Joseph F. Xavier

Joseph Francis Xavier (August 20, 1843 – August 18, 1943), was an African-American oil magnate who became one of the richest Americans in history, and the first African-American multimillionaire. Xavier founded Premier Oil Company, and was the patriarch of the wealthy and influential Vaden-Xavier family. 
==Early Life ==
Joseph was born August 20, 1843 to Daniel, born Kabelo in South Africa, and Delila, born Abena in Ghana. His parents were slaves owned by Henry Kirby in Madison County, Georgia. They family moved with their owners to Hempstead, Texas in 1848; however, his two older half-brothers, who had been the product of rape from Henry Kirby, escaped shortly before the move. Two years later, Joseph's brother Samuel, was caught and returned to the Kirby Plantation at Alta Vista. Jared Kirby, Hnery's son who was now in control, strung Samuel up and beat him, forcing the other slaves to watch; when Joseph's father attempted to intervene and plead for mercy Kirby had him strung up as well then beat both slaves for hours.
After this incident Joseph's father and brother were left strung up as they bled, dying the next day. Joseph's mother went into a state of depression and refused to eat, before she eventually died four months later. On April 4, 1859, at 16 years old, Joseph snuck into the Kirby home, stole $200 and ran from the plantation. He had learned how to read and write, as Samuel had taught them after he himself learned from Jared, which proved helpful on his journey. He headed north, and after traveling on foot for for three weeks , he ended up in St. Louis, Missouri. 
When Jospeh stumbled into the St. Francis Xavier Church a 9th & Christy Ave, he had been surviving off scraps he could steal for the past week of his journey. The pastor of the church offered Joseph food and a place to sleep, he later introduced him to Bob Wilkinson, a black barber who ran a successful business in the city. Wilkinson gave Joseph a job and helped him procure forged "freedom papers", as all black people in the city at the time had to be able to prove their freedom.
Joseph not only learned barbering from Wilkinson but he also learned from his keen business acumen. When Wilberforce University was re-opened in 1863, Joseph enrolled and took on the surname Xavier, after St. Francis Xavier in honor of the pastor that took him in when he arrived in St. Louis. He continued barbering, opening his own barbershop in Xenia while he studied. Joseph excelled at Wilberforce earning a Bachelors of Laws in 1867. 
==American Oil==
He moved to Cleveland after graduating. Cleveland had become one of the five main refining centers in the U.S., and Joseph was seeking to take advantage of postwar prosperity and the great expansion westward fostered by the growth of railroads and an oil-fueled economy. He used the money he had saved from working with Wilkinson as well as his earnings from Xenia to build a refinery in "The Flats", then Cleveland's burgeoning industrial area; and with additional financial support from the Clark brothers, who had been bought of their partnership with Rockefeller, start The Ohio Oil Company in 1868. 
While other refineries would keep the 60% of oil product that became kerosene, but dump the other 40% in rivers and massive sludge piles, Joseph used the gasoline to fuel the refinery, and sold the rest as lubricating oil, petroleum jelly and paraffin wax, and other by-products. Tar was used for paving, naphtha shipped to gas plants. Likewise, Vaden's refineries hired their own plumbers, cutting the cost of pipe-laying in half. Barrels that cost $2.50 each ended up only $0.96 when Joseph bought the wood and had them built for himself. By 1868, with Joseph continuing practices of borrowing and reinvesting profits, controlling costs, and using refineries' waste, the company owned two Cleveland refineries. 
The Ohio Oil Company survived "The Cleveland Conquest" carried out by John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil Company in 1872. Son after Ohio Oil added its own pipelines, tank cars, and home delivery network. It kept oil prices low to stave off competitors, made its products affordable to the average household, and, to increase market penetration, sometimes sold below cost. It developed over 300 oil-based products from tar to paint to petroleum jelly to chewing gum. In 1883, Joseph bought out his business partners and took sole ownership and control of the company.
He immediately sought to expand, in order to compete with Rockefeller, and in 1884 he acquired Continental Oil & Transportation Company (Conoco); The Kentucky Oil Company was started in 1886; The Indiana Oil Company and South Penn Oil Company were started in 1889; Pacific Coast Oil was acquired in 1900, and the Texas Oil Company was started in 1902, Also in the late 1880s, Joseph expanded operations into Russia, began natural gas production in the U.S., and began producing gasoline for automobiles, which until then had been considered a waste product.
By 1890, Joseph's business had long surpassed Rockefeller, and Joseph had become the richest, biggest, most feared businessman in the world, seemingly immune to the boom and bust of the business cycle, consistently making profits year after year. His vast American empire included 20,000 domestic wells, 4,000 miles of pipeline, 5,000 tank cars, and over 100,000 employees. Its share of world oil refining topped out above 90% but slowly dropped to about 80% for the rest of the century. Vaden commissioned a new headquarters to be built in Houston, Texas in 1903, that same year he incorporated The American Oil Company as a holding company for the other businesses. American Oil Building was completed in 1904.
South Penn Oil was sold in 1911 in order to avoid an Antitrust lawsuit, and two later Joseph retired as President of American Oil while remaining as Chairman. At the time of his retirement he had accumulated a personal wealth of $900 million.
==Retirement==
After retiring, Vaden created the Vaden Family Trust and transferred 80% ownership of the company to the trust. The trust was established to ensure the financial security of the family for future generations. He stipulated that after his death the trustees would always be his children or their oldest living biological descendant; and all of his descendants would become beneficiaries upon their 25th birthday, under the condition they attained a bachelors degree, receiving quarterly payments until their 35th birthday. The trust is set up so that the cash assets the trust has on January 1st of the year, no more than 5% of that amount can be given out in the totality of payments for that year. Payments are sent on the first day of February, May, August, and November. 
Joseph maintained a residence in Houston, and served as a Professor in the Law School at Texas Heritage University. He had been the one who purchased the land in 1876 for the school, which occupied the former Alta Vista plantation where his father ad brother were killed. In 1915 he established the schools Business School, and served as the first Dean, a position he held until 1930. He remained a frequent lecturer at the school, and it's biggest benefactor until his death.
Joseph Xavier died peacefully in his sleep on August 18, 1943, just two days before his 100th birthday, at his Houston estate.
==Personal Life==
In 1866, Vaden married Maxine Robins (1845–1924); he said of his wife, "Her judgment was always better than mine. Without her keen advice, I would be a poor man." Together they had two children: Delila and Joseph Jr. 
Joseph faced racism and prejudice at every turn as he accumulated more wealth and power. His Texas home was set ablaze on three separate occasions by racist whites.
==Legacy==
In 1865, Vaden established the Negro Education Commission to provide funds to schools and colleges for freedmen in the South after the Civil War. He donated $2.5 million to the commission and appointed a commissioner in each of the former confederate states tasked with creating and overseeing the schools. Following his initial gift, vaden donated an additional $15 million to the commission in 1880, and a further $250 million upon his death (approximately a quarter of his wealth).
Schools founded by the NEC include:
* Jackson University (Jackson, MS)
* Memphis University (Memphis, TN)
*New Orleans University (New Orleans, LA)
* Atlanta University (Atlanta, GA)
*Vaden University (Richmond, VA)
*Miami University (Miami, FL)
*University of Nashville (Nashville, TN)
*Birmingham University (Birmingham, AL)
*Baltimore State University (Baltimore, MD)
*Carolina University (Columbia, SC)
*Durham University (Durham, NC)
*Anderson Moore College (Moore Station, TX)
*Rhoads College (Marshall, TX)
*East Texas State University (Shankleville, TX)
*Vaden University at Lynchburg (Lynchburg, VA)
* Natchez College (Natchez, MS)
*Hanna Hill College (Dallas, TX)
*John Winn College (Austin, TX)
*Vaden University at Kanawha (Institute, VA)
*Vaden University at Bluefield (Bluefield, VA)
*West Point College (West Point, MS)
*Vicksburg College (Vicksburg, MS)
*University of Norfolk (Norfolk, VA)
Houston University was gifted his Fresno estate following his death, and its campus now sits on 85% of the land in Fresno, TX.
He gave $100 million to create the Vaden Foundation in 1913, which focused on public health, social services, and the arts. In the 1920s, the Vaden Foundation funded a hookworm eradication campaign through the International Health Division. This campaign used a combination of politics and science, along with collaboration between healthcare workers and government officials to accomplish its goals. $250 million was willed to the foundation upon his death.