THE RICHEST MAN ON EARTH.

Western Star, Issue 1387, 7 September 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE RICHEST MAN ON EARTH.

A New York paper makes the startling statement that the pinnacle of earthly wealth is thought to have been reached by Mr John D. Rockefeller- who must, therefore, have displaced the Vanderbilt boys and the Duke of Westminster from their post as rival claimants for the honour of being accounted the richest man on earth. Rockefeller’s wealth, says Julian Ralph in the Providence Journal, has increased until it is said that he is now in receipt of 20,000,000 dols. a year. John D. Rockefeller’s life-story made him one of the marvels of the New World long before it was dreamed that he would ever reach the greatest height as a millionaire. A certain Dr Rockefeller removed from the central part of' this State less than 40 years ago to establish himself and family in Cleveland. John D. and William were his sons., John D. finished his boyhood in the Ohio city, and got his schooling there. Then he came to New York, and was proud to become a book-keeper in a little store for the sale of farm produce on commission in Water Street. At 19 years of age he and a Mr M. B. Clark went into that business on their own account. This was at the close of the war. While a book-keeper Mr Rockefeller had invested a little money in a small oil refinery up the river. The porter in the same store had put his small savings into the refinery also. In time Rockefellar thought he saw a fortune in oil, and sold out his interest in his store to Clark. He and the former porter, now the millionaire Samuel Andrews, then devoted all their time to oil refining. Rockefellar was twenty-six and Andrew was under ■ twenty-five. Their refinery was not worth SSOO, and was not paid for. They prospered and John’s brother William became his partner in another refinery. The two refineries were presently joined, and a store was opened in this city for the sale of the oil they refined. They needed money to swing their plans with, and set out to find it. Away off in Saginaw, Michigan, was Henry M. Flagler, sent there by a rich father-in-law to make his fortune in lumber and salt. He was not succeeding. The father-in-law heard of the Rockefellers, and, calling Flagler to New York, put him and 60,000 dols. into the new firm. From this stage in the Rockefeller history begins the unexampled career of the Standard Oil Company. Taking that name and a capital of a million, John D. Rockefeller rapidly consummated his plan to control the oil product of the nation. The business grew so enormous that it was able to obtain the lowest freight rates from the railroads, and these were often such that Commodore Vanderbilt remarked that only one man in the world could dictate to him, and that was Rockefeller. Refineries were bought right and left for stock or cash. All who, like Colonel O. H. Payne, took stock became rich; and others got a fair price, and that was all. The corporation was a monopoly until 1880. After that the railroads rebelled, and then the Standard built its pipe lines and defied the roads. The company is incorporated in many States and managed by the Standard Trust Company in this city, with John D. and William Rockefeller still at the head. William owns and lives at the beautiful Aspinwall estate at Tarrytown, just above the limits of this city, on the Hudson. John D. lives near Greenwich, on the sound, with a coterie of business associates, who come to town every day in a private car that is fitted up like a clubhouse on wheels, Henry M. Flagler, whose income now is about 7,000,000 dollars a year, has a grand housein town. These and the lesser magnates of the great oil trust are all quiet, plain, democratic citizens, not one of whom puts on the airs of the average hotel clerk.