rived to be the best in the railroads now. Vanderbilt established many railway systems during his railroad career maybe his most famous was that of the one that connected New York and Chicago in a direct rail route in 1873. At the time of Vanderbilt’s death in 1877 he was worth over 100 million dollars the most at that time.Another questionable hard workingman is that of John Davison Rockefeller. Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York, on July 8,1839. He was the second of six children. Rockefeller as a young boy moved from there to Cleveland, Ohio where he was educated in public schools. At the mere age of 16 he went to work for a firm of farm-produce shippers. A couple of years later, he went into that business for himself. In 1862, he went into business with Samuel Andrews, the inventor of an inexpensive process for the refinement of crude petroleum. By 1870 the company had been superseded then in 1870 Rockefeller and his brother William and several associates took over the business. By the 1880’s the company was one of the largest and richest manufacturing concerns in the world. Rockefeller main concern wasn’t always business he married Laura Celestia Spelman in 1864. They had three daughters Bessie, Edith, and Alta and one son John D. Rockefeller, Jr. In 1862 Rockefeller formed the Standard Oil Trust. This, the first corporate trust, was declared an illegal monopoly and ordered dissolved by the Ohio Supreme Court in 1892. Rockefeller retired as president in 1911. Also in 1911 the company was broken into separate corporations by an antitrust decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. At the peak of Rockefeller’s personal fortune was estimated at almost 1 billion dollars. Rockefeller founded the University of Chicago in 1892. Rockefeller died at the age of 97 on May 23, 1937, in Ormond, Florida. He was buried in Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio.When you hear the word “Ford” more ...
