But he exercised greater political influence through his work as a ward boss in New York's Fifteenth Assembly District. He served as a state senator and a representative to the New York Assembly. George Washington Plunkitt (1842–1924) was an influential leader in Tammany Hall, New York's Democratic political machine. Various Rockefeller-funded charities continue to make important contributions in the philanthropic field today. With personal assets estimated at a billion dollars, he supported several philanthropies including the University of Chicago, the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Rockefeller had largely retired from active management of the company. But the United States Supreme Court ruled that this also constituted an illegal monopoly and ordered the company dissolved in 1911.īy this point, John D. It was then reorganized as a holding company, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey.
The company was declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Ohio in 1892 and dissolved in 1899.
To eliminate his competitors, Rockefeller used his firm's superior size to negotiate preferential rates from the railroads that transported both his and his competitors' oil, making it nearly impossible for his competitors to stay in business.ĭue to its controversial monopolistic control over the oil industry, Standard Oil faced a series of legal battles. Rockefeller's strategy of establishing a virtual monopoly over one aspect of the production process-in his case, oil refining-was labeled horizontal integration.
In 1869, he formed the Standard Oil Company, and within 15 years, Standard Oil had acquired near-monopoly control over the American petroleum industry, refining 90% of the nation's oil. Born in New York, he was trained as a bookkeeper but entered the oil business shortly after the discovery of oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859. Rockefeller (1839–1937) was a Gilded Age industrialist and the founder of Standard Oil. Andrew Carnegie retired to Scotland and dedicated his time and money to various philanthropies consistent with the philosophy that he advanced in " The Gospel of Wealth." Among these philanthropies were the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Morgan acquired Carnegie Steel in the process of building U.S. He also employed "vertical integration"-control over every aspect of the industry from the mining of iron ore through the production and distribution of steel-to increase his control over the industry and the profitability of his firm.īy the turn of the century, Carnegie Steel was the largest steel company in America. At the war's end, Carnegie entered the iron industry, and recognizing that steel rails would soon replace iron rails, he invested in the steel business.Ĭarnegie utilized the newest technologies, like the Bessemer blast furnace, to expand his steel company. By the Civil War, he held an administrative position with the railroad. He worked as a bobbin boy and a telegraph messenger before taking a job with the Pennsylvania Railroad at the age of 18. He epitomized the Gilded Age ideal of the self-made man, rising from poverty to become one of the wealthiest individuals in the history of the world.īorn into a humble family in Scotland, Carnegie came to the United States with his impoverished parents at the age of 13. Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) was a Gilded Age industrialist, the owner of the Carnegie Steel Company, and a major philanthropist.