JDRTS

John Davison Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839, and was the second of six children born to William Avery Rockefeller and Eliza Davison. His father was a businessman and sold botanic elixirs. His mother was a homemaker and a devout Baptist. He achieved his first job as an assistant bookkeeper when he was sixteen. This rags to riches story was a compelling one with further research. But the short version is that he was the son of a vagabond who made it as a bookkeeper with his own commission, raising $4,000 in capital with his partner [|Maurice B. Clark]. After the wholesale foodstuffs, the partners built an oil refinery. At the time, the oil business was completely undeveloped and whale oil was too expensive for the masses, as a cheaper, all-purpose oil lighting fuel was in demand. By the end of the [|Civil War], the oil business was booming faster than ever before. In June of 1870, J.D. Rockefeller formed the [|Standard Oil of Ohio], which became the most profitable oil refinery in Ohio. It eventually grew to become the largest shipper of oil and kerosine in the country. After a boycott of the railroad companies for sharp increase of shipping prices, Rockefeller continued his agenda of buying competing oil companies. in 1872, Rockefeller bought out 22 out of 26 of rival Cleveland competitors. This was known as the Cleveland Conquest. By the end of the 1870s, Standard Oil of Ohio was refining over 90% of the United States' oil, and Rockefeller was a millionaire. He continued his conquest for another sixty years until he died May 23, 1937, two months short of his 98th birthday.