John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839 to a very poor family.  His father was a con man, and did not earn very much, or even any, money.  Rockefeller was very embarrassed of his father and vowed to never be like him.  In 1853 he moved from New York to Cleveland to start a business.  He decided to focus his business on refining oil, and he opened his first refinery in 1853.  This refinery soon became the largest and most efficient in the country, which he called Standard Oil.  By the 1890s Standard oil was making millions from kerosene, a product of refining oil.  The invention of cars, planes, and ships also helped his business because they all ran on oil.  Rockefeller had so much power that when other refineries tried to compete with him, he would either force them to join with him, or run them out of business.  He wanted to be the only refinery, and at the peak of his power, he controlled 1/3 of the oil cells in the U.S.  Rockefeller did use some of his power to help people, by giving his money back to society, especially schools.  Rockefeller even established the Rockefeller institute.  His power did not last forever, though, because Roosevelt eventually broke up standard oil into 32 different companies to get rid of his monopoly on the market.