John D Rockefeller Research Paper

John D. Rockefeller, Sr. John Davidson Rockefeller, one of the richest men of his time, was the head of a very successful company, the Standard Oil Company. Born on July 8, 1839, in Richford, New York, Rockefeller built his first oil refinery near Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1870 founded the Standard Oil Company. He had a near-monopoly of the oil business in the U.S. by 1882, but his business practices led to antimonopoly laws. In his later years, Rockefeller gave himself to philanthropy. He died May 23, 1937 at Ormond Beach, Florida and was buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. Even in his early years, Rockefeller was industrious. The soon-to-be oil industry magnate earned his money by raising turkeys, performing odd jobs for neighbors,

Over the next few years, he joined up with new partners and expanded his business interest into the ever-expanding oil industry. In 1870, Rockefeller formed the Standard Oil Company of Ohio with his partners Henry Flagler, his younger brother William, and a group of other men. Rockefeller was the president of this group and the largest shareholder. By the early 1880s, less than 20 years after entering the oil industry, Rockefeller dominated the oil industry within the country and his company had a net worth of $55 million. Under Rockefeller’s leadership, the company created a system of pipelines to ship its product. It owned train cars, and scooped up thousands of acres of trees and forest for fuel. By this time the rival refineries of his were absorbed by him and formed the Standard Oil Trust, which controlled 90% of the nation’s pipelines and refineries. But Rockefeller’s enormous wealth and success made him a target of muckraking journalists, reform politicians, and many others who saw him as a symbol of corporate greed and criticized his methods with which he had built his empire. This led to the passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act in

Inspired by the owner of Gilded Age tycoon, Andrew Carnegie, who made a large fortune in the steel industry and afterwards becoming a philanthropist and gave away most of his money, more than half a billion dollars, Rockefeller then turned towards philanthropic endeavors, which did little to stop the attacks on him and his past business. In 1911 the Standard Oil Company was found to be in violation of the Sherman Act and was shut down. Rockefeller gave his money to various educational, religious, and scientific causes including the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, or today known as Rockefeller University, as well as the Rockefeller Foundation. He had five children with his wife, Laura, one son and four daughters, but one of his daughters died in infancy. Her name was Alice. Rockefeller was an amazing golfer, a temperance advocate, and devoutly religious. HIs goal as a retired man was to reach 100 years of age; however, he was three years short and passed away at 97 on May 23, 1937, at his winter home, the Casements, at Ormond Beach, Florida, though before he died, he owned several residences, including a house in New York City, an estate called Kykuit (old Dutch for lookout) which was set on 3000 acres near Tarrytown, New York, and an estate in Lakewood, New Jersey. He was buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland,