Featured Image: Kykuit (‘lookout’), Rockefeller Manor, Pocantico, N.Y. (400 acres in 1893; year of stock market crash and mass unemployment w/first great industrial and depression; Mansion began in 1905 – land expanded to 3000 acres)
There are few families in this world whose names are synonymous with wealth and power; but among them is certainly Rockefeller. To the financial world, the Rockefellers are known for their global oil and banking interest. To a few they are known for their influences on government and the behind the scenes organizations they founded. It is my hope to be able to uncover much of the ancestry, involvements and the truth relating to their family’s influences and power.
Introduction:
Researching the Rockefellers, i find in great part a typical immigrant family that came to America just before the Revolutionary War; slightly changed its name, took part in churches, became patriots, had relatives that fought in every major American campaign, had its share of failures and its share of successes up until the 20th century; then the story drastically changes for a select few. As with many families, the Rockefeller had reunions and thereat kept records. In this lengthy ‘Introduction’ i will let their family tell their history, somewhat to date.
Dr. Henry Oscar Rockefeller, was appointed the ‘Secretary and Historian’ for the ‘Rockefeller Family Association’ around 1910. Approximately 1915, He published a book that is referred to as the Rockefeller Genealogy. It recorded that in 1911, at “the seventh annual re-union of the Rockefeller Family Association… held in the Hall of the Y.M.C.A. Building… Poughkeepsie, N.Y. …Aaron Lewis …gave a very interesting talk on ‘Our German Fatherland.” It then records that, ‘Grace Ferdinand Rockefeller’ of PA gave a talk saying in part, “When I learned that the annual meeting …would be held at Poughkeepsie… of which it is said that 42 different spellings …are to be found in old records, it seemed to me quite coincidence… for the Rockefeller Family, as I have found… recorded in 23 different ways as… Rockafellar, Rockefella… Rockefeller… Rockafellow… Rockenfeller… Rockenfellows… Like Poughkeepsie, this Association confines the spelling to one way, and has adopted that… Rockefeller.”
At the same year, it was further recorded (i believe also spoken by Grace): “To Begin with the Revolutionary War… read at a meeting of the Rockefeller Family Association …New York City, in 1907, and published in the Rockefeller Genealogy, Vol. I; so we lay aside preliminaries, and here present to you Samuel Runk of New Jersey, grandson of Johann Peter Rockefeller. Ann Rockefeller, daughter of (missed typed as – Johaxm) Johann… married Jacob Runk. Their son, Samuel Runk, was a Revolutionary soldier.’
‘Washington, in a letter written to the Pennsylvania Legislature, October 1777, says, ‘The exertions of the New Jersey Militia have kept the enemy out of her limits, except now and then a hasty descent, without a Continental Regiment…’
‘John Hancock, in a letter to (missed typed – Grovemor) Governor Livingston, refers to the New Jersey Militia as having distinguished themselves in a manner that does them the greatest honor.’
‘David Rockefeller Eckman, sixth in decent from Johann Peter R… brother of Colonel Charles W. Eckman… enlisted in …1861, in Company H, 93 Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry… Jared Runyan, sixth in descent from Johann Peter R… son of Andrew (miss-typed Rtmyan) Runyan and Lorena Rockefeller… Pennsylvania… born 1842… at 18 enlisted in Company H… David Rockefeller Smith, sixth in descent from Johann Peter Rockefeller and son of John Smith and Eliza Rockefeller… born 1830… joined for duty as a Corporal of Company M, 41st Regiment, 2nd Cavalry, Indiana Volunteers…”
That annual meeting also recorded: “The residences of Diell Rockefeller, Sr., and those of his sons, Simon… the grounds on which the first Lutheran and Reformed Churches were built and where the first schoolhouse was erected in 1710… Also visited the rooms of the house of Simon Rockefeller, in one of which William Rockefeller, grandson of John Peter Rockefeller of New Jersey, married Christina, daughter of Simon Rockefeller… son of Diell… and they were the great-grandparents of Mr. John D. Rockefeller.”
The ‘Eighth Annual Re-union… Philadelphia… 1912… the business meeting’ recorded: “Kinsmen, we are proud of our nation for in the grand structure of which the noble Washington is the cornerstone, we find the names of our forefathers engraved. In 1776, when Washington wanted men to walk the sentinel posts at Valley Forge, our forefathers performed the duty. When Madison called for men in 1813, our forefathers firmly answered: ‘we are here.’ When Polk in 1846 was in need of men to chastise our little tmruly (typo: unruly) neighbor across the Rio Grande, again our forefathers answered. When ‘Father Abe’ called for men to preserve this nation which our ancestors have aided in building, our fathers, some of us here, were standing ‘at attention.’ So it goes when duty speaks, when courage calls for volunteers, the Rockefeller (clan)… will not be the last. They will be found at the front.’
‘Down in Virginia, my home is amid scenes of the war with the Confederacy. …not in war only but in peace… the Rockefeller blood been shown. Many of our dan (clan) wear the togas of jurists and …preside over their courts. In their fidds (fields) as tillers of the old mother earth, in their professions as finanders (financiers), as doctors, as ministers or as artisans, they hold a praiseworthy place.’
Rockefellers ‘one and all, we your kinsmen are proud of our family connection. …In Virginia, my adopted mother state, if you are a kinsman or bear the name of Lee, Stuart, Washington or Randolph, you are a source of envy to those less fortunate. And in this nation as well as a large part of the world, I dare say, there is no family more envied than is that one of which we are members. No family name is the mark for censure from the would-be critics as is the Rockefeller. Why all this censure as well as envy? Just because by diligent application of self to work, by honest and upright dealings with his fellow men, by his own sheer grit, one member of the family has raised a fruit tree of wealth by which he is today feeding thousands in the great banquet hall of the temple of Silent Giving. And I know that I voice the sentiments of your kinsmen when I say that a s a financier we are proud of him; as a Christian gentleman, we adore him; as a Rockefeller, we all love him…”
At that same meeting 1912, “History of Godfrey Rockefeller and his …Descendants, by Judge William M. Rockefeller… Pa.: ‘Godfrey… died about a century ago… most of the family and church records cannot be found… The said Godfrey Rockefeller went from Hunterdon County, N. J., to Northumberland County, Pa., about 1783 or 1789 and settled on a farm… He had 11 children by his first wife and none by his second wife. They came to Snydertown with 8 children… On the land Godfrey bought of George Weigner and others, he built his home… lived there about 19 years, when he sold the same to Andrew Smith for $ 8,317 payable in gold and silver, which was considered a large sum at that time. The deed from George Weigner dated 1792 is recorded… for 306 acres… Godfrey R… became the owner of considerable real estate in Northumberland County, consisting of farms… valuable river bottom… some of his lands were sold by his executors and some by his heirs… (His) first wife Margaret Lewis must have died before 1811… second wife, Esther Beaty… was a party to the deed to Andrew Smith… she survived Godfrey about 33 years… died in 1841… buried at the old Presbyterian Church… most of his grandchildren were either Presbyterian, Methodist or Baptist; surely some presumption should arise that they were of pious Christian parentage…”
The Genealogy speaks of a family member that ‘practiced land surveying from 1826 until 1876’ and of ‘tracts of land in the Anthracite Coal Regions of Pennsylvania.’ It says, ‘Godfrey was a profound logician and debater and scarcely any subject could be mentioned whether in private or in public debates but that it could easily be discovered that he had given it some thought. In his young manhood days he regularly attended all the meetings of the debating societies…’
The Genealogy records, “John Rockefeller, son of Godfrey R… married Elizabeth Moore and they had nine (9) children. He was killed by a runaway horse near Lancaster, Pa.”
‘The Tenth Re-union …held in New York City… 1914’ records by ‘Grace F… R…:’ “The Iroquois Confederacy was then in its glory… along the St. Lawrence. About 1550, they were driven southward by their foes, established themselves in the Lake region of central New York… Later they federated five tribes, the Mohawks… the Senecas… known as the ‘Five Nations of the North.’ …They had no superiors among the Indian tribes, in native ferocity, in their knowledge of war, in eloquence and in the policy of savage government, and their inventions of the canoe and snow-shoe… (used) for their roving warriors to attack and subjugate all the Indian tribes from Maine to the Carolinas, and from the Jerseys to Western prairies. Their ferocious valor was not only a terror to the Indian race, but the early white settlers feared and suffered from… their savage onsets to such a degree that they were forced to form companies to guard and defend their homes and interests. Four of the sons of Didl (typo: Diell) Rockefeller were members of a Company of defense organized for this purpose.’
‘Although Johann Peter Rockefeller had reached this country and settled in New Jersey some years previous to the coming of Diell R… and the selection of his home in the colony of New York, he found the Indians of New Jersey, the Delawares… a peaceful and friendly tribe, disposed to show their friendship to the whites in many ways. Why? Because, previous to the arrival of Europeans, the Delawares had been subjugated by these Iroquois, who had forced them to pay a yearly tribute and to abandon the use of arms. So these Indians were quite willing to accept the hand of fellowship, and live in accord with their white neighbors…’
‘Two Rockefeller brothers, have been said to be among the first settlers of Indiana, in 1804, 110 years ago, purchased land in what was then the far west, and founded a town. They named it after the capital of their native state… New Trenton, Indiana. One of their descendants …said to (have had) the oldest log cabin in the State of Indiana.’
‘Two Rockefeller brothers were the manufacturers of the first steel mold-board stirring plow made in Illinois. One… with others, established the first Reformed Dutch Church west of the Alleghenies; built in 1838, from hewn and sawed walnut timber, it still stands.’
‘…One of our kin, a descendant of a founder of New Trenton, Indiana, was a missionary in Morocco, Africa, for six years…’
‘…The history of the ill-fated Titanic bears record of the death of one of our family, a man of great wealth and prominence, who went from his home in the far west, for a short sojourn in Paris. Business interests hurried his return, and he hastily took passage on the Titanic, leaving his wife to come later date. Only a short time before his departure for Europe, he sent me a genealogical chart, which he had filled in with the names and dates I wanted for the Rockefeller Family Association… His mother… died …the present year (1915), while on a visit to her daughter in South America… Her home was in California… she was among the many of our family who have had the command of riches.’
‘A tribute to the worth of our kinsman who has given to the world the name of John D. Rockefeller as a synonym for wealth; known the world over as its richest man and greatest financier, we are proud to do him honor…’
‘All over this bright land, the adopted home and country of our noble forefathers, Diell Rockefeller and Johann Peter Rockefeller, even beyond… in Canada and South America, we trace their descendants. They have made and are still making a name and history in their different callings and exploits. Among them are artisans of every known craft… agriculture … adventurers, Capitalists, Professional men with different degrees… Ministers of the Gospel, Judges, Doctors, Lawyers, Legislators, Counsellors, Government Officials… Officers, Treasurers, Architects, Surveyors, School Directors, Justices… Historians… Lecturers… Manufacturers… and a President Elector. All these we have traced.”
CHAPTER ONE: Rockefellers America and other Origins
Now, the previous introduction tells of Rockefeller history to about War World I. i now turn to other sources, including the Rockefeller Archive Center to tell more. In the book, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (2004), Chernow writes, “In the early 1900s, as Rockefeller vied with Andrew Carnegie for the title of the world’s richest man, a spirited rivalry arose between France and Germany, with each claiming to be Rockefeller’s ancestral land… The most ambitious search for Rockefeller’s roots traced them back to ninth-century French family, the Roquefeuilles… The clan’s departure from France is much better documented than its origins. After Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, the Huguenot family fled from religious persecution and emigrated to Sagendorf, near the Rhenish town of Koblenz, and Germanized their surname to Rockefeller.’
‘Around 1723, Johann Peter Rockefeller, a miller, gathered up his wife and five children, set sail for Philadelphia, and settled on a farm in Somerville and then Amwell, New Jersey, where he evidently flourished and acquired large landholdings. More than a decade later, his cousin Diell Rockefeller left southwest Germany and moved to Germantown, New York. Diell’s granddaughter Christina married her distant relative William, one of Johann’s grandsons… The marriage of William and Christina produced a son named Godfrey Rockefeller, who was the grandfather of the oil titan and a most unlikely progenitor of the clan.’
‘In 1806, Godfrey married Lucy Avery in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, despite the grave qualms of her family. …Establishing a pattern that would be replicated by Rockefeller’s own mother, Lucy had, in her family’s disparaging view, married down. Her ancestors had emigrated from Devon, England, to Salem, Massachusetts, around 1630, forming part of the Puritan tide. …Lucy could justly claim descent from Edmund Ironside, the English king, who was crowned in 1016.’
‘Taller than her husband, a fiery Baptist of commanding presence, Lucy was rawboned and confident, with a vigorous step and alert blue eyes. A former schoolteacher, she was better educated than Godfrey. Even John D., never given to invidious comments about relatives, tactfully conceded, “My grandmother was a brave woman. Her husband was not so brave as she.” …Lucy had ten children, with the third, William Avery Rockefeller, born in Granger, New York, in 1810.’
‘…The Rockefeller records offer various scenarios of why Godfrey and Lucy packed their belongings into an overloaded Conestoga wagon and headed west between 1832 and 1834. By one account, the Rockefellers, along with several neighbors, were dispossessed of their land in a heated title dispute with some English investors. Another account has an unscrupulous businessman gulling Godfrey into swapping his farm for allegedly richer turf in Tioga County. (If this claim was in fact made, it proved a cruel hoax.) Some relatives later said that Michigan was Godfrey’s real destination but that Lucy vetoed such a drastic relocation, preferring the New England culture of upstate New York to the wilds of Michigan.’
‘In the 1830s, many settlers from Massachusetts and Connecticut were swarming excitedly into wilderness areas of western New York, a migration that Alexis de Tocqueville described as “a game of chance” pursued for “the emotions it excites, as much as for the gain it procures.” The construction of the Erie Canal in the 1820s had lured many settlers to the area…’
‘By the time that John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839, Richford was acquiring the amenities of a small town. It had some nascent industries–sawmills, gristmills, and a whiskey distillery–plus a schoolhouse and a church. Most inhabitants scratched out a living from hardscrabble farming, yet these newcomers were hopeful and enterprising. Notwithstanding their frontier trappings, they had carried with them the frugal culture of Puritan New England, which John D. Rockefeller would come to exemplify…’
‘By the time he was in his twenties, William Avery Rockefeller was already a sworn foe of conventional morality who had opted for a vagabond existence… Since he usually presented false claims about himself and his products, Bill worked a large territory to elude the law. He was roving more than thirty miles northwest of Richford, in the vicinity of Niles and Moravia, when he first met his future wife, Eliza Davison, at her father’s farmhouse. With a flair for showmanship and self-promotion, he always wore brocaded vests or other brightly colored duds that must have dazzled a sheltered farm girl like Eliza…’
‘A prudent, straitlaced Baptist of Scotch-Irish descent, deeply attached to his daughter, John Davison must have sensed the world of trouble that awaited Eliza if she got mixed up with Big Bill Rockefeller, and he strongly discouraged the match. In later years, Eliza Rockefeller would seem to be a dried-up, withered spinster, but in late 1836 she was a slim, spirited young woman with flaming red hair and blue eyes. Pious and self-contained, she was the antithesis of Bill and probably found him so hypnotic for just that reason. Who knows what gloom hung around her doorstep that was dispelled by Bill’s glib patter? Her mother had died when Eliza was only twelve–she had dropped dead after taking a pill dispensed by a traveling doctor–and Eliza was raised by her older sister, Mary Ann, leaving Eliza deprived of maternal counsel.’
‘On February 18, 1837, despite the express opposition of John Davison, this most improbable couple–Bill was twenty-seven, Eliza twenty-four–were wed at the home of one of Eliza’s friends. The marriage was a favorite gossip item among the Richford townspeople, who tended to spy guile on Bill’s part. Compared to the Davisons, the Rockefellers were poor country folk, and it is very likely that Bill was entranced by reports of John Davison’s modest wealth. As early as 1801, the frugal Davison had acquired 150 acres in Cayuga County. In John D.’s words, “My grandfather was a rich man–that is, for his time he was counted rich. In those days one who had his farm paid for and had a little money beside was counted rich. Four or five or six thousand was counted rich. My grandfather had perhaps three or four times that. He had money to lend.”
‘As Ralph P. Smith, a longtime Richford resident, recalled, “Billy was unmarried when he came here, and it was supposed that he would marry Nancy Brown, who was his housekeeper, but he broke with her, settling a sum said to have been about $400 on her when he concluded to win the daughter of the rich John Davison, over at Niles, on the outskirts of Moravia.” The story is corroborated by John D.’s cousin, Mrs. John Wilcox, who said, “Nancy Brown, of Harford Mills, was a beautiful girl, remarkably beautiful. William fell in love with her. She was poor. William would have money. Eliza Davison’s father was to give her $500 when she married; so William married her.”
‘In 1838, Eliza gave birth to their first child, Lucy, followed a few months later by Nancy’s first illegitimate daughter, Clorinda. On the night of July 8, 1839, Bill and Eliza again summoned the midwife, this time to deliver a boy, who came into the world in a bare front bedroom measuring eight by ten feet. This child, born during Martin Van Buren’s presidency and destined to become the country’s foremost capitalist, would survive into the second term of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Like many other future magnates–Andrew Carnegie (born in 1835), Jay Gould (1836), and J. Pierpont Morgan (1837)–he was born in the late 1830s and would therefore come to maturity on the eve of the post-Civil War industrial boom. Several months after John’s birth, Nancy Brown gave birth to a second daughter, Cornelia, which meant that Bill, lord of his own harem, managed to sire four children under one roof in just two years. Thus, the fiercely moralistic John Davison Rockefeller (appropriately named after Eliza’s sober father) was sandwiched tightly between two illegitimate sisters, born into a situation steeped in sin.’
“Eliza couldn’t have felt very comfortable with her in-laws. In general, the Rockefellers were a hard-drinking hillbilly clan, sociable and funny, fond of music, liquor, and uproarious good times, and adhering to a coarse frontier morality. As the strong matriarch, Lucy was the conspicuous exception, and Eliza drew close to her while frowning upon many of her more dissipated in-laws. During the Richford period, Bill’s younger brother, Miles Avery Rockefeller, deserted his wife and decamped to South Dakota with Ella Brussee, a young woman who had done domestic work for Eliza. In a move that prefigured a future stratagem for Bill, Miles entered into a bigamous marriage with Ella and adopted his middle name as his new surname. Such re-created lives were common at a time when America had a vast, unmapped frontier and numerous sanctuaries from the law…’
‘However overblown the frequent biographical claims about John D. Rockefeller’s impoverished childhood have been, several people testified to the family’s squalor in Richford. “I do not remember ever to have seen more pitiably neglected children,” one neighbor observed. “Their clothing was old and tattered, and they looked dirty and hungry.” It was a measure of Eliza’s desperation that she sought relief in the home of her brother-in-law, Jacob Rockefeller, a bawdy, jolly, not infrequently besotted man.’
‘When John D. later evoked his idyllic, sunlit boyhood in upstate New York, he blotted out Richford from these reveries. Just three when he left there, he retained only a few hazy memories of the place. “I remember very clearly the brook that ran near the front of the house and how careful I had to be to keep far away from it. I remember my mother vaguely at Richford and my grandmother, who lived half a mile or so up the hill.” One notes that Rockefeller’s earliest memory was associated with caution and that he edited out the absentee father and inebriated grandfather while retaining the strong, enduring mother and grandmother. He always possessed an unusual, self-protective capacity to suppress unpleasant memories and keep alive those things that fortified his resolve…” (End quoting Titian)
Others have stated that the earliest know origins of the family was in France where the name was spelled Roquefeuille. Possibility so, but in my search, i can only trace the ancestry back to Goothart Rockenfeller (1590-1695); a last name which Grace Rockefeller admitted to in 1911 to be 1 of the 23 spellings she discovered. Goothart was from Neuwied, Deutschland (Prussia; Germany). It was his grandson Johann Peter Rockefeller (1681-c.1763), and his very young family, with his son Johann P. Rockefeller, Jr., who came to America and who died in the province of New Jersey. William Rockefeller, son of J. Peter R., Jr., was the first born in New Jersey, U.S.A.; he died in N.Y. about 1793.
Godfrey Lewis Rockefeller (1783-1857), son of William M. R…, was husband to Lucy Avery and father to 10 children including William (Bill) Avery Rockefeller, Sr. Bill married Elizabeth (Eliza) Davison and married Margaret Levingston. John D. Rockefeller, Sr. was son to Bill and Eliza.
According to a post at pbs.org; under their American Experience series, and ‘Timeline: The Rockefellers, “July 8, 1839: John Davison Rockefeller is born in Richford, upstate New York, to William A… (Bill) R…, a travelling peddler of novelties and ‘cures,’ and Eliza D… R…, a devout Baptist. 1849: Following allegations of rape, Bill Rockefeller moves his family to Owego, N.Y., close to the Pennsylvania border. 1853: The Rockefeller family moves again, to Strongsville, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, to the home of Bill R… sister and brother-in-law.
1855: Bill Rockefeller marries Margaret Allen, a woman 25 years his junior, beginning a secret life as a bigamist. Under pressure from his father, John D. Rockefeller drops out of high school two months shy of commencement. He enters a professional school, where he studies …bookkeeping… banking and commercial law. Sept. 26, 1855: At 16, Rockefeller gets his first job, working for Hewitt & Tuttle, commission merchants… shippers… Rockefeller starts keeping careful accounts of his finances in Ledger A, where he meticulously notes every receipt, expenditure and charitable donation.
1859: Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species is published. The book’s influence will be felt not only in science, but also in business and society at large. August 28, 1859: Edwin Drake strikes oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania, instigating an ‘Oil Rush’ to the region. 1861: Civil War begins. Rockefeller, like some other northern businessmen, hires substitutes to avoid fighting.
{i interpret to NOTE: in the ‘middle ages’ under the ‘feudal system,’ very often nobles (the elite class or wealthy often with status) would hire knights to fight in their stead or in place of their sons. The Washington Times posted an article 12/31/2014, The Civil War: ‘A rich man’s battle, but a poor man’s war’ It states, “the shouts of ‘rich man’s war and poor man’s fight’ was the rallying cry which saw thousands of eligible men take to the streets in riotous protests. Anyone who doubts the significance of this uprising can read about the 1863 New York Draft Riots… over 2,000 protesters were killed, and around 8,000 injured.’ Lincoln had to send troops to control the city. It is said that the rioters were overwhelmingly working-class men, primarily ethnic Irish, resenting particularity that wealthier men, who could afford to pay a $ 300 (about $5,800 today) commutation fee to hire a substitute, were spared from the draft. ALSO note: Abe Lincoln was once lawyer to ex-priest, Charles Chiniquy; who wrote ‘50 Years in the Church of Rome,’ Chiniquy alleged that the Vatican used tactics to the getting Catholic Union soldiers to desert secretly supporting the South in hopes of bringing down ‘protestant’ America. Sources support that the Vatican did try and reduce or eliminate Union recruitment of Irish Catholics, and that they were the largest percentage among deserters. The book, Religion and the American Civil War (1998) recalls Irish Catholic desertion during the Civil War, but also supports their service and lives offered in battle.}
Continuing PBS article: The war at first disrupts industry, but ultimately it will accelerate economic development in the North, contributing to Rockefeller’s meteoric ascent. 1863: At 24, R… gets involved in the oil business, along with partners Maurice Clark and Samuel Andrews. Andrews, Clark & Co. builds a refinery in the Flats, Cleveland’s …industrial area… soon to be linked to the East Coast hubs by the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. September 8, 1864 Rockefeller marries Laura Celestia ‘Cettie’ Spelman… following a nine-year courtship. 1865: At 25, R… buys out his partners and founds Rockefeller & Andrews, Cleveland’s largest refinery… first child, Elizabeth… 1868: R… strikes a major deal with a railroad, guaranteeing a certain volume of shipments in exchange for rebates. The first of many… deal made with …Erie Railroad …Rockefellers move to Euclid Avenue, Cleveland’s “Millionaires’ Row.”
1870: Rockefeller founds Standard Oil of Ohio with $ 1 million in capital, the largest corporation in the country. The new company controls 10% of U.S. petroleum refining. 1871: Laura gives birth to Alta. 1872: R… is tainted by the scandal surrounding the South Improvement Company scheme, a secret alliance between major refiners and the railroads… Following the ‘Cleveland Massacre,’ R… owns 22 of the 26 refineries in town. Laura gives birth to Edith.
September 18, 1873: “Black Thursday.” The stock exchange crash sets off a depression that will last 6 years. Standard Oil takes advantage of the economic downturn to absorb refineries in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, and Pennsylvania’s Oil Region. Jan. 29, 1874: Laura gives birth to John D., Jr. 1877: At 38, Rockefeller – still relatively unknown to the public – controls almost 90% of the oil refined in the United States. 1879: At 40, R… is numbered among the country’s 20 richest men.
Mid-1880s: Standard Oil expands into the overseas markets of Western Europe and Asia, selling more oil abroad than in the U.S.
1881: Atlantic Monthly publishes ‘Story of a Great Monopoly,’ by Henry D. Lloyd. The article’s critical view of Standard Oil strikes a chord with readers. Lloyd’s book-length study of Standard Oil, ‘Wealth against Commonwealth,’ appears in 1894.
1882: Standard Oil trust is formed. Rockefeller creates a highly centralized structure with enormous power but murky legal existence. Standard Oil builds up its distribution system, streamlining the delivery and sale of oil and underselling its adversaries. 1883: The Rockefellers move to New York and build a mansion at 4 West 54th Street. 1885: Standard Oil moves …headquarters …New York.
1888: Anti-monopoly sentiment becomes an issue in the presidential campaign… A New York Senate committee launches an investigation into Standard Oil. R… gives evasive testimony. 1889: Eilza, R… mother, dies at age 76. Her estranged husband (his father Bill) does not attend the ceremony. R… asks the minister to say that she was a widow. Rockefeller agrees to contribute to the founding of a new Baptist college in Chicago. The University of Chicago will become his first major philanthropic undertaking. Andrew Carnegie publishes ‘The Gospel of Wealth,’ arguing that the wealthy have a moral obligation to serve as stewards for society.
1890: Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act, which outlaws trusts and combinations in restraint of trade and establishes fines… 1891: Frederick Gates, a former Baptist minister… R… philanthropic administrator… 1893: the stock market crashes, setting off the country’s first great industrial depression. Bank closings and massive unemployment… R… buys 400 acres in Pocantico Hills of Mount Pleasant, N.Y. on the Hudson River… The estate will eventually expand to 3,000 acres. John D. R… Jr. enters Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Mid-1890s: Coinciding with a stressful period, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., develops alopecia, a rare condition that results in the loss of all his body hair. Late-1890s: Standard Oil attains its peak influence. Its dividends surge to 31% and its control of the market is uncontested.
1895: Edith marries Harold McCormick, the son of Chicago millionaire Cyrus McCormick, the developer of the mechanical reaper. R… retires from Standard Oil gradually… 1896: Henry Ford assembles the first automobile. Just as electricity is starting to replace kerosene as an illuminant, gasoline enters the scene, creating a rising demand for oil. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., starts working at 26 Broadway (Std. Oil bld.) …Standard Oil contributes $ 250,000 to Republican William McKinley’s presidential campaign against Democrat William Jennings Bryan, a supporter of antitrust legislation. The candidates’ opposing views about trusts polarize public opinion on the issue. (NOTE: in 1925 William J. Bryan – after losing 3 presidential campaigns, and at age 65, the year of his death; would prosecute in the Scopes Trial vs. Clarence Darrow and Evolution)
1898: Between 1898 and 1902, many follow the Rockefeller business model; 198 trusts are created in coal, sugar and other industries. 1901: J. P. Morgan purchases Carnegie Steel from Andrew Carnegie, leading to the creation of U. S. Steel, the first billion-dollar corporation and a landmark in business consolidation. Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research is created… now Rockefeller University…
September 1901: An anarchist assassinates President McKinley. V.P. Theodore Roosevelt becomes president. His vehement antitrust rhetoric will target corporations such as Standard Oil. October 9, 1901: John D. R… Jr. and Abby Aldrich are wed at Warwick Estate in Rhode Island. 1000 guests attend. 1902: The General Education Board is created by the Rockefellers to promote education in the South without distinction of race (NOTE: congress had already passed the Morel Acts of 1862 and 1890 creating land-grant colleges – resulted in Negro Colleges).
Nov. 1902: McClure’s Magazine runs first of 19 installments on the history of Standard Oil… by Ida Tarbell. 1903: Abby born, dubbed ‘richest of all babies’ by press. 1905: John D. Rockefeller, Sr., decides to build a mansion at his Pocantico estate… 8 years of construction, for Kykuit (Dutch for ‘lookout’) to be completed. 1906: father Bill… dies at age 96. President Roosevelt calls R… one of the ‘malefactors of great wealth.’
1907: U.S. government has 7 suits against Standard Oil… 20 times the size of its closest competitor. 1908: William Randolph Hearst’s The World publishes a cover story revealing the ‘Secret Double Life of Rockefeller’s Father,‘ …bigamy. July 8, 1908: Abby gives birth to Nelson, on his grandfather John D. Rockefeller, Sr.’s, birthday (NOTE: neat but not extremely rare: i was born on my grandmother’s b-day and one of my daughters on mine.)
1910: J.D. R… Jr. leaves Standard Oil to devote himself to philanthropy… (and Stress?) 1911: U. S. Supreme Court announces its decision to dismantle Standard Oil. The company is ordered to divest itself of its subsidiaries within six months. 1913: Edith travels to Zurich …for depression… psychiatrist Carl Jung. Rockefeller Foundation is incorporated “to promote the wellbeing of mankind throughout the world.” R… gives the foundation $ 100 million in its first year. R… wealth reaches its lifetime peak of $ 900 million, thanks in part to the dismantling of Standard Oil. Newspapers run daily box scores of his wealth.
Sept. 1913: United Mine Workers strike… Colorado. 9,000 workers of the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron, the largest mining operation in the area… Miners and their families are evicted, and they set up massive tent colonies.
[Nov. 1910: Aldrich – member of the Monetary Commission met at Morgan’s private hunting club at Jekyll Island (GA) with other members. Unpopular Owen-Glass Bill renamed Federal Reserve Act. Senator Nelson Aldrich – father-in-law to J.D.R. Jr. pushes Federal Reserve Act through Congress before Christmas break 12/23/1913 – same year J. P. Morgan dies and Rockefeller Foundation formed; the Federal Reserve Bank (many Central Banks) shares were in great part owned by Rockefeller’s National City Bank; Chase National (Rockefeller); National Bank of Commerce – Morgan Guaranty Trust; and J. P. Morgan’s First National Bank; Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs; as well as foreign shares in great part owned by Rothschild Banks of London and Berlin; Israel Moses of Italy; Lazard Brothers of Paris; and Warburg Bank of Germany. William McAdoo Jr., lawyer and failing businessman bailed out by J.P. Morgan; campaign manager to Woodrow Wilson (soon co-creator of League of Nations) in 1912; married Wilson’s daughter (later divorced) and became Sec. of Treasury and first chairman of Federal Reserve. According to The Case Against the Fed (1994), Comptroller of Currency was long-time associate of McAdoo’s, John Williams – a Virginia banker, who had been director of McAdoo’s Morgan controlled Hudson & Manhattan Railroad and president of the Morgan-oriented Seaboard Airline Railway… Rothbard’s book goes on to reveal other representatives for Morgan and Rockefeller interests.]
PBS continued: 1914: Protesters descend on Kykuit… Industrial Workers of the World union members are killed when a bomb possibly aimed at J. D. R… Jr. goes off. 1914: The Ludlow Massacre. At least 24 miners die, among them 2 women and 11 children, in a confrontation between miners and the National Guard… 1914: Pres. Wilson sends federal troops to curb an outbreak of violence in tent camps in Colorado.
August 1914: World War I begins. The Rockefellers donate millions to international relief agencies. Dec. 1914: The United Mine Workers union agrees to call off its strike without having achieved its goals. 1915: R… vows to improve the situation at Ludlow. March 1915: Laura Spelman R… dies at 75 (J.D. R… Sr. wife).
1919: J. D. R… Jr. begins to donate 11,000 acres to what will become Acadia National Park. 1922: J. D. R… Jr. checks in to Kellogg Battle Creek Sanitarium, complaining of exhaustion and migraines… 1925: J.D. R. Jr. offers to purchase the Barnard Cloisters, medieval museum in upper Manhattan, for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1926: JDR Jr lauches restoration of Colonial Williamsburg.
Oct. 1929: The Stock Market crashes. The crash cripples the national economy and wipes out more than half of the Rockefeller fortune. Nov. 1929: The Museum of Modern Art opens in N.Y. City. Abby (R…) is one of its co-founders. 1930: Riverside Church… $ 26 million from JDR Jr…. opens in N.Y. City. 1931: Construction of the 14-building Rockefeller Center complex begins during the Great Depression… employing 75,000 workers over 8 years (cheap labor cost).
1937: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. dies, 3 years short of his goal of 100 years… Refineries and companies …once Standard Oil, work stops for five minutes. 1938: Nelson …pres. of Rockefeller Center. 1939: World War II begins.
1943: Pres. Roosevelt – lobbied by J.D.R. Jr. establishes Jackson Hole National Monument. 1946: Rockefellers brothers of the third generation (John D. III, Nelson, Laurance, Winthrop and David) return to the family office at Rockefeller Center. 1952: Winthrop moves to Arkansas, one of the poorest states in the country. J.D. R. Jr. sells Pocantico family estate to his sons… giving $ 73 million to charity and $ 57 million to the Rockefellers Brothers Fund. Eisenhower is elected… Nelson joins his administration.
1955: Nelson plays pivotal role in Eisenhower-Khrushchev summit in Geneva, along with Henry Kissinger… mutual aerial inspection of Soviet and U.S. military establishments… ‘open skies.’ 1958: Nelson sworn in as New York’s Governor. 1960: Lincoln Center groundbreaking. J.D.R. III …leading fundraiser… J.D.R.Jr. dies at age 86… Nelson runs for Republican Party president… loses nomination to Richard Nixon. 1961: Nelson divorces wife of 30 years… 1962: Nelson re-elected governor of New York. 1963: Nelson marries Margaretta ‘Happy’ Murphy, former wife of a family friend. The wedding jeopardizes his presidential aspirations.
Nov. 1963: Pres. John F. Kenndy is assassinated. Nelson runs for president… 1964: Barry Goldwater defeats Nelson by a slim margin. Nov. 1964: Lyndon B. Johnson is elected president, defeating Goldwater. 1966: Nelson …third term governor New York. Winthrop is elected governor of Arkansas, will serve two terms. 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy assassinated. 1970: Nelson …4th term as gov. of N.Y. 1973: Nelson proposes harsh drug laws… lengthy prison sentences for petty crimes.
1974: In the wake of Watergate, Pres. Nixon resigns. Pres. Gerald Ford nominates Nelson R… to be Vice President… Rockefeller sworn in. 1975: Pres. Ford chooses Bob Dole over Nelson as running mate. 1976: The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty published… airs 4th generation’s grievances, causing a split in the family. Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate, is designated a National Historic Landmark… open to the public about 1994. 1978: J.D.R. III dies in car accident at 72. 1979: Nelson dies of heart attack at age 70… while in the company of a young female assistant. 1985: Rockefeller Center is designated a National Historic Landmark.
END of PBS Timeline
CHAPTER TWO: Ancestry Table
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ROCKEFELLER (Rockenfeller) |
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| Goothart Goddard
Rockenfeller c.1590 – c.1650 |
Of: Feldkirchen Neuwied, Rheinland-Pfalz, Deutschland
Died: in Neuwied, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany Wife: Magdalena Goddard Rockenfeller (c.1592-1652) Children: 5; including Johannes Rockenfeller |
| Johannes Wilhelm
Rockenfeller c.1630-1684 |
Of: Deutschland; Died Rhineland, Prussia (Germany)
Wife: Elizabeth Margarethe Remagen (c.1636-1678) Children: 8 (1 died at birth) incl.: Johann Peter Rockefeller |
|
Johann Peter Rockefeller c. 1681- 1763 or 1765 |
Of: Deutscher Nation; Rineland, Prussia; Migrated c. 1723
Died: in the Province of New Jersey Wife (1711): Anna Maria Remagen Rockefeller [and had 7 children (Germany: 1634-1719)] Wife (1720): Elisabeth Christina Runkel Rockefeller Had 5 children w/Johann |
| Johann Peter
Rockefeller, Jr. 1711-1787 |
Of: Deutscher Nation Died: in New Jeresy, USA
Wife (1740): Mary Bellis Rockefeller Wife (1774): Elizabeth Rockefeller
|
|
William M. Rockefeller 1750-1793 |
First of the lineage born in NJ, US; Died in N.Y.
Son: of Bill and Mary Wife: Christina Rockefeller (daughter of Simeon Rockefeller – father of Dielh Rockenfeller) Children: 13; including Godfrey |
| Godfrey Lewis
Rockefeller 1783-1857 |
Farmer of Columbia N.Y.
Wife (1806): Lucy Avery Rockefeller Children: 10; including William |
| William Avery ‘Bill’
Rockefeller, Sr. alias: Dr. W. Levingston 1810-1906 |
Wife (c.1835): Elizabeth (Eliza) Davison Rockefeller
Wife (1856 in Canada): Margaret Levingston Children: 6 w/Eliza; including John D. Rockefeller, Sr. Children: 2 by mistress – Nancy Brown |
|
John Davison Rockefeller 1839-1937 |
Born in New York; died almost 98 in Florida; buried in Ohio. Married Laura Celestia Spelman 9/8/1864 in Ohio. Children were: Elizabeth, Alice (died age 1), Alta, Edith and John, Jr.; Founder: Rockefeller Foundation, etc.
Chief Founder: Standard Oil Company: EXXON World’s Richest man; first worth more than a $ billion. |
| Elizabeth ‘Bessie’
Rockefeller Strong 1866 – 1906 |
Student at Vassar College; School’s first dormitory named in her honor in 1893 by her father – J.D.R. funded much of it. She married Charles Strong in 1889 |
| Alta Rockefeller
Prentice 1871-1962 |
Married Atty. Ezra Prentice in 1901 in Ohio. In 1910 they bought 1,400 acres near Williamstown, MA. Land willed to N.Y.’s Lenox Hill Hospital & Williams College, MA. |
| Edith Rockefeller
McCormick 1872-1932 |
Married Harold McCormick, son of Cyrus Hall McCormick invented mechanical reaper; International Harvester Co. – Navistar. In 1913, treated for depression in Zurich by Carl Jung; gave to Zurich Psychological Society. 2 children. |
Page Break
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John D. ROCKEFELLER |
|
|
John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. 1874-1960 2nd Generation |
Only son of J. D. Rockefeller
Married: Abigail Greene Aldrich: (daughter of U.S. Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich of Rhode Island & Abigail Pearce Truman Chapman; sister of Congressman Richard S. Alrich and Financier/US Ambassador to UK, Wintrop Williams Aldrich – President and Chairman of Chase National Bank 1930-1953). John and Abigail had 6 children: Abigail, John D. Rockefeller III, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, Laurance, Winthrop, and David Rockefeller |
|
Abigail Aldrich Rockefeller 1903-1976
3rd Generation
|
First child and only daughter of J.D.R. Jr.
She married 3 times; 1943 divorced lawyer/banker David Milton after 2 children; 1946 married Dr. Irving Pardee until has death in 1949; then Jean Mauze – a Manhattan banker, Sen. V.P. of U.S. Trust Co. She was a benefactor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the YMCA, N.Y. Hospital, the NY Zoological Soc; Asia Society – focusing on education in Asia. |
| John Davison
Rockefeller III 1906-1978
|
Married Blanchette Hooker and had 2 children
Formed Council on Foundations (1949) 1750+ members Managed Foundations of Asia Society; Japan Society; Population Council; Rockefeller University (R… Institute for Medical Research); China Medical Board; BOD at Princeton; on Council of Foreign Relations; etc… |
| Nelson Aldrich
Rockefeller 1908-1979
|
41st Vice President of the United States
Married: 5 children from Mary Clark (divorced) Married: 2 children from Margaretta Fitler including Nelson Jr. |
|
Laurance Spelman Rockefeller 1910-2004
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Married Mary French (Grandfather – Financier Fredrick Billings; Pres. of Northern Pacific Railway) and had 4 children.
In 1937 inherited his grandfather’s seat on the N.Y. Stock Exchange (1792) Major involvement w/ NY Zoo. Became largest investor in Easter Airlines (in Continental) Also funded McDonnell Aircraft (now in Boeing Co.) |
| Winthrop Aldrich
Rockefeller 1912-1973
|
First Republican Governor of Arkansas |
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David Rockefeller 1915- Age 100 |
Chairman Chase Manhattan Corporation (largest shareholder: about 1.8% Now merged with J. P. Morgan
Jimmy Carter: offered him Sec. of Treasury and Fed. Res. Chairman – he declined and also a Senate seat. 7 Children |
CHAPTER THREE: PATH TO POWER AND UNJUSTICE
According to The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty (Collier & Horowitz; 1976):
“In the early years of the 20th century, when the Protestant church was united in its crusade to save the heathen world, the Congregationalists worked hard… (in the) battles between good and evil… It was an expensive war… Early 1905 in Boston …a $ 100,000 donation (was given) to the Board of Foreign Missions… from the purse of John D. Rockefeller, and angry murmuring filled the room …’tainted money.’ ‘Is this clean money? Can any man, can any institution, knowing its origins, touch it without being defiled?’ the Rev. Washington Gladden… asked. …Newspapers were flooded with opinions… the term ‘tainted money’ entered the vocabulary of the common man… for John D. Rockefeller was the most unrepentant sinner of the day. Senator Robert LaFollette called him ‘the greatest criminal of the age.’
‘Newspaper cartoons (showed him) as a long-shanked hypocrite giving away coins with one hand while stealing bags of gold with the other… Ida Tarbell’s recently published History of the Standard Oil Company was enough to convince anyone that the name Rockefeller was a synonym for unbridled ruthlessness and power. Of all the men Theodore Roosevelt indicted as ‘malefactors of great wealth,’ John D. Rockefeller was indeed the wealthiest. At the time of the ‘tainted money’ controversy, his fortune amounted to $200 million… and (would be) $ 1 billion within a few years.’ {i add: understand that tax brackets for the wealthy were much higher during his lifetime and his fortune would be 2 to 3 times higher under today’s rates, and in terms of today’s money, at its height would have surpassed all today.}
‘A pillar of the Baptist church since his youth, Rockefeller’s tithes already approached $100 million in 1905… He was retired now, but even in his heyday at the helm of the great Standard trust he had lacked the vaulting ambition and sharkish appetites of the Fisks, Goulds, Vanderbilts, and others… Yet… the 66 year old Rockefeller would live for another 32 years…’
‘The making of the great Standard Oil fortune was an accident. It was as if a door had stood open for a brief historical moment and Rockefeller, who just happened to be passing by, managed to squeeze in before in closed. Never before had it been possible for an individual to build the organization he built; it would never be possible again.’
{This book was written before Walmart, Microsoft and Google era; the authors would go on to speak of JDR… origins and his father the ‘con artist,’ and how his ‘mother’s influence was quite the opposite – moral, strict… Calvinist…’ It tells of him telling a school mate that one day ‘I want to be worth $ 100,000, and I’m going to be;’ and it tells of another school mate who would become Senator Mark Hanna, ‘presidential kingmaker, and political fixer for Standard Oil trust.’}
Continuing: ‘Graduating in 1855, Rockefeller decided to go into business instead of to college. ‘I went to the railroads, to the banks, to the wholesale merchants,’ he recalled later. ‘I did not go to any small establishments… I was after something big.’ On Sept. 26 he was hired as a clerk accountant… He was at work by 6:30 every morning… In the Sunday school classes he had begun to teach at the Erie Street Baptist Church, a favorite text read: ‘Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings.’ Discipline, order and a close reckoning of debits and credits would be the code of his life… (he kept his own personal) Ledger A… (JDR… would soon partner with) Maurice Clark. In its first year, the firm of Clark & Rockefeller netted …$ 4000 profit on a gross business of $450,000.’
‘The Civil War, which had begun in April 1861, caused unparalleled grief for millions of Americans, but a chosen few – the Morgans, Armours, and Vanderbilts – made overnight fortunes from it, and a whole new business class made an audacious entrance on the American scene. While Rockefeller’s bonanza was not quite as dramatic as some, it was impressive nonetheless. As war orders came pouring in to Clark & Rockefeller, commodity prices rose sharply. The rising price levels made success a matter of methodical planning, attention to detail and a relentless pressure for the hard bargain…’
‘An event that impressed Cleveland businessmen almost as much as, the outbreak of war would, two years later, was the successful drilling of the first oil well by Edwin Drake. Titusville, Pennsylvania, lay beside a wide stream called Oil Creek… For years people had known of the oil on local streams, and though early settlers had condemned it as a nuisance, the Indians had valued it as a medicine… (others used it as one of the) longest lasting of illuminants… 1859 Col. Drake’s Titusville well set off a stampede into the area, which soon became known as the Oil Regions.’
‘Overnight, as wells were brought in, tiny settlements along the basin grew… Values skyrocketed: in one case, a piece of land selling for $25,000 was resold for $1.5 million three months later… They carted the oil out of the fields to be refined, first in Pittsburgh and New York, and then in …Cleveland, some of them just blocks away from Clark & Rockefeller… (who) need the real money would be made not at the pump but in the middleman stages of haulage and refining… Four years after the Titusville oil strike… the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad line ran its first trains… Cleveland… to N.Y…’
‘It was also in 1863 that Samuel Andrews, an acquaintance of Maurice Clark, came to the partners with a proposition to go into the refining business…’ (JDR… age 23… soon married 1864, began ‘Ledger B’ and by then) ‘dozens of oil refineries had sprung up in Cleveland… 1865, Andrews, Clark and Company was $100,000 in debt, but Rockefeller (junior partner) wanted to extend the operation… (the partners agreed to sell the business) the auction was held Feb. 2, 1865, with R… (after much bidding reached) $72,500. Clark threw up his hands: ‘the business is yours.’ Rockefeller said that this day was ‘one of the most important in my life…’ 26 years old good enough standing in Cleveland’s financial community to be able to borrow the purchase price.’
‘…Rockefeller and Andrews was already the largest refinery in Cleveland, with a capacity of 500 barrels a day… twice its nearest competitor, and annual revenues… grew to $2 million (1866). …Sometime late in 1867, Flagler (another partner… worked a deal with Lake Shore Railroad)… The official freight rate was 42 cents a barrel on crude from the Oil Regions to Cleveland and $2 on the refined oil from Cleveland to the eastern seaboard… Flagler (got) secret new rates of 35 cents and $ 1.30. When other refiners heard… they protested. The Lake Shore agreed and said …they too could have a rebate if they would also make a comparable freight guarantee (of a certain amount of barrels per day). The word ‘rebate’ quickly became one of the most hated in the oil man’s lexicon. Rockefeller’s competitors didn’t have to recognize that the term came from the French rabattre to know its meaning was ‘to beat down.’
‘Rockefeller formed a new company on January 10, 1870, with a capitalization of $1 million… Standard Oil. …Rockefeller saw the plan… competitors in Cleveland had two alternatives – collapse their businesses into his in return for stock, or go it alone and be bankrupted by the rebate system. Starting with his largest competitors and working downward, he would make an appointment to see a rival… with crushing advantages of rebates and ‘drawbacks,’ Rockefeller (soon had most of the refineries in Cleveland).’
‘The cabal went along smoothly for almost two months. (Then)… angry petitions, one of them 93′ long, were carried to legislators, and threatening telegrams to railroad presidents… until this time, the name of Rockefeller had been unknown outside of a small circle in Cleveland. Almost overnight, it became identified with infamy… The oil men formed a Producers’ Protection Association… and pledged to send no crude to the Standard Oil Company… (it was to late, R… owned) all but three of his 25 competitors in the city… and the monopoly he had won in Cleveland had given him an even greater hold over the railroads who depended on the freight… (And using same tactics) by 1877 the Standard had no competition in the Regions, Philadelphia, or Pittsburgh; only in New York was there a small pocket of resistance left… In April 1878… in the United States was 36 million barrels a year… Standard produced 33 million. By 1880 Rockefeller refined 95 percent of the oil produced in the nation.’
(more to come later)
CHAPTER FOUR: More Power, Influence, and Possible Unjust Enrichments
I hope to cover under a single Part the connections of significant organizations, events and families. i say significant, because i have not the time or space to cover the thousands that have attended Bilderburg alone. However, for now i will offer some here concerning certain Rockefellers to see why certain people include their family name in conspiracy theories.
In many research i found John D. Rockefeller, Sr. building churches and schools and foundations and helping the poor in Asia and throughout the world. i found him speaking at the Club of the Young Men’s Bible Class of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, May 1904, giving them ‘A Plain Talk by a Plain Man.’ He told them have to keep a ledger and of his early days of savings and working out. He talked about his borrowing from banks and the time he went to the bank said ‘we require so much more money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, instead of those smaller amounts, we had a great fire that destroyed a vast amount of property…’ He talked about ‘how grateful’ he was for ‘these associations’ like ‘Sunday School,’ that helped him ‘in my early boyhood.’ He told the young men, concerning ‘the Christian Church… I beg you not to put it off. Under God, it was the greatest blessing that could have come to me…’ i found the wives and daughter often very generous to their societies as well as their churches, schools, and foundations.
Now, before going further i consider the condition of some i know working 6 days a week 12 hours a day, some for months at a time, rarely able to have time with their family and died tired; many after 15 hours of get up, get dressed, eat and drive 30 minutes or an hour to work before sunrise and come home after sunset. Yes, some nice pay checks, but a few of these tell me, if they don’t take the shifts they can get hired or laid off. Now, lets go but before the labor law changes and union changes and look at conditions in those Rockefeller mines or Railways or Steel mills or Construction workers and lower and middle level employees who bearing could keep their houses and feed their families, and then years of depression, all the time the Rockefellers where expanding the lands, empires and bank accounts.
So on one hand, i found generous Rockefellers, but on the other i found unhappy laborers that built their empires; and unhappy competitors that did not get the same loans or opportunities, or were not bailed out by great bank loans during bad times, nor given unfair advances through their connections. And like the other powerful families of the Medici and Habsburg and Rothschild, i found the the Rockefellers often married their children into other wealthy families and are families with political power.
As to the Bilderberg Group or Bilderberg Meetings established in 1954 in the Netherlands, David Rockefeller was among the founders. Like the Rockefellers, many Bilderberg elites, after making themselves very rich usually through connections, both legally and unethically or illegal, and establishing their own businesses and ongoing Foundations, they are often very charitable towards their causes (very rarely of which is spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ). But they also have their agendas, including equality for all – including for same-sex marriage, and usually moving towards a One World Government.
As to the Trilateral Commission, David Rockefeller was also a founder of it in 1973. And according to its website at http://www.trilateral.org ‘originally established for three years, our work has been renewed for …successive periods.’ The Trilateral Commission’s Task Force Reports are distributed by Brookings Institution Press. The Brookings Institution was founded in 1916 by (as their website at http://www.brookings.edu states, ‘a group of leading educators, businessmen, attorneys, and financiers – including … Robert Brookings…’ who ‘President Woodrow Wilson appointed to the War Industries Board, which coordinates the purchase of military supplies, and later he was chairman of the board’s Price Fixing Committee, to discourage profiteering’ which was ironic – because their banks and friends most definitely profited, while labors in the name of patriotism worked and fought and gave the blood of their children in wars and used a great potion of their disposable income to buy war bonds – sold by the Central Banks – in the name of America – which profited the banks by increasing their leaning power, profited large steel companies and oil companies, which were needed for war machines and transportation and weapons; and a hundred other corporate giants and their friends and families profited as well.
As to Kykuit, Rockefeller’s humble home, it had 40 rooms and 20 bedrooms and over 100 works of arts and more than 70 sculptures and 40 foundations and 3000+ acres; and a barn and other buildings. Basically, the same setup that most average Americans have; along with the businesses on several continents and connections with the highest elites. And it would not be an average Christian home of culture, without its sculptures of the Greek gods Apollo and Demeter. And as stated earlier the origin 400 acres were purchased during the great depression and stock market crash of 1893, which brings to question, what kind of deal did he get; another great Capitalism move of taking advancement of the unfortunate competitor or home owner. I am only a realist, and yes America has most likely the best form of government in the world, but it is not without its corruption and unfair enrichments.
And among these was Standard Oil (founded 1870), taking advantage of hand shake massive bank loans and depressions and pushing out the competition to the point their is basically none and now you can price fix not only the the people of the nation, but the very government itself which sent federal troops to protect your private businesses and banks and who continued to buy your products and increase your assets and banking loaning abilities – thus, multiplying not only their profits, but the Federal debt or obligation.
As to our connections and positions of power, David Rockefeller, grandson of John D., was a chairman of Chase Manhattan Corporation and of course major stockholder. James Stillman Rockefeller (1902-2004), son of William Goodsell Rockefeller (Director of the Consolidated Textile Co. – and son of William Avery Rockefeller Jr. – co-founder of Standard Oil with his brother JDR) married Nancy Carnegie (grandniece of Andrew Carnegie – 2nd richest man in the world at one time). James was part Brown Brothers Harriman (oldest and largest private bank in the US) before going to National City Bank when it merged with First National City Bank and in time became Citigroup of which he was a president and chief shareholder. At his death in 2004, he was survived by 37 grandchildren.
Percy Avery Rockefeller – a founder of Owenoke Corporation, youngest son of W. Avery R… Jr. married Isabel Goodrich Stillman (daughter of First National City Bank president James J. Stillman). He attended Yale and was a member of Skull and Bones (like presidents Taft and both George Bush – and their Senator Prescott Bush; and many other Senators and Congressman and Supreme Court Justices). Skull and Bones secret society was founded at Yale University in 1832, but is said to have its roots in German Freemasonry.
Like the Masons, the Bonesmen choose their own initiates in a process called being ‘tapped’ by an existing member. Along with the previously mentioned, Pierre Jay, the first chairman of the New York Federal Reserve and George L. Harrison, president of the N.Y. Fed. Res., were both Bonesmen and friends of Rockefellers. Also, George Bush tapped William Donaldson of the class of 1953, who later became the SEC Commissioner – not college football – the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wall Street. Another member of Skull and Bones, was Winston Lord, class of 1959, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, ambassador to China and assistant Sec. of State to Clinton. Henry Stimson, Pres. Taft’s Sec. of War in 1911-1913, Hoover’s Sec. of State and Truman’s Sec. of War 1940-1945; thus both WWs, was a Skull and Bones man class of 1888. Prescott Bush and others sold to the German Steel Trust which provided materials for a great percentage of Nazi weapons and support vehicles.
Avery Rockefeller, son of Percy, one of the richest financiers of his time, also attended Yale. He married Anna G. Mark, daughter of a wealthy steel manufacturer. John Sterling Rockefeller, son of William Goodsell also attended Yale, and was a member of their Scroll and Key; Yale’s second oldest secret society (1842). They also use the ‘tap’ process; and have many distinguished members – Sec. of States and CIA, etc. Steven C. R… was dean of Middlebury College, a trustee of Asian Cultural Council and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and a big funder of Planned Parenthood. Godfrey Stillman R… was a financier and member of Skull and Bones of Yale; he also was a Director of Freeport-McMoRan. Laura Spelman Rockefeller… great-grandfather was J.D. R… and other was Fredrick H. Billings, president of Northern Pacific Railway.
Hope Aldrich Rockefeller was a newspaper publisher, daughter of JDR III. She bought the Santa Fe Reporter after working there and for many papers. Hope was at one point the 3rd richest person in New Mexico. Her brother was John Davison ‘Jay’ Rockefeller IV, former Governor and U.S. Senator of West Virginia. Winifred R… was the daughter of Percy… granddaughter of James J. Stillman, pres. of National City Bank. Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller served as the 41st Vice President of the US under Pres. Gerald Ford, and a Governor of New York. He was named for Senator Nelson Aldrich, his grandfather, his father was JDR Jr who married Abigail Aldrich. Nelson Aldrich, once Treasurer of the Freemason Grand Lodge of Rhode Island, pushed through the income tax amendment and was part of the Federal Reserve System design.
I have not the time to continue further now; later hope to show the hundreds of billions they hold in oil stocks and mutual funds and lands.
The TRUTH SOURCE 