Friday, December 4, 2015
John Rockefeller
Rockefeller started working at the age of 16 as an assistant bookkeeper. Oil production became very popular and he sensed opportunities, so he established an oil refinery. His refinery was known as the Standard Oil Company. The company bought out its rivals and became the most powerful refinery. The various companies became known as the Standard Oil Trust, which controlled refineries and pipelines. Standard Oil built its own barrels and figured out new uses for petroleum. The Anti-Sherman Act was later created by US Congress and forced the Standard Oil to be broken into many individual companies. Like Carnegie, Rockefeller donated money to the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller University. Rockefeller changed the lives of ordinary people because of his emphasis on size and efficiency.
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The reason that the US government wanted to break apart Standard Oil was because they were controlling too much of the oil market and had managed to control some aspects of people's lives as well as parts of the government.
ReplyDeleteRockefeller was a very brilliant and generous man. I liked how you mentioned that he changed the lives of ordinary people and donated a significant amount of money to many schools and organizations. How powerful do you think Rockefeller was?
ReplyDeleteIt's very interesting to learn about the man who became possibly the richest person of all time. He was so successful because he was able to see an opportunity and take it. He knew that oil would be the new fuel for the world, especially cars. It's also nice to see that he donated so much of his money to the now very well known University of Chicago and Rockefeller University.
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