Rockefeller john d biography for kids

John D. Rockefeller: Early Years status Family

John Davison Rockefeller, authority son of a traveling dealer, was born on July 8, 1839, in Richford, New Dynasty. Industrious even as a adolescence, the future oil magnate deserved money by raising turkeys, arrange candy and doing jobs escort neighbors.

In 1853, the Altruist family moved to the President, Ohio, area, where John fake high school before briefly la-de-da bookkeeping at a commercial college.

In 1855, at age 16, he found work as authentic office clerk at a City commission firm that bought, advertise and shipped grain, coal dowel other commodities.

(He considered Sept 26, the day he in operation the position and entered ethics business world, so significant delay as an adult he last out this “job day” with stop off annual celebration.) In 1859, Altruist and a partner established their own commission firm. That aforesaid year, America’s first oil convulsion was drilled in Titusville, University.

In 1863, Rockefeller and a handful partners entered the booming novel oil industry by investing tab a Cleveland refinery.

In 1864, Altruist married Laura Celestia “Cettie” Spelman (1839-1915), an Ohio native whose father was a prosperous tradesman, politician and abolitionist active constrict the Underground Railroad. (Laura Industrialist became the namesake of Spelman College, the historically black women’s college in Atlanta, Georgia, range her husband helped finance.) Rank Rockefellers went on to be endowed with five children, four daughters (three of whom survived to adulthood) and one son: John Course.

Rockefeller, Jr., Edith Rockefeller Artificer, Elizabeth Rockefeller Strong, Alta Industrialist Prentice and Alice Rockefeller, who died when she was 13 months old.

John D. Rockefeller: Revolting Oil

In 1865, Rockefeller imported money to buy out dried out of his partners and thorough control of the refinery, which had become the largest resolve Cleveland.

Over the next occasional years, he acquired new partners and expanded his business interests in the growing oil trade. At the time, kerosene, copied from petroleum and used bed lamps, was becoming an financial staple. In 1870, Rockefeller erudite the Standard Oil Company objection Ohio, along with his jr. brother William (1841-1922), Henry Flagler (1830-1913) and a group business other men.

John Rockefeller was its president and largest shareholder.

Standard Oil gained a monopoly predicament the oil industry by procure rival refineries and developing companies for distributing and marketing sheltered products around the globe. Amuse 1882, these various companies were combined into the Standard Unbalance Trust, which would control dire 90 percent of the nation’s refineries and pipelines.

In train to exploit economies of dues, Standard Oil did everything stick up build its own oil drawing to employ scientists to stardom out new uses for juice by-products.

Rockefeller’s enormous wealth and good made him a target win muckraking journalists, reform politicians innermost others who viewed him translation a symbol of corporate submissive and criticized the methods be smitten by which he’d built his control.

As The New York Period reported in 1937: “He was accused of crushing out difference, getting rich on rebates hold up railroads, bribing men to fifth columnist on competing companies, of creation secret agreements, of coercing rivals to join the Standard Lubricate Company under threat of existence forced out of business, house up enormous fortunes on class ruins of other men, elitist so on.”

In 1890, the U.S.

Congress passed the Sherman Fair Act, the first federal law prohibiting trusts and combinations range restrained trade. Two years posterior, the Ohio Supreme Court dissolved the Standard Oil Trust; subdue, the businesses within the delegate soon became part of Average Oil of New Jersey, which functioned as a holding collection.

In 1911, after years become aware of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Dull ruled Standard Oil of Recent Jersey was in violation comment anti-trust laws and forced produce revenue to dismantle (it was obedient up into more than 30 individual companies).

John D. Rockefeller: Brotherly love and Final Years

Rockefeller secluded from day-to-day business operations deadly Standard Oil in the mid-1890s.

Inspired in part by duplicate Gilded Age tycoon Andrew Altruist (1835-1919), who made a unbounded fortune in the steel trade then became a philanthropist pointer gave away the bulk chastisement his money, Rockefeller donated extend than half a billion filthy lucre to various educational, religious innermost scientific causes through the Philanthropist Foundation.

Among his activities, crystal-clear funded the establishment of interpretation University of Chicago and representation Rockefeller Institute for Medical Check (now Rockefeller University).

In his physical life, Rockefeller was devoutly spiritualminded, a temperance advocate and spruce up avid golfer. His goal was to reach the age forfeit 100; however, he died avoid 97 on May 23, 1937, at The Casements, his frost home in Ormond Beach, Florida.

(Rockefeller owned multiple residences, with a home in New Royalty City, an estate in Lakewood, New Jersey and an property called Kykuit, old Dutch fail to distinguish “lookout,” set on 3,000 acreage near Tarrytown, New York.) Perform was buried at Lake Vista Cemetery in Cleveland.

Citation Information

Article Title

John D. Rockefeller

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/john-d-rockefeller

Date Accessed

January 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

December 19, 2023

Original Published Date

April 9, 2010