John D. Rockefeller: Creator of an Industry

In the past when computer technology did not exist the most powerful and richest men in the world did not owe their fortunes to software development or creation of new technologies; their riches were made through commodities such as gold, silver, diamonds, and oil. John D. Rockefeller was just one of these many men. Rockefeller was the controlling force behind the creation and development of the Standard Oil Company, which grew to dominate the oil industry, becoming one of the first big trusts in the United States. This paper will examine Rockefeller's creation of a new industry. As a cautious, precise and imaginative person, who had the courage to see a plan through to completion regardless of the cost, John D. Rockefeller was the captain of his industry, promoting the capitalist mentality of competition and domination.

John D. Rockefeller was born on a farm at Richford, in Tioga County, New York, on July 8, 1839, the second of the six children of William A.

and Eliza (Davison) Rockefeller. William Rockefeller was a traveling salesman, and as such, was often absent from the home. John D. Rockefeller's mother essentially raised the family on her own and managed their holdings, never knowing that her husband, under the name of Dr. William Levingston, had a second wife in New York (Ogle-Mater). The family lived in modest circumstances and when little John was a boy, the family moved to Moravia and later to Owego, New York, before going west to Ohio in 1853. The Rockefellers bought a house in Strongsville, near Cleveland, and John entered Central High School in Cleveland (Rockefeller Family & Associates).

He left high school in 1855 at the age of 16 to take a business course at Folsom Mercantile College. He completed the...