Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1905-07-26

Father a Thief


Tarhell, in the June number of
McClures, are facts of interest as
regards John ID. Rockefeller and
his father: The story, extracts of
which follow, is of peculiar interest
as it deals with the antecendents of
the most talked of man in the world
today.
1t throws most astonishing light
on his parentage and reveals the fact
that the father of the famous mag
nate was a man of most unsavory
reputation in his own community.
Most astonishing even than this
is the fact that the father of John ID.
Rockefeller, now an old man him
self, still lives on a farm in Iowa,
and although too old now to follow
up his sporting proclivities, his re-
putation as a trickster still clings to
him.
The story of the old man and John
DIS boyhood, is in part as follows;
There are still alive in Tioga
county, New York state, many men
and women who remember Godfrey
Rockefeller. 1t is not a pleasant
description they give of him-a
shiftless tippler, stunted in stature
and mean in spirit, but held to a
certain decency by a wife of such
strong intellect and determine d
character that she impressed herself
unforgettably on the community.
Godfrey Rockefeller had not been
long in Richford when he was follow
ed by his eldest son-William A.
Rockefeller-a man of % or ~
years of age. There seem to have
been other Rockefellers. for the
family was sufficiently numerous
and CONSPICUOUS to cause the farm
in West Hill near Richford, where
they settled, to be dubbed Rocke-
feller settlement name it still
bears.
1t is with William A. Rockefeller,
father of John, that we have to do
here. There is enough which is
authentic to be CLEANED about him
to form a picture of a striking
character. William A. Rockefeller
was a tall and powerful man with
keen, straightforward eyes, man
in whom strength. and fearlessness,
and JOY in life unfettered by edu-
cation or love of decency, ran riot.
The type is familiar enough in
every farming settlement, the type
of the country sport, who hunts,
fishes, CANDLES, races horses and
carouses in the low and mean ways
which the country alone affords.
He owned a costly rifle, and was
famous as a shot He was dare
devil with horses. He had no trade
-spurned the farm. Indeed he had
all the vices save one-he never
drank. He was a famous trickster
too; thus, when he reached Richford
he is said to have called himself a
peddler-a deaf and dumb peddler,
and for some time actually sue
ceeded in making his aquantances
in Richford write out their remarks
to him on a slate. Why he wished
to deceive them no one knows. Per-
haps sheer mischief, perhaps desire
to hear things which would hardly
be talked before a stranger with
good ears.
1t was not long after he came to
Richford that he began to go of on
long trips-peddling trips some said
Later he became known as quacE
doctor, and his absences were sup
posed to be spent selling medicine
he concocted himself.
On one of his trips he met il
Moravia, New York, the daughtei
of a prosperous farmer, Eliza Davi
son. 1t is said that the girl married
him in the face of strong opposition
of her family. However that MAJ
be, it is certain that about 1887
William A. Rockefeller brought Eliz'
Dawson to the Rockefeller settle