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John D. Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839.
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As a child, his family was very poor. He sold candy as a way to earn money for food.
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At the age of 16, while John was in High School, he was an office clerk in Cleveland. When he started the job on September 26, he considered it an "entrance into the business world." In this job, he gained many skills that an entrepreneur would have
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In 1863, Rockefeller and M.B. Clark opened the first refinery in Cleveland, Ohio. They had no idea what was in store for them.
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In 1864, John got married to Laura Spelman. Laura was from Ohio and her father was an abolitionist in the Civil War.
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Rockefeller knew Kerosene had a bad reputation. In 1870, he formed the Standard Oil Company, and it was an oil that America could trust. It became the largest producer of refined Kerosene in America.
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At the age of 33 years old, Rockefeller was the first American to have a monopoly. He owned 90% of the North American Oil Supply
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After his monopoly, he realized that he is paying Vanderbilt to ship his oil. Rockefeller figured out that he is losing money from that, so he decides to make his own pipelines that his oil travels in. The pipelines are over 4,000 miles long.
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Durning the Depression, Rockefeller knew what to do. He knew his competitors were broke, so he bought all the bankrupt companies at cheap prices.
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The panic triggered the 1st major depression. 1/3 of the countries 360 railroad companies have gone broke. America was so low, the stock exchange shut down for 10 whole days. Many workers were left jobless and hopeless.
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Tom Scott and Andrew Carnegie decide to build their own pipelines. This gets to Rockefeller and he looks at it as "Scott is invading his field", so he shuts down the pipelines that lead to Pittsburgh. Tome Scott loses a great amount of money.
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Tom Scott lost money after he built the pipelines. Therefore, he had to lay off many workers and cut wages. Scott's workers caught his train yards on fire. 39 buildings and 1200 cars were destroyed.
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In 1877, Cornelius Vanderbilt passes away. Even though Vanderbilt gave everything to his son, Rockefeller knew his competition wasn't as strong now. Rockefeller was still very competitive and did not like losing.
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Morgan and Edison officially create the light bulb. Rockefeller's kerosene is not needed anymore for lighting.
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Rockefeller passed away on May 23, 1937 and he was 97 years old. His net worth was $150,000,000 - or $225,000,000,000 in today's money.
