JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
1839–1937
American industrialist John D. Rockefeller made a fortune from refining oil—his Standard Oil Company became one of the largest and most successful businesses in history. It gained such a monopoly that it led to the passing of antitrust laws at the end of the 19th century.
Born in New York in 1839, John Davison Rockefeller was a hard worker from the start, with a single-minded focus on wealth. Some attribute this to his troubled upbringing; his father was a traveling salesman, swindler, and bigamist, and the family lived in poverty. From a young age, Rockefeller started making money ...
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