The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1911-06-02
WILLIAM RoCKEFELLER
is SEVENTY

is SEVENTY.
New York, May 31-William
Rockefeller, who next to his elder
brother, John D. Rockefeller, is pro-
badly the richest man in the United
Staets, quietly celebrated his seven
tieth birthday anniversary today. !
Mr.. Rockefeller was boru in Tioga !
county, New York, but removed with
his parents early in his boyhood to
Cleveland and attended the public
schools in that city
The faculties OF perception and ac-
quistiveness We're the most consplc
uous traits in his character, when at
the age of seventeen he dropped
his school books and became a book
keeper for a miller. Before he was
twenty-one he had formed connec-
ton with a rival Touring MILL and
had just turned twenty-one when he
became partner in the concern
In 1864 he went into the oil bust
ness in modest way with his bro
Their, John D. Rockefeller. This was
the modest beginning Of the gigan-
tic corporation which the Supreme
Court OF the United States recently
decided was too powerful to be per-
mitted to exist and ordered that it
be dissolved within six months.
William Rockefeller's personality,
his millions and the interests with
which he is identified, have always
| been overshadowed, in measure, by
the great wealth of his brother
| Nevertheless, the wise ones in the
financial world have been heard to
declare more than once that William
was the brainiest member of the
Rockefeller family. He has been the
speculative member of the Standard
! Oil group of capitalists and has en-
gineered all of the vast deals of that
combination in the stock market.
Since he became vice president of
the Standard Oil Corporation many
years ago he has been intimately as
! oOSioISu WIN oil LIE IduiincdllOnS
of the gigantic monopoly, and, while
his name is not as conspicuous as
that of his brother, he is said to pos
sess wider knowledge in detail of
the corporation whose power has
been spread to all countries of the
world
Mr.. Rockefeller has lived under
tremendous nervous strain for more
than forty years. His early associ-
ates in Standard Oil he has followed
to the grave one by one Five of the
heads of the great corporation have
passed away during che last two or
three years, including Henry H. Rog-
ers. whose lamentable taking Off is
attributed by his friends to the wor-
ry and mental strain resulting from
the government suits against the
Standard Oil. That William Rookie
Teller has been able to withstand the
terrific strain of his position is all
the more surprising when it is re-
ago the cables brought word from
Europe that his death was regarded
as imminent. At that time he was
reported to be suffering from an in
durable malady-nothing less than
cancer of the stomach-and it was
not believed he could recover. To-
day, however, Mr.. Rockefeller is APP
parently as we'll as he has been in
many years and to all appearances
he takes as keen an interest in bust
ness affairs as he ever did,
In addition to forming part of the
directorate of the Standard Oil, and
the great National City bank, VIM.
Rockefeller is director in a dozen
trust companies and in many of the
largest financial and industrial cor
porations of America. He is not as
wealthy as his brother, but manag-
es to worry along on his income
from fortune estimated at between
s75,000,000 and $85, 100000. He
is Baptist, and regular church
attendant. He has not acquired his
brothers. habit of distributing mil
lions for educational purposes. His
best known gift was 100000 to
Wellesley College.