John D. Rockefeller

Business tycoon and philanthropist John Davison Rockefeller Sr. was born in America on July 8, 1839, and died on May 23, 1937. He is regarded as the richest man in contemporary history and the richest American of all time. was the major stakeholder in Standard Oil Company from its founding in 1870 to 1897. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie established the framework for contemporary philanthropy. The advancement of medical research and the nearly complete elimination of yellow fever and hookworm were both made possible by foundations. Based on a social Darwinist viewpoint, he was seen as a proponent of capitalism.

Rockefeller was the second child born to Eliza Davison and William A. Rockefeller Sr. He had four younger siblings: William Jr., Mary, the twins Franklin (Frank) and Frances, and an older sister called Lucy. His mother was of Ulster Scots ancestry, while his father was of English and German ancestry. His family relocated to Ohio when he was a little child from New York. He attended Folsom Commercial College to study bookkeeping.

Rockefeller allegedly stated in his childhood that his two main goals in life were to achieve $100,000 (which would be $2.91 million in 2021 currency) and to live to be 100 years old. Abolitionist Rockefeller supported President Abraham Lincoln in the election. While his brother was fighting in the Civil War, Rockefeller took care of his business and employed spies. Like many wealthy Northerners who chose to stay out of battle, he donated money to the Union cause. The federal government was subsidizing oil prices at the time.

In Cleveland, Ohio, John D. Rockefeller constructed an oil refinery in 1863. The commercial oil industry was only starting up at the time. Kerosene, lubricating oil, petroleum jelly, and paraffin wax were all produced by the refinery. A $5 to $8 profit per barrel was generated. By using their own plumbers, Rockefeller's refineries were able to decrease the cost of installing pipes in half.

Naphtha was supplied to gas plants, while tar was utilized for pavement. Rockefeller paid the Clark brothers $72,500 (about $1 million in 2021 money) to buy them out in 1865.

Along with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, New York, and the area in northwest Pennsylvania where the majority of the oil was produced, Cleveland was one of the five major U.S. refining hubs. By 1869, there was quadruple the amount of kerosene being refined in Cleveland than was required to meet demand. Standard Oil acquired 22 of its 26 Cleveland rivals in 1872. Even Pratt and Rogers, his old rivals, eventually realized it was pointless to keep up the rivalry. Rockefeller viewed himself as the industry's rescuer, taking in the helpless as "an angel of mercy." Through horizontal integration, Standard Oil increased its market share and supremacy in oil sales in the United States.

The business installed its own vertical distribution system in the kerosene sector to replace the previous one. Underselling, differential pricing, and transportation rebates were Standard's most effective strategies against other companies. The Hepburn Committee of the New York State Legislature discovered in 1879 that Standard Oil was obtaining significant freight refunds on all of the oil it was shipping by train. The Standard Oil Trust was founded in 1882 as a result of an innovative kind of company that Rockefeller's attorneys devised to consolidate their interests. Rockefeller established the first oil futures market in the early 1880s.

To enable the trade of oil futures, the National Petroleum Exchange established in Manhattan. The Interstate Commerce Commission was established by Congress in 1887 to provide uniform rates for all railroad freight, although by that time Standard was increasingly dependent on pipeline transportation. John D. Rockefeller embarked on a big buying binge in the 1890s, acquiring leases for the extraction of crude oil in West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana. The Sherman Antitrust Act was the subject of several lawsuits brought by Theodore Roosevelt. The company's espionage, pricing battles, and aggressive marketing strategies were all reported by Ida Tarbell.

To improve both his reputation and that of his corporation, John D. Rockefeller launched a PR campaign. His work was criticized for being pretentious and sterilized. Conciliatory remarks like "business and labor are both wild forces that demand clever legislation" were his attempt to become more approachable. In 1911, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey was divided. 34 new businesses were formed as a result of the split, many of which are now a part of BP and ExxonMobil.

The split increased John D. Rockefeller's personal wealth by $900 million. Chevron and Pennzoil are still different businesses.

In 1902, John D. Rockefeller and George Jay Gould provided a loan to John Cleveland Osgood's Denver and Rio Grande Company. In the southern Colorado counties of Huerfano and Las Animas, there was a coal miner's strike in 1913–1914. The Ludlow Massacre occurred on April 20, 1914, as a consequence of a widespread firefight between strikers and military. The Rockefellers and the coal business were widely criticized after the killing. Many of the coal mines owned by CF&I were never reopened, and many workers were laid off.

John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. was an American industrialist and philanthropist who lived from January 29, 1874, until May 11, 1960. Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, his son, served as New York's governor and the country's 41st vice president. Democratic Senator John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV served in that capacity from 1985 until 2015. When David Rockefeller was 16 years old, he got his first job as a clerk and started contributing six percent of his pay to charity. He gave more as his wealth increased, particularly to organizations related to education and public health, but he also supported the arts and fundamental science.

For African-American women in Atlanta, Rockefeller generously funded the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary in 1884. Before the Civil War, Rockefeller's in-laws, the Spelman Family, were fervent abolitionists. Additionally, he provided funding for the establishment of Central Philippine University, Asia's first Baptist and second American university. He donated close to $250 million to the foundation, which prioritized the arts, medical education, and public health. The foundation contributed to World War I relief efforts and hired William Lyon Mackenzie King to research labor relations.

By 1932, he had lost faith in prohibition since it had not succeeded in reducing drinking and alcoholism. He backed the Republican party platform's inclusion of removing the 18th amendment.

At his house in Florida, John D. Rockefeller passed away on May 23, 1937, from arteriosclerosis. He had a protracted and contentious career in the oil sector before embarking on a protracted career in philanthropy. His persona is a composite of all of these encounters and the many perspectives held by his contemporaries. John D. Rockefeller, an American entrepreneur and philanthropist, is one of the rare people whose good qualities outweighed his negative. According to a 1902 audit, Rockefeller was worth roughly $200 million, which was a significant amount given the $24 billion then-total national GDP.

Inflation-adjusted, his personal fortune in 1913 was 900 million dollars, or 23.5 billion dollars today. At the time of his passing in 1937, his residual wealth, which was mostly constrained by long-term family trusts, was valued at $1.4 billion. He was the richest known individual in recent history, at least according to some methods of wealth computation.