John D.: A Portrait in Oils"No Help Wanted" signs decorated the doors of Cleveland storekeepers and merchants in early September, 1855, when sixteen-year-old John Rockefeller set out to seek employment for his budding talents. It was a hard year in the West. For days and weeks the youth tramped the streets, grave, self-centered, tenacious in his quest. -from "A Pious Youth Gets a Flying Start" What was the world's first billionaire really like? This highly entertaining work, by an acclaimed business biographer, seeks to explode the "shadowy myth" of John D. Rockefeller and reveal the "rare and astonishing personality" behind it. From his humble roots in Ohio, where he learned thrift and industry as the bookkeeper of a dockside warehouse, to the death threats this "modern Machiavelli" received during the early years of Standard Oil, to his ascendancy to the rank of "the most detested man in the country"-when churches refused his donations as tainted money-and his subsequent formation of the philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation, this is a knowingly ironic and subtly witty work of biography. JOHN K. WINKLER is also the author of W.R. Hearst: An American Phenomenon (1928) and Morgan the Magnificent, or The Life of J. Pierpont Morgan (1930). |
Contents
| 11 | |
A PIOUS YOUTH GETS A FLYING START | 34 |
A GODLY YOUNG MAN STRIKES OIL | 58 |
A REFINER MARCHES TOWARD MONOPOLY | 80 |
A BUSINESS GENIUS MAKES THE WORLD PAY TRIBUTE | 102 |
THE MALEVOLENT TRUSTRAKING IN A BILLION | 127 |
THE BENEVOLENT TRUSTLADLING OUT THE BILLION | 153 |
JOHN D Jr A CHARACTER SKETCH | 180 |
JOHN D III THE CLANS FUTURE CHIEF TAIN AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT | 209 |
JOHN D AT NINETY | 223 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
26 Broadway Amasa Stone Andrews and Flagler Archbold asked associates Baptist barrels became cash Central cents Charles Pratt church Clark and Rockefeller Cleveland Court dimes Doc Rockefeller dollars Erie eyes father favorite feller Frank Rockefeller Gardner Gates golf Grandpop hand Harkness Henry Henry Flagler Hewitt and Tuttle hundred interest Jersey Standard John D.'s John Rockefeller junior Rockefeller Kijkuit Landis later Laura Celestia Spelman Ledger looked ment millions months mother never night Ohio Oil King Oil Regions organization paid pany Pennsylvania petroleum pipe line plant play Pocantico Pratt president Princeton profits railroads rebate refiners refinery rivals Rocke Rockefeller and Flagler Rockefeller's Samuel Andrews says John shares ship South Improvement Company Spelman Standard Oil Company Street Strongsville Sunday school tion trust Vanderbilt Warden wealth William Avery Rockefeller William Rockefeller York young Rockefeller
Popular passages
Page 15 - I cheat my boys every chance I get, I want to make 'em sharp. I trade with the boys and skin 'em and I just beat 'em every time I can. I want to make 'em sharp.
Page 15 - To my father I owe a great debt in that he himself trained me to practical ways. He was engaged in different enterprises; he used to tell me about these things, explaining their significance; and he taught me the principles and methods of business.