Long Island Sound In The 1920's

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.

From the years 1870-1937 John D. Rockefeller was a Captain of Industry and truly was an example of the idyllic American dream. He by his success as a Captain of Industry also set a precedent from then on about the way that other Captains of Industries made their wealth and ran their companies as well. Furthermore, John D. Rockefeller was a Captain of Industry because he built the Standard Oil Company and was a very generous philanthropist. John D. Rockefeller did generate lots of revenue and create many jobs in the United States but it also can be said that he took advantage of the less fortunate by paying them less and buying out competing businesses.

     True, Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller may have been the most influential businessmen of the 19th century, but was the way they conducted business proper? To fully answer this question, we must look at the following: First understand how Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller changed the market of their industries. Second, look at the similarities and differences in how both men achieved domination. Third and lastly, Look at how both men treated their workers and customers in order achieve the most possible profit for their company.

Two of the most well-known and successful companies of the Industrial Revolution were the Standard Oil Company, and the Carnegie Steel Company. Both were exceedingly successful in virtually removing all competition in their respective fields of business and controlling almost all of the production capacity of their respective products in the United States. Their founders, John D. Rockefeller of the Standard Oil Co., and Andrew Carnegie of the Carnegie Steel Co. conducted business practices that were different from one another in how they dealt with competition as seen in the undercutting or cheap type

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.

He holds little as important as this day. The reason that I say that he is smart about how he went about becoming the oil tycoon is because he essentially gave it his all. His first oil refinery that was built was built to very impeccable standards unlike others of that time. Many people thought that the oil craze was something that will rise and fall real quick. Even though John D. was faced with this possibility he still was very careful about where he built his plant and about how the waste from it was disposed. He also had good working relationships with his employees and his partners. He also was able to talk an owner of a railroad company into allowing him to ship his oil for almost a dollar cheaper per barrel than the others. And then he sought to buy out all the other companies by either offering them cash or offering them stock in the company. Eventually all these little oil companies sold out to him and he founded Standard Oil Company (John D and his partners).

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.

A "robber baron" was someone who employed any means necessary to enrich themselves at the expense of their competitors. Did John D. Rockefeller fall into that category or was he one of the "captains of industry", whose shrewd and innovative leadership brought order out of industrial chaos and generated great fortunes that enriched the public welfare through the workings of various philanthropic agencies that these leaders established? In the early 1860s Rockefeller was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, who came to epitomize both the success and excess of corporate capitalism. His company was based in northwestern Pennsylvania.

Rockefeller was an intelligent man who sought for better means in order to increase productivity. He used the opportunities of the time to take advantage of a free system. One of his best characteristics was that he lowered the cost of oil across the word by his largest scale production. To see that his oil was top quality at minimum cost he also hired specialist managers, this was a revolutionary concept at the time.

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.

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

These four men created hundreds of thousands of jobs for those who were looking to provide for their families and rebuild their lives after the Civil War. Vanderbilt specialized in railroads and transportation. Rockefeller specialized in oil and kerosene. Carnegie specialized in Steel, and Morgan specialized in banking and electricity. These men helped pick the nation back up off it’s feet, and pushed us towards industrialization, picking that industry and economic category back up off it’s feet and leaving dreams in the hearts of many

The Standard Oil Trust of Ohio was and American oil producing, refining, and transporting company. It was founded in 1863 by John D. Rockefeller and lasted until 1911. During 1868, Rockefeller expanded the oil company to become the largest oil refining company in the world. In 1870, the company was renamed Standard Oil Company. After it was renamed, Rockefeller purchased most of the oil companies that were currently in business to make one large company.

At the end of the nineteenth century began an era of industrialization that created an economic upturn called the gilded age. Hallmarks of this age were technological advances, banking innovations, and wealth concentrations. Railroad construction, advances in steel production, and electrical innovation drove industrial and economic growth. Emerging from this upheaval were a gaggle of industrial big wigs: John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie. These three represented an unholy alliance with government and big business that left smaller