John D Rockefeller Accomplishments

During the Gilded Age, the United States saw an increase in the power of big businesses, many of which monopolized their industries. This time period, although it appeared successful from the outside, was filled with governmental corruption. Manipulated by the robber barons of the Gilded Age, the United States government fell victim to their control. Contrary to this downfall, the nation celebrated much success in the numerous life-changing inventions attributed to this era. With the invention of the internal combustion engine, among others, there also came a major increase in the demand for oil. Entering the flourishing oil business in 1870, John D. Rockefeller created the Standard Oil Company, which later dominated the entire oil industry. Although he had years filled with success in the business, Rockefeller faced a disastrous court case that dissolved his company and years of his hard work. Despite this catastrophic event, Rockefeller found other ways to contribute his knowledge and hard-work by making innumerable philanthropic donations. After many years and countless efforts, John D. Rockefeller had one of the most outstanding and positive influences on the United States through his work in the oil industry and his philanthropic actions.

"John began to keep a ledger, noting every expenditure, large and small. For him, numbers were sacred." After holding a job there for three months, Rockefeller's zealous work was rewarded with fifty dollars' pay, and a raise to twenty five dollars per month. This was a large amount of money during the 1850's, especially for a boy of seventeen. Interestingly, Rockefeller considered this raise unnecessary, "one has a hunch that he was jubilant but feared, out of religious scruples, his own greed." This early experience showed to John D. that hard work, punctuality, and ambition can lead to great profits. He would pursue this ambition throughout his life. His three years of working at Hewitt & Tuttle taught him how a business was run, and he was ready to start his own.

Rockefeller was an American business tycoon. His early life made an impact on him with his father’s odd habits and parenting. His father was a traveling salesman who regularly cheated on his wife; even cheating on her when he was home. His father regularly “ cheated” his children by lying to them. He made the excuse that it would make them strong. John did not let this affect him. He got a job at an early age and used this experience and knowledge to become a business partner. By the end of the year the company had made half a million dollars. He used this money to open an oil refinery. He and a few others created the Standard Oil Company, in 1870. Within two years they had owned a majority of the oil refineries in Cleveland. They, in nearly a decade, had a monopoly on the US oil refinery

John Davison Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York on July 8, 1839. His family moved to Cleveland, Ohio when he was 14. As a teenager, Rockefeller did many small business jobs, getting his first office job at 16 as an assistant bookkeeper at Hewitt and Tuttle, who were merchants and produce shippers. He did well as all of his jobs, so at the age of 20, a business partner and he started working as merchants, selling meats, grains, hay, and other various things. After just one year, that company earned 450,000 dollars. Rockefeller felt there was a good opportunity in the oil business in the early 1860’s. So, he started his own oil refinery in Cleveland in 1863. By 1865, it was the largest refinery in the area.

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.

Born in Richford, New York, on July 8, 1839, John Davison Rockefeller moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of 14. Let the record show him and his family were rather poor, and without the help of his pathetic father he was working at a young age. Unafraid of hard work, he was employed with

Ralph W. Hidey and Muriel E. Hidey disagreed with Josephson. In the book Taking Sides, They believe that John D. Rockefeller and his associates created and applied a system for operating a large integrated industrial enterprise, which was one of the earliest representatives of Big Business. He contributed to the development of American petroleum industry and through it to the growth of the economy.

Rockefeller was obsessed with controlling the oil market and used many of undesirable tactics to flush his competitors out of the market. Rockefeller was also a master of the rebate game. He was one of the most dominant controllers of the railroads. He was so good at the rebate that at some times he skillfully commanded the railroad to pay rebates to his standard oil company on the traffic of other competitors. He was able to do this because his oil traffic was so high that he could make or break a section of a railroad a railroad company by simply not running his oil on their lines. Another one of Rockefellers earlier mentioned but not explained tactics was his horizontally integrated monopoly. Rockefeller used this horizontal monopoly to set prices and force his competitors to merge with him. (All with Doc. J) Document J shows that Rockefeller had his tentacles, or his influence and power around every piece of the oil industry. That, also, includes the politicians and their support.

Some say Rockefeller was a robber baron because he earned his wealth in a bad way. Others say he took risks and knew how to get rid of competition, which was fair in his eyes. He believed that by buying out competition would make oil cheaper for Americans. His method was more efficient, which made it cheaper to produce and cheaper to sell. To me, his method

No wonder that only a handful of people can’t distinguish that this old man was a crock and deserves to rot in hell! With all this positive media attention, the public had been fed lies! In real life, this money hungry, greedy villain is the prime reason why the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed. Rockefeller’s dream was to monopolize the oiling industry, and he so successfully did. Because of his great empire (the Standard Oil Co.)

The Rockefellers feared the temptations of wealth, yet a visitor once described their estate as the kind of place God would have built if only he’d had the money. They amassed a fortune that outraged a Democratic nation, then gave it all away reshaping America. They were the closest thing the country had to a royal family, but the Rockefellers shunned the public eye. For decades, the Rockefeller name was despised in America, associated with John D. Rockefeller Sr.’s feared monopoly, Standard Oil. By the end of his life, Rockefeller had given away half of his fortune. But even his vast philanthropy could not erase the memory of his predatory business practices. Who was Rockefeller? Was he a ruthless businessman who only wanted to

John Davison Rockefeller was the founder of Standard Oil Company in 1870 and ran it until he retired in 1897. Standard Oil gained almost complete control over the oil refining market in the United States by underselling its competitors. Rockefeller and his associates owned dozens of corporations operating in just one state.

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

For two years, Tarbell looked through public records, state and federal reports, and court cases to figure out what Rockefeller’s tactics were when building the Standard Oil Company. Tarbell used this information to write a popular 19-part series called “The History of the Standard Oil Company” that was published between November 1902 and October 1904. Even though she did not like what Rockefeller did, she still managed to mention that

"With reference to the levels and spheres of corporate power discussed in [chapter 3], how did the power of Standard Oil change society? Was this power exercised in keeping with the social contract of Rockefeller's era?"