John D. Rockefeller

Lore & Background

Rockefeller was the second of six children born in Richford, New York, to con artist William A. Rockefeller Sr. and Eliza Davison. Rockefeller had an elder sister named Lucy and four younger siblings: William Jr., Mary, and fraternal twins Franklin (Frank) and Frances. His father was of English and German descent, while his mother was of Ulster Scot descent. One source says that some ancestors were Huguenots, the Roquefeuille family, who fled to Germany from France during the reign of Louis XIV and a period of religious persecution. By the time their descendants immigrated to North America, their name had taken German form. William Sr. worked first as a lumberman and then a traveling salesman. He claimed to be a 'botanic physician' who sold elixirs, and was described by locals as 'Big Bill' and 'Devil Bill.' Unshackled by conventional morality, he led a vagabond existence and returned to his family infrequently. Throughout his life, Bill was notorious for conducting schemes. In between the births of Lucy and John, Bill and his mistress and housekeeper Nancy Brown had a daughter named Clorinda, who died young. Between John and William Jr.'s births, Bill and Nancy had another daughter, named Cornelia. Eliza was a homemaker and a devout Baptist who struggled to maintain a semblance of stability at home, as Bill was frequently gone for extended periods. She also put up with his philandering and his double life, which included bigamy. He permanently abandoned his family around 1855 and lived with second wife, Margaret L. Allen. Eliza was thrifty by nature and by necessity, and she taught her son that 'willful waste makes woeful want'. She taught John how to save and track money, and the importance of it. John did his share of the regular household chores and earned extra money raising turkeys, selling potatoes and candy, and eventually lending small sums of money to neighbors. He followed his father's advice to 'trade dishes for platters' and always get the better part of any deal. Bill once bragged, 'I cheat my boys every chance I get. I want to make 'em sharp.' However, his mother was more influential in John's upbringing and beyond, while he distanced himself further and further from his father as his life progressed. He later stated, 'From the beginning, I was trained to work, to save, and to give.' When he was a boy, his family moved to Moravia, New York, an

Reader's Guide

Rockefeller's wealth grew substantially as kerosene and gasoline became increasingly important commodities, eventually making him the richest person in the United States. By 1900, Standard Oil controlled about 90% of the nation's oil production. The company lowered production costs and expanded oil distribution through corporate and technological innovations, but it also benefited from a legal environment that enabled consolidation. Critics argue that regulatory capture played a role in facilitating its monopoly power–a view reinforced by Rockefeller's reputed remark, 'Competition is a sin.' Rockefeller's company and business practices came under criticism, particularly in the writings of author Ida Tarbell. The Supreme Court ruled in 1911 that Standard Oil must be dismantled for violation of federal antitrust laws. It was broken up into 34 separate entities, which included companies that became ExxonMobil, Chevron Corporation, and others—some of which remain among the largest companies by revenue worldwide. His personal wealth in 1913 was estimated at $900 million, which was 2.3% of the US gross domestic product (GDP). Rockefeller spent much of the last 40 years of his life in retirement at Kykuit, his estate in Westchester County, New York, defining the structure of philanthropy, along with other key industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie. His fortune was used chiefly to create the modern systematic approach of targeted philanthropy through the creation of foundations that supported medicine, education, and scientific research. His foundations pioneered developments in medical research and were instrumental in the near-eradication of hookworm in the American South, and yellow fever in the United States. He and Carnegie gave form and impetus through their charities to the work of Abraham Flexner, who in his essay 'Medical Education in America' emphatically endowed empiricism as the basis for the US medical system of the 20th century. Rockefeller was the founder of the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University, and funded the establishment of Central Philippine University in the Philippines. He was a devout mainline Baptist Christian and supported many church-based institutions. He adhered to total abstinence from alcohol and tobacco throughout his life. For advice, he relied closely on his wife, Laura Spelman Rockefeller; they had four daughters and

Did You Know?

• Rockefeller became the country's first billionaire on 28 September 1916, according to the source article, though the exact date is not reliably confirmed.
• As a youth, Rockefeller reportedly said his two great ambitions were to make $100,000 and to live 100 years.
• Rockefeller's father, William A. Rockefeller Sr., was a con artist who permanently abandoned the family around 1855.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"The impression was gaining ground with me that it was a good thing to let the money be my slave and not make myself a slave to money." — John D. Rockefeller "I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature." — John D. Rockefeller "It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy." — John D. Rockefeller "I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money's sake." — John D. Rockefeller