Essay on Civil War

Submitted By cody2856
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Pages: 3
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John D. Rockefeller was born July 8, 1839, in Richford, New York. His father was a "doctor" who claimed he could cure cancers and charged up to $25 a treatment. His mother was an extremely religious and very disciplined woman. She taught John how to work, how to save, and how to donate to charities. By the age of 12, he had saved over $50 from working for neighbors and raising turkeys for his mother in the meantime. At the urging of his mother, he made his first loan to a local farmer at $50 with 7% interest to be paid back in one years’ time. When the farmer paid him back with the interest; Rockefeller was impressed and in 1904 said: "The impression was gaining ground with me that it was a good thing to let the money be my servant and not make myself a slave to the money…" (Youth)
From 1852 Rockefeller attended Owego Academy in New York where his family had moved in the year 1851. Rockefeller was excellent at mental arithmetic and could solve difficult arithmetic problems in his head. In other subjects Rockefeller was an ok student, but the quality of education, and obvious amount of intelligence, was astronomical.(Youth)
The Rockefellers moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and John attended high school from 1853 to 1855. He was great at math and was on the debate team. His school encouraged public speaking and it was a skill that would be extremely useful for him later in life. Rockefeller established his own commission firm in 1859, with a partner. The same year, 1859, America’s very first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania; and in 1863, Rockefeller and several partners entered the booming new oil industry by investing in a Cleveland, Ohio refinery. Then in 1864, Rockefeller married Laura Spelman. The newlywed Rockefellers went on to have four daughters and one son. (John D. Rockefeller, 1839-1937.)
In 1865, John Rockefeller borrowed some money to buy out his partners and take complete and total control of the refinery, which had become the largest Oil refinery in Cleveland. Over a few more years, he acquired new partners and expanded his business into the growing industry. At the time kerosene, used in lamps, was becoming an economic necessity. In 1870, Rockefeller formed the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, along a group of other men as well, although John Rockefeller was the president and largest shareholder.( John D. Rockefeller) Standard Oil became a huge monopoly in the oil industry, by buying rival refineries and developing companies for distributing and marketing its products around the globe. In 1882, these various companies were combined into the Standard Oil Trust, In order to exploit economies of scale, Standard Oil did everything from build its own oil barrels to employ scientists to figure out new uses for petroleum by-products. Rockefeller’s enormous wealth and success made him a target of muckraking journalists, reform politicians and others who viewed him as a symbol of corporate greed
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