Rockefeller: Captain of Industry or Predatory Thief?.
In a time when computer technology still did not exist the most powerful men in the world did not owe their fortunes to software development; their riches were made through commodities such as gold, diamonds, and oil. John D. Rockefeller was just one of these many men, yet the accomplishments he achieved in his lifetime surpassed the sum of them all. Rockefeller was the guiding 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 shall examine Rockefeller's career and show the key qualities that made him so spectacularly successful. 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. It is this viewpoint which helped guide America into periods of economic prosper and stability.
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. The family lived in modest circumstances. When he 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. While he was a student he rented a room in the city and joined the Erie Street Baptist Church. Active in its affairs, he became a trustee of the church at the age of 21. He left high school in 1855 at the age of 16 to take a business course at Folsom Mercantile College. He completed the six-month course in three months and, after looking for a job for six weeks, was employed as assistant bookkeeper by Hewitt & Tuttle, a small firm of commission merchants and produce shippers.
