John D. Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839. His family was originally immigrants. John D. Rockefeller had six siblings, one older sibling who was his brother and 5 younger siblings. John Rockefeller had two parents, William Rockefeller and Eliza Davison. John’s brother got his name from his dad, William, and John got his middle name from his mom, Davison.
At the age of sixteen, John had his first job. John’s first job was an assistant bookkeeper at a small commission firm called Hewitt & Tuttle. His paycheck for his first three months working at Hewitt and Tuttle, he earned 50 dollars which amounts to 50 cents a day.
Rockefeller was not originally in the oil business. He eventually joined with his business partner, Maurice B. Clark, in 1859. In 1863, the two partners built their own oil refinery. By February of 1865, Rockefeller bought out his first business for $72,500. Soon after he did this, Rockefeller said, “It was the day that determined my career.”
Rockefeller eventually had his own business called Standard Oil, which he started in June, of 1870. He then rapidly went on to the be the most successful and wealthiest oil refiner in Ohio. However, that wasn’t enough for John D. Rockefeller. Standard Oil was soon a national business, becoming bigger and bigger each day.
However, there came a point when Rockefeller’s company, Standard Oil, was the only Oil company because he had either drove his competitors out of business, or he bought them out. This meant that his company was the first and last monopoly. Rockefeller has now been retired since 1897.