ABSTRACT
The most reviled and in many respects the greatest of American moguls was born John Davison Rockefeller in 1839, in the hamlet of Richford, New York. God was to grant him a full ninety-eight years of life, and to bless him, too, with marvelous faculties which were faulty in one respect only—that public opinion was something he ought to consider never entered his mind. Life was periodically hard for the numerous family of Wilham and Eliza Rockefeller. The father's somewhat mysterious occupation took him away from home for many months at a time, during which the rent often lapsed and the cupboard was bare. Not even by the careless standards of the time could William Rockefeller have been properly termed a doctor; but the title was assumed in that day by anyone who wanted it; and hundreds of "doctors," some with shows, some without, ranged the country with impunity, often to their great financial gain.
