John Davison Rockefeller, Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American industrialist who played a prominent role in the early oil industry with the founding of Standard Oil (ExxonMobil is the largest of its descendants). Over a forty-year period, Rockefeller built Standard Oil into the largest company in the world, and was for a time the richest man in the world, between 1910 and 1937. Top 10 Richest Men Of All Time His business career was controversial; he was accused of being a monopolist and was bitterly attacked by investigative journalists. However, he spent his last forty years primarily focused on philanthropic pursuits, including education and public health, eventually giving away about half of his wealth; and by the time he died his reputation was quite benign. He was a devout Northern Baptist and supported many church activities throughout his life.

Early life

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Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York, second of six children to William Avery Rockefeller (November 13, 1810 - May 11, 1906) and Eliza Davison (September 12, 1813 - March 28, 1889). It was originally thought that the Rockefeller family traces its origins to Limousin, France, where its name was spelled 'Rochefeuille'. However more recent work by genealogists has refuted this claim and traced his line back to Germany in the 1600s Chernow, R: "Titan : The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.", page 10. Vintage, 2004. William was a traveling salesmen* of dubious products, such as "cancer cures," a philanderer and bigamist. (*See, however, NY Times detailed obituary crediting father Rockefeller as being a doctor and farmer.) As he was frequently gone for extended periods, Eliza struggled to maintain a semblance of stability at home. Young Rockefeller's contemporaries described him as articulate, methodical, and discreet (Chernow 1998). When he was a boy, his family moved to western New York from Richford to Moravia and, in 1851, to Owego, where he attended Owego Academy. In 1853 his family bought a house in Strongsville, OH, a suburb near Cleveland, Ohio. At fifteen, John entered Central High School in Cleveland. He and his brother, William, lived in a house near their school. John joined the Erie Street Baptist Church, which later became the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, where he became a deacon at the age of nineteen and a trustee at the age of 21. He left high school in 1855 to take a business course at Folsom Mercantile College, completing the six-month course in three months.

After six weeks of looking for a job, the 16-year-old Rockefeller finally found employment as an apprentice bookkeeper at Hewitt & Tuttle, commission merchants and produce shippers, for 50 cents a day. His seriousness, diligence, and honesty led to steadily increasing responsibilities and pay over the next two years. Nevertheless, Rockefeller reached the point where he felt he was no longer getting paid according to his contribution and, in 1859, left to form his own produce commission business with a partner, Maurice Clark. Clark & Rockefeller quickly became a successful firm, and its partners accumulated enough capital to invest in other Cleveland businesses. In 1863, they invested in an oil refinery with chemist Samuel Andrews.

Rockefeller married Laura Celestia ("Cettie") Spelman (September 22,1839-March 12,1915), on September 8, 1864 in Cleveland. The couple had four daughters and a son, John Jr. The eldest daughter, Bessie (1866-1906), married Charles Strong, a philosopher. The second daughter, Alice (1869-1870), died in infancy. Alta (1871-1962), married E. Parmalee Prentice, a lawyer. The youngest daughter, Edith (1872-1932), married Harold Fowler McCormick, a friend of John, Jr., and son of Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the mechanical harvesting reaper. His only son, John D., Jr. (1874-1960), married Abbie Aldrich, the daughter of Nelson W. Aldrich, the most powerful leader in the United States Senate, and eventually inherited much of the family fortune and continued his father's philanthropic work.

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