America's Richest Men and Their Impact in the Country Research Paper

America's Richest Men and Their Impact in the Country - Research Paper Example Rockefeller soared to be the richest man in U.S due to the growing importance of kerosene and gasoline (Chernow, 1998, pp. 10) In 1853, his relatives shifted to Strongsville where he took a ten week course on book keeping and in 1856, he got his initial job as an assistant bookkeeper at the Hewitt & Tuttle firm. He worked long hours in that firm as he was delighted and was skillful in accounting and calculating the transport costs which later helped him in his career (Chernow, 1998, pp. 46-47). He earned $50 at the end of the month and donated 6% of these proceeds to charity. This donation later rose to 10% when he joined the Baptist church (Chernow, 1998, pp. 50) With his partner, Maurice B. Clark, in 1859, Rockefeller went into manufacturing commission trade where they raised a capital of $4000. From this, Rockefeller went into business gradually where he made money with each year (Segal, 2001, pp. 25). Together with his partner, they ventured into oil business where they first bui lt their company first in 1863 in â€Å"The flats† then moved it to the Cleveland’s growing Industrial area. The commercial oil trade by this time was in its young growing stage. Whale Oil was the only oil that was available and was very expensive and an alternative needed to be sought, a cheaper and all- purpose lighting fuel was needed (Chernow, 1998, pp. 73-74) Rockefeller later bought the Oil Company, which had started out as a partnership, in an auction. The company had started out as a partnership between him and the Clark brothers. He positioned his business and himself well to take advantage of the post –civil war successfulness and the large expansion of the territory westward which was nurtured by the constructions of the railway lines and a oil-fueled economy. He then sought for financing and reinvested the profits he gained and adjusted quickly to the changing markets (Segall, 2001, pp. 32, 35) In the 1890’s he flourished into iron ore and ore transportation. This then forced a conflict between him and his competitor steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. Then he later went on a huge buying fling where he acquired leases for crude oil production in Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia (Segall, 2001, pp. 84) From his first salary, Rockefeller tithed 10%of his proceeds to the church and he increased his giving with increase in wealth. He gave to the benefit of learning and communal health causes, fundamental science and the arts too (Ordway, 2009, p 107). Together with his consultants he discovered the conditional funding, which necessitated the beneficiaries to establish the organization in the interest of many people and that thereafter the recipient may be relied on to achieve the people’s interests and their cooperation (Fosdick, 1989, pp. 88). He funded heavily a College in Atlanta for African-American women and also gave appreciable contributions to Denison University and other Baptist Colleges. This then shows that Rockef eller supported education in US. He even founded a General Education Board in 1903 to endorse learning in the country. This played an important role in improving the living conditions of society around him (Jones-Wilson, 1996, pp.184) Rockefeller then established the Rockefeller institute for Medical Research in New York City which would still make him one of the immense beneficiaries of