page_title: John D. Rockefeller
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: John D. Rockefeller / Early life
context_page_description: John Davison Rockefeller Sr. was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is widely considered the wealthiest American of all time, and the richest person in modern history.
  Rockefeller was born into a large family in upstate New York that moved several times before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. Rockefeller became an assistant bookkeeper at age 16 and went into several business partnerships beginning at age 20, concentrating his business on oil refining. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He ran it until 1897, and remained its largest shareholder.
  Rockefeller's wealth soared as kerosene and gasoline grew in importance, and he became the richest person in the country, controlling 90% of all oil in the United States at his peak. Oil was used throughout the country as a light source until the introduction of electricity, and as a fuel after the invention of the automobile. Furthermore, Rockefeller gained enormous influence over the railroad industry which transported his oil around the country. Standard Oil was the first great business trust in the United States.
context_section_description: Rockefeller was the second child born in Richford, New York, to con artist William Avery "Bill" Rockefeller and Eliza Davison. He had an elder sister named Lucy and four younger siblings: William Jr., Mary, and twins Franklin (Frank) and Frances. His father was of English and German descent, while his mother was of Scots-Irish descent. Bill was first a lumberman and then a traveling salesman who identified himself as a "botanic physician" who sold elixirs. The locals referred to the mysterious but fun-loving man as "Big Bill" and "Devil Bill." He was a sworn foe of conventional morality who preferred a vagabond existence and returned to his family infrequently. Throughout his life, Bill was notorious for shady 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 a daughter 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. She was thrifty by nature and by necessity, and she taught her son that "willful waste makes woeful want". 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 his 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, and to Owego, New York, in 1851, where he attended Owego Academy. In 1853, his family moved to Strongsville, Ohio, and he attended Cleveland's Central High School, the first high school in Cleveland and the first free public high school west of the Alleghenies. Then he took a ten-week business course at Folsom's Commercial College, where he studied bookkeeping. He was a well-behaved, serious, and studious boy despite his father's absences and frequent family moves. His contemporaries described him as reserved, earnest, religious, methodical, and discreet. He was an excellent debater and expressed himself precisely. He also had a deep love of music and dreamed of it as a possible career.
caption: Rockefeller's birthplace in Richford, New York
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