The Dominance of Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller was an American industrialist and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company. It dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust in Cleveland, Ohio. Standard Oil gained almost complete control of oil refining and marketing in the United States through horizontal integration. Rockefeller’s wealth soared, and he became the world’s richest man and the first American to be worth more than a billion dollars. Rockefeller also founded The University of Chicago and Rockefeller University. The General Education Board was used primarily to support higher education and medical schools in The United States. He donated his money to churches and provided major funding for a college in Atlanta for African-American women, which became Spelman College. It helped rural white and black schools in the south, as well as modernize farming practices. His foundations pioneered the development of medical research, and were very useful. He was one of the great humanitarians of the 20th Century.