Rockefeller, though denounced by labor unions and radicals as an oppressor of the workers, gave financial support to a survey by John D. This survey resulted in the Rockefeller plan of industrial relations, a plan of industrial democracy soon put into effect in the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company and, in , in the Standard Oil Company. The occasions on which Mr. Rockefeller answered the charges against him were very few. He followed in the main a policy of "sawing wood and saying nothing.
But I am never a pessimist. I never despair. I believe in man and the brotherhood of man and am confident that everything will come out for the good of all in the end. I have decided to say nothing, hoping that after my death the truth will gradually come to the surface and that posterity will do strict justice. In , at the age of 56, Mr. He retired from this office in , six months after the corporation was ordered to dissolve into its constituent companies.
During the dissolution suit the government filed a list of Standard Oil stockholders, showing that Mr. This was only part of his fortune, as he had enormous holdings in companies outside the oil industry, including stock in most of the trunk line railroads in the United States. One of his talents, in business as in philanthropy, was in selecting good men and letting them alone. His personal nature was little known to the general public, so that it was not generally realized that Mr.
Rockefeller was the forerunner of the modern executive who keeps his desk clear, spends his afternoons on the golf links and delegates detail to subordinates. He believed in conserving his strength. After he was 64 he made it a practice to take a nap of an hour or two after luncheon every day and frequently took three or four afternoons away from his office for golf or puttering around his country estate, laying out roads and paths and planting trees.
He never bustled and never was excited. He used to say that after he had established himself he could hardly be called "diligent in business" in the copybook sense and that he was only a fifth wheel in the Standard Oil organization. Rockefeller took up golf in and played it constantly thereafter.
It was his sole exercise in his later years. When well past 80 he played a good nine holes in 41 to 45, and was delighted when he defeated an opponent or when his side won in a foursome.
On his eighty-second birthday he played a round of golf with his physician and lifelong friend, Dr. Biggar of Cleveland, also 82, and planned a game of golf for his th birthday.
He played the game all the year round on his private links at Pocantico Hills and at Ormond Beach Fla. In his eighties he sometimes played on hot Summer days with an attendant following him around to hold an umbrella over his head to protect him from the sun.
Early in he cut his daily course from eight holes to six at Ormond Beach, remarking that eight holes was too much for a man of 88 and that it was better to play a good game for six holes than to be a dub for eight. Rockefeller attributed his long life to his temperate habits. He never used alcohol or tobacco, ate moderately and exercised daily.
At the time of the eighty-two-year-old golf match Dr. Biggar said that Mr. Rockefeller never took medicine, that he played golf every morning, slept well and ate well of simple and plain foods. He once had indigestion for several years, but got over it. After every meal he remained at the table playing Numerica, a simple puzzle of numbers, with members of his household, to aid his digestion. He went to bed early and got up early. He liked to hear music on rising and retiring, especially old songs and Negro melodies.
In his declining years he liked to play with his grandchildren, whom he taught to save and give like himself. He had birthday parties with frosted candles and enjoyed joining the children in blowing out the flames. Rockefeller wore wigs for many years, having them made by an expert in Washington. He had a special wig for golf, another for church and others for ordinary wear. Rockefeller was much more friendly to strangers in his later years than earlier.
He carried shiny new dimes around by the pocketful and distributed them among girls and boys he found playing in the street and to singers on the ferry between Tarrytown and Nyack, which he often crossed in his automobile. Whereas in former years he had been cold and reticent toward the general public, he surprised reporters and photographers several times in recent years with his friendly and approachable behavior.
He engaged strangers in genial conversation and handed them the inevitable new dimes as souvenirs of the meetings. He apparently cared little for the pomp and circumstance of life. The spotlight did not attract him. He never held public office and he kept off committees.
When he gave money to charity he contented himself with a brief announcement and did not seek applause. It was several years after he founded the Rockefeller Institute before he visited the buildings. When he did visit them he was unheralded and had no official welcome. Neither Mr. Rockefeller nor his wife took much interest in social affairs outside of the circle of their lifelong friends. Rockefeller devoted most of her life to her family, church and Sunday school and charities.
During her last years she was unable to attend church and Mr. Rockefeller brought her notes on the sermons every Sunday. She died at Pocantico Hills in while Mr. Rockefeller was in the South. The Rockefellers had five children, one of whom, Alice, died in infancy. Two other daughters died later in mature life. They were Bessie, who married Charles A. The living children are John D. Aldrich of Rhode Island, and Alta, now Mrs. Parmalee Prentice of New York. Rockefeller, at one time, had five homes.
His town house was at 4 West Fifty-fourth St. The country estate at Pocantico Hills, near Tarrytown, N. He called it Kiikuit--old Dutch for Lookout. It is situated on a hill overlooking the Hudson River and the valleys and hills of Westchester County, and contains 3, acres, with beautiful gardens.
Cleveland, with its proximity to the Pennsylvania oil fields and its excellent transportation network, quickly became the center of petroleum refining. In , Rockefeller and partners opened their own refinery.
In Rockefeller bought out his partners and established a new firm with the chemist Samuel Andrews. In , Flagler convinced Rockefeller to transform the partnership of Rockefeller, Andrews, and Flagler into a corporation named Standard Oil. Standard Oil expanded rapidly, both horizontally by buying up other oil refining companies, and vertically by acquiring oil wells and transportation routes and selling products at the retail level. Standard Oil pursued a monopoly position, pursuing many techniques—such as secret rebates from railroads and predatory pricing—that are today illegal but were not then.
It also invented the trust form of organization in order to circumvent out-of-date incorporation laws. It paid a fair price for the companies it wanted to acquire, often paying in Standard Oil stock and taking in valued executives.
By , Standard Oil controlled 90 percent of the oil business in America. Rockefeller had a clear conscience about how he won his fortune. Believing that, he felt a profound obligation to put the money to good use. By the early s, he was receiving thousands of letters a month asking for help. Rockefeller regularly gathered his family after breakfast to review the merits of the petitions. In these first years of large-scale philanthropy, Rockefeller favored a few causes close to his heart.
He was the single-most generous donor to the northern Baptist conventions, and he underwrote the work of missionaries and relief workers at home and abroad. He also took a deep interest in higher education for African Americans. Wonderful saw that computers and software would end up becoming a booming business in the s , Rockefeller saw that refined oil in the form of kerosene would explode going into the s. Rockefeller had no prior experience in oil manufacturing before starting Standard Oil.
Most entrepreneurs teach themselves how to do things by taking action, not by studying. If Rockefeller waited to learn more about the oil industry before starting, he may have missed his opportunity. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them, John D.
Rockefeller has definitely achieved greatness, he was a super genius person. Apple Podcasts icon. This is a placeholder for your sticky navigation bar.
It should not be visible. Standard Oil Co. Rockefeller Children Source Hudson Valley. Like this: Like Loading In fact, when the Rockefeller family sought to petition ExxonMobil's current management to make some changes in how it operates beginning in , 73 of 78 adult direct descendants of John D. Rockefeller led the charge. These direct descendants are almost certainly wealthier than their cousins, as evidenced by the fact that David Rockefeller, the oldest living member of the family, and its founder's grandson, is the only Rockefeller still found on Forbes ' list of the richest Americans.
Rockefeller Sr. The sheer number of Rockefeller descendants clearly makes pegging the actual wealth of the family extremely difficult, if not impossible; with it mired in hundreds of trusts and real estate holdings including, in the past, the World Trade Center and Rockefeller Center , we can merely guess. From there, for its " America's 25 Richest Families " list, Forbes has to make some guesses about the value of those innumerable trusts that all the younger generations lay claim to.
The result? This may seem high, especially in light of the above Journal quote, but make no mistake: The Rockefeller family is still a force to be reckoned with. A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology.
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