Biography of John Davison Rockefler

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”).