Rockefeller

Question 1

Young Rockefeller Job Search

Answer 1

August of 1855. Left to apply for work each morning at 8 o clock 6 days a week for 6 weeks.

Question 2

Job Day

Answer 2

September 26 1855, hired at Hewitt and Tuttle

Question 3

Panic of 1857

Answer 3

Ostensibly caused by end of Crimean War in 1856 reducing demand for American wheat. End of decade of railroad securities and land speculation.

Question 4

Clark and Rockefeller begins

Answer 4

1858 after Hewitt spurned increasing his salary. Raised $2,000 of capital to start a firm to buy and sell produce (about $45k today).

Question 5

32 River Street

Answer 5

Headquarters for Clark and Rockefeller

Question 6

1850s whale fisheries

Answer 6

Failed to keep up with demand for whale oil. Only rich could afford to light their lamps.

Question 7

1889 (Watson)

Answer 7

Ohio attorney general David K Watson finds Standard Oil trust agreement in the appendix of a book and files suit for violating Ohio law by having transferred ownership to out-of-state trustees in New York.

Question 8

March 2 1892 (ohio supreme court)

Answer 8

Watson wins victory when Ohio Supreme Court says Standard Oil is controlled by trustees at 26 Broadway and had to renounce the trust agreement.

Question 9

March 10, 1892

Answer 9

Standard Oil of Ohio trust dissolved. Repurposed in New Jersey using their state law that allows resident corps to hold stock in other corporations. Executive Committee dissolved and each member instead became a President of one of 20 different affiliated companies.

Question 10

1893 Panic

Answer 10

June 1893 stock-market crash followed by failure of Erie and Northern Pacific Railroads. 600 banks closed by early 1894. Mass unemployment and violent strikes.

Question 11

August 1895 (Mellon)

Answer 11

Having borrowed heavily against their Pittsburgh real estate, the Mellons are forced to sell Rockefeller their Crescent Pipe Line Company. 14,000 acres and 135 producing oil wells.

Question 12

James Stillman

Answer 12

National City Bank director.

Question 13

August 28, 1859

Answer 13

Drake finds oil in Titusville after erecting oil well based on technology from salt wells.

Question 14

1863 (refining)

Answer 14

Rockefeller pledges $4,000 for half the working capital to start a refining business called Andrews, Clark, and Co with Samuel Andrews, an English chemist who knew how to refine.

Question 15

sulfuric acid byproduct

Answer 15

Since a residue of sulfuric acid remained after refining, Rockefeller drew up plans to convert it to fertilizer.

Question 16

February 1865 (clark partnership)

Answer 16

Rockefeller gets the Clarks to ask for a dissolution then rushes to post a notice in the paper, after having secured financing beforehand. He purchases their interest the next day at an auction and creates Rockefeller and Andrews.

Question 17

After civil war

Answer 17

The triumph of the north meant the ascendancy of urbanization, immigration, industrial capitalism, and wage labor over an agrarian southern economy doomed to stagnate for decades. The war markedly accelerated the timetable of econoic development, promoting the growth of factories, mills, and railroads. By stimulating technological innovation and standardized products, it ushered in a more regimented economy. (98)

Question 18

Postwar kerosene growth

Answer 18

The war had stimulated growth in the use of kerosene by cutting off the suplly of southern turpentine, which had yielded a rival illuminant called camphene. The war had also disrupted the whaling industry and led to a doubling of whale oil prices. Moving into the vacuum, kerosene emerged as an economic staple and was primed for a furious postwar boom.

Question 19

December 1865 (refinery)

Answer 19

Rockefeller and Andrews inaugurate a second refinery, the Standard Works, with his brother William appointed its nominal head.