A Visit to Mr. John D. Rockefeller by Neighbors & Friends at Forest Hill.

ROCKEFELLER, John D.

Item Number: 51026

Cleveland: Vinson & Korner Co, 1905.

Octavo, original boards. Signed by John D. Rockefeller beneath his frontispiece. One of 425 numbered copies, this is number 396. The work commemorates the day John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil, was visited by 300 Cleveland businessmen outside his home. Included are 38 pages of the speeches delivered that day, including ones given by Liberty E. Holden and Andrew Squire, and the speech given by Rockefeller in response. In very good condition, rebacked. Rare and desirable.

John D. Rockefeller was an American oil industry business magnate and philanthropist. Widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history, Rockefeller was born into a large family in upstate New York and was shaped by his con man father and religious mother. His family moved several times before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. Rockefeller became an assistant bookkeeper at the age of 16, and went into a business partnership with Maurice B. Clark and his brothers at 20. After buying them out, he and his brother William founded Rockefeller & Andrews with Samuel Andrews. Instead of drilling for oil, he concentrated on refining. In 1867, Henry Flagler entered the partnership. The Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler company grew by incorporating local refineries. Rockefeller formally founded the Standard Oil Company, Inc. in 1870 as an Ohio partnership with his brother, Henry Flagler, Jabez A. Bostwick, Samuel Andrews and a silent partner, Stephen V. Harkness. He ran it until 1897. As kerosene and gasoline grew in importance, Rockefeller's wealth soared and he became the richest person in the country, controlling 90% of all oil in the United States at his peak. Oil was used throughout the country as a light source until the introduction of electricity and as a fuel after the invention of the automobile. Furthermore, Rockefeller gained enormous influence over the railroad industry, which transported his oil around the country. Standard Oil was the first great business trust in the United States. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry, and along with other key contemporary industrialists such as steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, defined the structure of modern philanthropy.