The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-08-14

years. he said, but have been busy
all that time Do l act like a man
VINO Is not busy? They accuse me still
of being the head of our company, di-
recting its every policy. Why, this is
foolish, isn't it? I have no more need
for money. Why should I worry? My
chlldren are well cared for. I am
through with business, but yet they
say am money mad
Il have been surprised at the atti-
tude OF our administration in its recent
acuons- What with reports from Mr..
smith every five minutes indictments
in the courts. attacks from the heads
OF government departments and what
not, one can hardly say just where We
are at so far as commerce and finance
60" A
Still Unexplained
The self effacement from affairs which
W1ll1am A Rockefeller, 80 years old,
mas suffered while his oldest son. John
Davidson Rockefeller, accumulated mil
lions enough to make him the richest
man in the world, is still unexplained.
The public was surprised to learn from
the recently printed Interview with
frank Rockefeller that John D. Rookie
teller had father who was still alive,
as none had heard of him in years.
Frank says" said the president of a
national bank in Cleveland a year ago
to reporter, that every time his
brother John learns that Frank has in
vested money in "a certain enterprise he
uses all his influence and the financial
resources at his command to wreck that
enterprise. That is why you will be
able to find no one who will tell you
where Frank Rockefeller's money is in
vested. To give the information would
be to betray Frank
Frank the Fevorite Son.
William A. Rockefeller, the father,
regards Frank as his favorite child.
There is reason to believe from what
Frank Rockefeller has said to reporters
and from outside evidence, that when
William A. Rockefeller is finally found
he will be outspoken in his criticism of
his son John.
When reporters were tracing the first
faint clew that looked as if it might
lead up to the present Whereabouts of
William A. Rockefeller, or Doc" as
he was generally called in the old days,
much time was spent in Strongsville,
O., and Parma, Q. These farming com
nunities, 10 or 20 miles southest of
Cleveland, knew William A. Rockefel-
Ter when he moved west from New
York and where he lived with his grow
ing family several years before going
to Cleveland. 1t was here that John
D. Rockefeller had his first romance,
and the reporters met and talked with
Mrs. Joseph Webster who. as Melinda
Miller was John D. ROckefeller'S first
sweetheart.
He Was a Quack Doctor.
Only Uncle Joe" Webster was con-
temporary with William A, the father
and some Of Webster's "reminiscences of
the dashing, laxative sport and quack
doctor are interesting.
II don't think he was ever a horse
thief" said Webster. Doc was too
smart to take a chance on being ar
rested. He always had plenty of ways
away on those long trips, L think he
was treating cancer patients, trading
horses and picking UP the dollars one
way and another. He was a natural
born money maker. He liked to beat
a man in a trade and then brag about
it to him. He brought the boys up
that way, too
Henry NJ Whitney whose sister
married William Humiston, a son of
William A. Rock efeller's sister, is an
other farmer of Strongsville who cor
roborates the story that William A.
Rockefeller in bringing up his boys
inculcated in them the principle
which had been the ruling spirit in his
own successful financial career.
Making His Boys "Sharp."
"I cheat 'em every chance L get"
old doc Rockefeller said to Whit
ney in the old days, referring to John
d. and the others of his sons. II want
to make 'em sharp. I trade with the
boys and skin 'em and just beat 'em
every time can. 1 want to make 'em
sharp"
A year before John D. Rockefeller
became 21 years old his father said to
him that for $40, cash in hand he
would "give him his time" This
meant that John. upon the payment
of this sum, would be released from
his obligations to turn over to his
father all his earnings until he at
tanned his majority. Those were the
apprenticeship customs of the time.
John remarked that "the offer is GER
tainly worth considering" and later
he paid over the $40 to his father.
William A. Rockefeller, the father,
at once began to collect board money
from his son John, and when John ex-
postulated turned on him with the
cry:
'You bought your time. didn't you :?
What you're getting now is your own,
amt it? Well, you have to pay me
board"
And John paid until he was 81,
when as usual the father handed him
$1,000. doc" Rockefeller always
gave each of his sons $1,000 on his
twenty-first birthday anniversary and
always with the warning:
Hang on to this. because I'll get it
back from you if I can"