefeller got multiple jobs. He was first hired as an assistant bookkeeper by Hewitt and Tuttle, (a small firm of commission merchants).
After Rockefeller left high school in 1855, he went to college at Folsom Mercant...
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...ed foreign markets in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Although Standard Oil did advance to other countries most of it was kept in the United States. Rockefeller once acquired oil land in Ohio before it was certain that this sulfuric oil could be refined successfully. He then employed the scientist Herman Frasch, whose process made these fields yield an enormous profit.
In 1882, with Standard oil at the immense size it was Rockefeller decided to create America’s first great trust. Since laws forbade one company's ownership of another's stock, ever since 1872 Standard Oil had placed its acquisitions outside Ohio in the hands of Flagler as "trustee."
Now all of Standard’s properties were merged in the Standard Oil Trust. It had an initial capital of $70 million dollars and there were originally 42 certificate holders, or owners, in the trust (“John D. Rockefeller”).
It's said that before John D. Rockefeller died, "he gave away about $550,000,000 to charity, more than any other American before him had ever possessed" (98). His money went to schools, churches and also "paid teams of scientists who found cures for yellow fever, meningitis, and hookworm"(97).
John Rockefeller was born July 8th, 1839, the second of six children. He took a business course at Folsom Mercantile College in 1855. He was employed as an assistant bookkeeper by Hewitt and Turtle. He was paid only $50 for 3 months of work. Moving up to a cashier he made $25 a month.
...600 -$700 annually. In the same fashion as Carnegie, Rockefeller gave most of his money to profit other. It has been said that he gave a third of his fortune to charities, organizations, and universities; another third was for him, and the final third he left to his descendants.
As America’s first billionaire, few individuals in history can compare with John D. Rockefeller Sr. His wealth around the turn of the 20th century would be worth roughly twenty-two billion dollars in modern United States dollars. It is undeniable that Rockefeller changed the landscape of the American petroleum industry by defining the nature of oil production. By 1883, Rockefeller was laying the foundations for what we now know as the vertically integrated company and the modern multinational. The fruit of Rockefeller’s labor, the Standard Oil companies, controlled ninety five percent of petroleum refining and transport by 1880. It would not come as a surprise, given Rockefeller’s opulence, to find Standard Oil and its business practices under close scrutiny by his competition as well as the federal government. Rockefeller’s ruthless and legally questionable business tactics threatened the well-being of the United States’ capitalistic economy. Although the federal government had a prepared response to monopolies, the Sherman Antitrust, it was not enforced to its fullest potential because of the overwhelming influence possessed by Rockefeller due to his wealth. At the time of Standard Oil’s dissolution, their prominence was already waning, providing an entry point for powerful trust busters, such as Theodore Roosevelt and influential writer, Ida M. Tarbell. Standard Oil was allowed to exist for over a decade because of the economical, political, social, and legal complications in separating Rockefeller’s companies and the oil industry. The proper environment for a dedicated antitrust effort existed only after Standard Oil’s initial decline in influence.
Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie were two very important assets for the up come of America. Both men went from “rags to riches” in their life time. Also, they had very similar ways of running their company. Carnegie and Rockefeller wanted to take out their competition and that is exactly what they accomplished by ending in a monopoly. These men were Social Darwinists and Philanthropist and were constantly giving back to the U.S. by donating money to build schools, libraries, etc. Both guys started working in a different industry than the one they ended up staying in. They definitely made it to the top though, and both ended up controlling their industry of work. Carnegie and Rockefeller were both political leaders and true givers to their fellow citizens.
...mpanies, it eventually came to the point where they couldn’t keep up and eventually became a part of Standard Oil. By the time Rockefeller had reached the age of 40, his company had controlled all national oil refining by 90% and about 70% of international export of said oil.
Rockefeller was an industrialist and philanthropist who made his fortune by founding the Standard Oil Company in 1870. Attempting to monopolize the industry and squeeze out the middle man, Rockefeller slowly gained almost complete control of the oil industry. He formed the powerful Standard Oil Trust in 1882, which united all of his companies and secured 95% of oil production in the United States for himself. Rockefeller was an industrialist who stamped out all of his competition with his trust, eventually leading to Congress intervention.
Rockefeller (1839-1937): As the founder of the Standard Oil Company and related subsidiaries, John D. Rockefeller became one of the world’s wealthiest men. As one of the Captains of Industry, Rockefeller was one of the primary movers of the trend to bigness for its own sake and as a competitive edge to great profits during the industrialization of America. He exemplified the evolution of character in this age, transforming from a fierce, accumulative competitor to a significant philanthropist later in life.
John Davison Rockefeller of English and German decent was born on July 8, 1839 in Richford, New York. He grew up in a family of six children him being the second. His father was William Avery Rockefeller a con artist and his mother was Eliza Davison a homemaker. Rockefeller’s father William was infamous for his notorious schemes. When Rockefeller was only a child his father was caught having an affair with their housekeeper Nancy and was also gone f...
The first positive affect of John D. Rockefeller was his donations of large sums of money to public institutions. During his lifetime, Rockefeller gave away 540 million dollars (Sicilia 2006). Almost all of his philanthropies occurred after his retirement from Standard Oil. Donations varied from colleges, to churches, to hospitals. With the help of his son and Frederick Gates, the man Rockefeller put in charge of his philanthropies, he was able to help improve the lives of many (Poole 2000).
John D. Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839 in Rickford, New York. He grew up in a very poor family. His father was William Avery Rockefeller. He claimed to be a doctor, who for $25 would cure various diseases. His mother was Eliza Davison Rockefeller. She was the role model who taught Rockefeller his values and morals (Poole). John Rockefeller was the second child. Altogether he had five brothers and sisters (Outman 139). As a child he was very business smart. At the young age of 12 he loaned $50 to a famer. He charged a 7% interest. When he was older he said this about the business deal, “The impression was gaining ground with me that it was a good thing to let money be my servant and not make myself a slave to money” (Poole).
The Gilded Age refers to a period in which things were fraudulent and deceitful; the surface was clinquant while underneath that lustrous coat laid corruption. During the Gilded Age companies recruited to corrupt methods to further increase profits, leading to an increase in power, rapid economic prosperity, and domination of industries, leading to monopolistic corporations. As a result, antitrust laws to regulate business began to emerge in the late 19th and early 20th century known as the Progressive Era. Among these companies was Standard Oil, which was founded in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller; in 1880, Standard Oil was responsible for refining 90 percent of America’s oil and between 1880-1910, dominating the oil industry (Marshall). The lack of intervention from the government and regulations impeding monopolistic practices allowed Standard Oil to
When John D. Rockefeller merged with the railroad companies, he had gained control of a strategic transportation route that no other companies would be able to use. Rockefeller would then be able to force the hand on the railroads and was granted a rebate on his shipments of oil. This was a kind of secret agreement between the two industries. None of the competition knew what the rates were for the rebates or the rates that Rockefeller was paying the railroad. This made it hard for the competition to keep up with the Standard Oil Company. The consequences led to many oil companies getting bought out by Rockefeller secretly. All in all, 25 co...
One of the Gilded Age’s most prominent well-known philanthropist’s, John D. Rockefeller, had a lasting effect in the United States. He was America’s first ever billionaire. Rockefeller entered the oil business by first investing on an oil refinery in Cleveland, Ohio in 1863. He established his own oil company named “Standard Oil”, which controlled nearly 90 percent of America’s oil refineries by the 1880’s. At first, Rockefeller borrowed money from some of his buddy’s to buy out some stocks and take control of his first refinery in Ohio. He then formed the “Standard Oil Company” along with his brother William Rockefeller and other groups of men, John D. Rockefeller was the largest shareholder of the company. Standard oil was a monopoly in the oil industry for buying other refineries who were competition to Standard oil in order to distribute and market there oil around the globe. Standard oil even went as far as making their own oil barrels and employed scientists to develop other uses for kerosene and petroleum products. John D. Rockefeller was viewed as a target of “muckraking” by journalists, who viewed him as a monopoly giant setting up a monopolistic company in America which helped build his vast oil empire. Critics accused Rockefeller of engaging unethical practices such as competitive pricing when it came to products and negotiating with railroads to eliminate his competitors. The United States Supreme Court wou...
The oil companies had to get the oil that was found in the south and then refine this oil to make it ready to power the automobiles.(Automobile 814) Due to this high demand of oil for the use in automobiles, the oil companies, such as Standard Oil, could impose a high price on oil. (Jones, 112) This high price caused the oil companies to obtain a large profit, which i...