John D. Rockefeller - Research Paper Example

She also accommodated with her husband’s philandering and double life, which included bigamy.   Young Rockefeller did his share of the regular household chores, and earned extra money raising turkeys, selling potatoes and candy, and eventually loaning small sums of money to neighbors. In spite of his father’s absences and frequent family moves, young Rockefeller was a polite, sober and diligent boy. His colleagues described him as reserved, serious, pious, logical, and prudent. He was a brilliant debater, and expressed himself appropriately.

When he was a boy, his family moved to Moravia, New York and, in 1851, to Owego, where he attended Owego Academy. In 1853, his family moved to Strongsville. Rockefeller attended Clevelands Central High School and then took a ten week business course at Folsoms Commercial College where he studied bookkeeping.  Rockefeller became member of the then-new Republican Party, and a follower of Abraham Lincoln and the party’s abolitionist wing. A devout Baptist, Rockefeller turned his attention increasingly during the 1890s to charities and benevolence; after 1897 he devoted himself completely to philanthropy.

He was a faithful congregant of the Erie Street Baptist Mission Church, where he taught Sunday school, and served as a trustee, clerk, and occasional janitor. Religion was a main force all his life, and Rockefeller believed it to be the source of his success. In 1859, at age nineteen, he started his first company, Clark and Rockefeller. It was a joint venture with an Englishman, Clark. Clark did the outdoor tasks while Rockefeller controlled office management, bookkeeping, and relationships with bankers.

The firm prospered during the Civil War. With the Pennsylvania oil strike in 1859 and the building of a railroad to Cleveland, they branched out into oil refining with Samuel Andrews, who had knowledge of the field. Within two years Rockefeller became senior partner; Clark was