John D. Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York on July 8, 1839. John was the son of William Avery “Bill” Rockefeller and Eliza Davison. Throughout his childhood, John and his family moved many times within New York and finally settled in a suburb of Cleveland named Strongsville in the state of Ohio. He studied at Cleveland’s Central High School. After High School, he studied bookkeeping at Folsom’s Commercial College. He worked as a clerk in a Cleveland commission. John then entered the oil business and became very profitable and one of the richest men in the country. He married Laura Celestia “Cettie” Spelman in 1864, and they had four daughters and one son. John retired in the mid 1890s and became a philanthropist. After his retirement,
