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Auction: 1007 - Bond & Shares of The World
Lot: 652

Standard Oil Company (OH), $100 shares, Cleveland 187(8), no.209, handsigned by John D. Rockefeller as president and Henry M. Flagler as secretary, vignette of the U.S.Capitol building, Liberty holding flag bottom left, black, ink cancelled, counterfoil reglued at left, good very fine. Estimate £ 2,000 John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) was the dominant figure in the oil industry until his retirement in 1911. He started his business career as a bookkeeper and by age 19 was a partner in a produce business. He began operating a small refinery with his partners, and he quickly became alerted to the growing investment possibilities in what was then a fairly new industry. In 1870, he organized the Standard Oil Company of Ohio and proceeded to achieve control over 90% of the oil refineries in the country. Rockefeller had little interest in discovering oil; he left that to the wildcatters and other speculators. He concentrated on the transportation, distribution and sales of petroleum products, building a fortune estimated at over a billion dollars. Henry Morrison Flager (1830-1913), with J. D. Rockefeller organized the Florida East Coast Railway (1886), and built great hotel resorts in St. Augustine and Miami (1892-1896).

Sold for
£1,600