The Daily Alaska empire., 1937-05-24

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 feller" long before he was 21.
 A bank president warned hin one day that he had borrowed nearly all the money in the bank
 Our directors want to see yol and talk with you" he said
 "I'll come rig ht down." MT Rockefeller replied I'll come right away, for I want to borrow Q great deal more
 During these early years he be- came known to the business com munity as a elf-contained, fruga young man, free from bad habits reliable and a steady attendant at church and Sunday school. In his fifteenth year he had joined the Erie Street Baptist lChurch in Cleveland, now the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church. Ii was then a poor, struggling mis- sion, with a $2,000 mortgage on 1 its building.
 Aids Church
 When the pastor announced one Sunday that the house was to be sold to pay the debt, young Rocke- feller stood at the door and begged contribution from everyone who passed. Some could give only 10 oa,,tc f, x.roaly fa,ry ne .,.,,ota oc cf but he begged for months until he raised the $2,0O0 and saved the church. Later he became superin- tendent Of the Sunday school, a position he held for more than 30 years.
 A Bible class for men which he organized and led became one of the largest of it's kind in the coun- try. It attracted young and old of every degree of affluence.
 "The religion of man is his most i m p ortant possession" he said There is nothing in the world that can compare with Christian fellowship; nothing that can sat- isfy but Christ"
 When Drake struck oil in Penn sylvania, in 1859. there was a rush to the new field of wealth from all parts of the country. But the young merchant stayed out, ques- tioning and studying, for more than two years. Then he his part Ter joined with Samual Andrews, who had learned the art of cleans ing and refining petroleum. Under the title of Andrews, Clark and Company they organized a separ- ate firm to refine oil and built a small refinery on the bank of Kingsbury Run. near Cleveland.
 s. 0. Company
 This business, by mutual con- sent, was put up at auction in 1865, and MT. Rockefeller bought it in at $72,50O. Thus began the firm of Rockefeller and Andrews, which grew within five years into the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, incorporated in January, 1870, with a capital of $l,000,000-a vast sum in those days In the meantime MT. Rockefeller's brothers, William and Frank, besides Henry M. Flag Ter, Stephen V. Hardness and sev- eral others, had joined the enter prise. Less than 10 years had pass ed since MT. Rockefeller entered the oil business.
 The year before MT. Rockefeller bought up the assets of Andrews, Clark and Company he had en- tered another partnership, destin- ed to last half century. In the Cleveland High School in 1853 one of his class mates was Laura Gel estia Spelman, daughter of mer- chant of Akron, o. They were mar ried September 8, 1864, and for nearly 5l years shared an ideal life.
 HIS WiIe
 Mrs. Rockefeller cared little for socal activities outside the circle of family friends. She gave much attention to rearing and training her children, to the work of the church and the Sunday school and to charities.
 She died suddenly of heart dis cage on March 12, 1915, at Pecan tico Hills, while her husband was in the south. For several years she had been unable to go to church, and it was MT Rockefel- ler's custom to bring her notes of the sermons.
 MT. and Mrs. Rockefeller were the parents of five children. One died in infancy. The others were