Rockefeller And Rockefeller In The Gilded Age

John D. Rockefeller was the guiding force behind the creation of the Standard Oil Company, which grew to dominate the oil industry. This company was one of the first big trusts in the United States, thus much controversy and opposition arose regarding business strategies and its organization. John D. Rockefeller was also one of the United States first major philanthropists, establishing numerous important foundations and donating close to $600 million to various charities.

At the mere age of 16 he went to work for a firm of farm-produce shippers. A couple of years later, he went into that business for himself. In 1862, he went into business with Samuel Andrews, the inventor of an inexpensive process for the refinement of crude petroleum. By 1870 the company had been superseded then in 1870 Rockefeller and his brother William and several associates took over the business. By the 1880’s the company was one of the largest and richest manufacturing concerns in the world. Rockefeller main concern wasn’t always business he married Laura Celestia Spelman in 1864. They had three daughters Bessie, Edith, and Alta and one son John D. Rockefeller, Jr. In 1862 Rockefeller formed the Standard Oil Trust. This, the first corporate trust, was declared an illegal monopoly and ordered dissolved by the Ohio Supreme Court in 1892. Rockefeller retired as president in 1911. Also in 1911 the company was broken into separate corporations by an antitrust decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. At the peak of Rockefeller’s personal fortune was estimated at almost 1 billion dollars. Rockefeller founded the University of Chicago in 1892. Rockefeller died at the age of 97 on May 23, 1937, in Ormond, Florida. He was buried in Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio.

1.2 million dollars. Now they were opening a second refinery and opened a third firm in New York to handle overseas sales. Although they had high income, the unstable ways of the industry worried Rockefeller. With new discoveries of oil sources, prices were dropping (Krasner). Producers, refiners, manufacturers, brokers, and shippers were all fighting to be on top. Within this chaos, Rockefeller had a brilliant plan. His plan would bring the organization and efficiency that he believed the oil industry needed to survive (Frost). In 1866, he formed the Standard Oil Company.

Robber Barons such as John Davison Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie were a large part of the propelling force that led the United States into a new frontier, setting the standard for the American dream. These men were known for their ingenuity, intuition, and innovation as business men. Each setting a high standard in their field, these men set out to accomplish greatness by revolutionizing their industry. They were known in history as the first men to become giants of the industrialized world, they created a new ear, and with it legacies that have lasted centuries.

In the industrial age, there were these people called the "titans." John D. Rockefeller was considered one of the "titans." Rockefeller wanted to be the richest man in America, however, he was the first billionaire in America (Independence Hall Association, 2015). He was born in Richford, New York in 1839. Rockefeller was the second child and he had five other siblings which were William Rockefeller, Frank Rockefeller, Lucy Rockefeller Briggs, Francis Rockefeller, and Mary Ann Rockefeller (Famous people,2015). He married Laura Celestia Spelman and they had five children. His father, William Avery Rockefeller, was a doctor that thought he could cure cancers. His mother was Eliza Davidson Rockefeller and she was a very religious woman. She taught John how to save and give to charities. He worked for his neighbors and raised turkeys for his mother. By the time he was twelve years old, he had saved $50 dollars, which back then was a lot. The family moved to Owego, New York in 1851 and in 1852 John attended Owego Academy. He was an average student in all other subjects besides Mental Arithmetic. He could solve these problems in his head when most people couldn 't solve them on paper (WGBH Education Foundation, 2015).

In the 1920’s if you were wealthy and had a good reputation and everyone knew of you, you had made it. There were many popular rich families in Long Island sound during the 1920’s, but Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller may be two of the biggest names of that time, and they did not acquire that title very easily. Carnegie and Rockefeller did many things to help this nation advance majorly through Carnegie's steel industry and Rockefeller’s oil refinery’s.

John D. Rockefeller was a man who worked his way to the top almost all on his own and eventually began giving away around half of his company once he became so wealthy. He once was a young man determined to become one of the wealthiest. Started out from the bottom of a company and worked so passionately at what he does to get to where he became rich. He wasn’t interested in oil right away, he sold products during the Civil War to make some cash at first but when he saw a man named Edwin Drake discover oil Rockefeller saw the future all right in front of him. Rockefeller reshaped the oil business with new techniques and ideas and made billions, taking over much smaller companies and adding them to his large empire that he has created for himself.

Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller were two of the Captains of Industry because of their innovations and philanthropy. John D. Rockefeller was a huge philanthropist because he donated a plethora of money to different colleges, and organizations. He donated 75 million dollars to the University of Chicago. He also founded Rockefeller Institute of Medicine ( Rockefeller University), and donated 50 million dollars to that Institute. He also donated to the Rockefeller foundation, which received 235 million dollars.

John D. Rockefeller also started at humble beginnings. By taking risks and investing he found himself engulfed in the rapidly expanding oil industry. Not yet in the business directly he started his own company, The Standard Oil Company of Cleveland. Rockefeller's stake in the oil industry increased as the industry itself expanded caused by the rapidly spreading use of kerosene. The Standard Oil eventually, in a few years, purchased and controlled almost all the refining firms in Cleveland, plus two refineries

John D. Rockefeller owned Standard Oil. He used integration that was both horizontal and vertical in order to obtain control of the oil industry. Standard Oil developed companies that marketed and distributed its products and creations and also bought refineries that were rivals. Standard Oil became a trust given the fact that they forced smaller companies to surrender. During the beginning of Standard Oil, the reason for its success was because of the favorable industry and economic conditions and because of Rockefeller's desire and drive to streamline the company's operations. Even though Standard Oil provided the public with jobs, John D. Rockefeller's impact on this revolution was not too positive. The people and Congress eventually noticed and

By the 1890s things were different. The U.S. economy had shifted from agriculture to industry. (Roskin & Berry, 2010). Three major aspects of industrialization between 1865 and 1920 were railroad expansion, the steel industry, and the oil industry. Several hundred thousand miles of additional railroad tracks were laid throughout the nation largely with the backing and support of the federal government. Four businessmen from New York who headed to California during the gold rush were the developers for the entire West coast railroad expansion. The steel industry played a huge role in getting railroads expanded. In 1872, Businessman Andrew Carnegie opened a steel plant in the United States. Following on an idea he saw on a trip to England, Carnegie chose to use unskilled workers who would work for cheap. By 1900, his steel company was the largest in the world. Much like Andrew Carnegie in the steel industry, the oil industry had John D. Rockefeller. He figured out how to extract, transport to refineries, package, get the oil out to cities and towns, and market the oil. Rockefeller either worked with his competition, or took over their company. His goal was to provide cheap oil and make a ton of money, and so he did. Each of these industry leaders were very shrewd and ruthless businessmen, but they were also geniuses when it came to making money. They were in the company of

Rockefeller started as a bookkeeper and rose to start the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He was the first man to become a billionaire and was in the process of becoming the wealthiest man in the world. Vanderbilt began his career as a deckhand on his father’s ferry boat. He soon saved enough and purchased his own boat and continued his career in the beneficial Hudson River traffic. The profits that he made from this went to investing into railroads, which eventually led him to owning a number of railroads that joined the Grand Central Railroad. Carnegie started his career in the factories at the age of 13. He worked 12 hour days, six days a week. He only made $2 a week, but managed to become a self-made man. He managed to move up in the railroad business from starting out as a telegraph operator. He then turned his attention to the production of iron goods, which led him to starting the billion-dollar industry, Federal Steel Company. Morgan began his career in his father’s bank in London. He moved to America and became the founder of J.P. Morgan & Company. Viewed by others as arrogant and overbearing, Morgan arranged many of the largest financial deals of the Industrial Era, such as the creation of United States Steel.

A fatherless boy with no future, molds America's future and becomes one of the richest men to ever live. “The impression was gaining ground with me that it was a good thing to let the money be my servant and not make myself a slave to the money,” -John D. Rockefeller age 12. John Rockefeller was born on July 8,1839. His father was a con man who was rarely at home and left his family little to no money while he was away. From a young age Rockefeller had to work hard to help support his family. He never suspected he would create one of America’s greatest Monopolies.

In 1855 John D. Rockefeller set out to find a job in the low opportunity area of Cleveland, Ohio where his family had now settled. Rockefeller knew he needed to make an impression and always dressed in a dark suit and black tie when he went to seek employment. Cleveland, at the time, was not a very large city he was able to visit every business seeking a job opportunity, he was persistent in finding work and visited some businesses as many as three times trying to gain employment. His persistence paid off, Rockefeller landed a job as an assistant bookkeeper with Hewitt & Tutle a commodity merchant. Rockefeller was gifted with the ability to be pleasant, persistent, and patient, but always able to make his collections. He excelled while employed there and his business expertise gained him the respect of the community.

Shortly before the Civil War, Rockefeller and a partner established a shipping company in Cleveland, Ohio. The company made much money during the war. In 1863, he and his partner invested in another business that refined crude oil from Pennsylvania into kerosene for illuminating lamps.By 1870, Rockefeller and new partners were operating two oil refineries in Cleveland, then the major oil refining center of the country. The partners incorporated (under a charter issued by the state of Ohio) and called their business the Standard Oil Company.To give Standard Oil an edge over its competitors, Rockefeller secretly arranged for discounted shipping rates from railroads. The railroads carried crude oil to Standard 's refineries in Cleveland