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John Davison Rockefeller (1839-1937) by Quentin Duroy

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John D. (as he used to sign his essays in high school) was born on july 8, 1839 in Richford, New York. He was the second of six children and the first son of Eliza Davison and William Avery Rockefeller, whose ancestors came from Germany in the 1720s. William (or Big Bill) was not a model father for John D. In 1849, he was indicted for rape; as a result, in all likelihood, the family left Richford for Owego, NY to avoid the trial. Big Bill was a mix of businessman and charlatan: he could speculate on land as well as cure cancer (as he claimed). He also led a double life; under the name of Dr Levingston, he married another woman (while still married to Eliza) in 1855. Big Bill certainly did not teach rules of moral to John D.; however, he taught him the rules "that govern all transactions involving money." Eliza raised young John D. in the protestant ethic of hard work and worship; his devotion to the church came from his mother and certainly influenced the charity he showed all his life.

The Rockefellers moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1853, where John D. attended Central High School as a boarder. He was a quiet, but determined student and did not make many friends among the children of Cleveland's elite of whom the school comprised. He graduated in 1855 and on September 26, 1855 started to work. He married Laura Celestia Spelman, whom he met in high school, on September 8, 1864. They had five children; four daughters: Elizabeth, Alice, Alta, and Edith; and one son: John D.,Jr who later became the heir of the empire. In 1883, the family moved to New York City.

John D., Sr was an implacable businessman with delusions of grandeur. He accumulated an extraordinary wealth that he partially redistributed through philantropic deeds. After his retirement in 1897, he endowed major philantropic institutions: the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in NYC (1901), the Rockefeller Foundation (1913), etc. After living a long, full and controversial life, he died on May 23, 1937 in Ormond Beach, Florida. He has been the founding father of a dynasty whose members attended the most prestigious schools in the country and held the highest duties (Nelson A. Rockefeller, son of John D., Jr, served as vice-president under Gerald Ford).

Standard Oil

John D. and the University of Chicago

Bibliography

Links from the internet:

The Rockefeller Family bibilography

John D. Rockefeller Page

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