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John D. Rockefeller & Henry Flagler signed Standard Oil Trust - 1880's dated Autograph Stock Certificate

Inv# AG1006   Stock
State(s): New York
Ohio
Years: 1880's
Color: Brown and Black

STANDARD OIL TRUST. 100 share stock, personally signed by John D. Rockefeller and Henry M. Flagler. Standard Oil Trust is considered to be the most significant in American financial history. Includes portraits. The Standard Oil generated wealth of John D. Rockefeller was estimated at $900 million in 1913, equivalent to $189.6 Billion today. This is more than the riches of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and the Walton family combined! In contrast, Rockefeller’s first job, in the 1850’s, earned him a wage of just $3.57 per week. Rockefeller developed a reputation over his lifetime of ruthlessness. Tales of men who had been ruined by him were accompanied by stories of bribed lawmakers, of railroad corruption, and of unfair discriminations.

Some of the old headlines read “Rockefeller Indicted Again”, “Standard Oil Before the Bar”, “Standard Oil Magnates Dodge Subpoenas”, “Rockefeller Faces Justice”, Later headlines changed dramatically in tone including “Rockefeller Gives Another Million to Unemployment Fund”, “Rockefeller Foundation Fights Pellagra in Georgia”, and “John D. Gives Dimes to Children”. Some speculate that his habit of giving dimes to people he met was based on the advice of Ivy Ledbetter Lee in 1914 who was hired to help manage the Rockefeller Empire’s image. Lee is considered the leading pioneer of today’s public relations industry, working first for J.P. Morgan, then for Rockefeller.

John D. Rockefeller soon engaged in the practice of carrying around a bag of dimes, handing one to everyone he met. Many people feel that this was John D Rockefeller’s way of getting closer to the public. It is said that he used to do it with relish, and so when someone approached him he would hand him a shiny dime in order to start a conversation. Late in life Rockefeller became known as "The Man Who Gave Away Shiny New Dimes". He reportedly gave away about $10,000 worth of dimes before his death, 100,000 Mercury dimes! A quote from Golf Digest-2002… “By 1920 Rockefeller already had become famous for handing out dimes to street urchins whom he thought deserving of spiritual encouragement or moral reward, and in Florida one winter he bestowed a dime on Harvey Firestone, president of the tire and rubber company, for having made a long and treacherous downhill putt.”

An additional quote from the biography “John D. Rockefeller” by Barnie F. Winkelman states “The shiny dimes that the aging Rockefeller handed out were a symbol and a sermon. The symbol was frequently misunderstood and the moral of the sermon quite generally distorted. The little gift was a token and a good-luck piece. In a broad sense it emphasized thrift, but not as a sure road to wealth, rather as a way and a habit of life.” Winkelman further offers a quote by Rockefeller “It is the duty of a man to get all the money he honestly can and to give all he can. This is the basis of progress. In this way morality and religion move forward and civilization is advanced.”

John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was born into a large family in upstate New York that moved several times before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. He became an assistant bookkeeper at age 16 and went into several business partnerships beginning at age 20, concentrating his business on oil refining. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He ran it until 1897 and remained its largest shareholder. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller

Henry Morrison Flagler (January 2, 1830 – May 20, 1913) was an American industrialist and a founder of Standard Oil, which was first based in Ohio. He was also a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida and founder of the Florida East Coast Railway, much of which he built through convict leasing. He is known as the father of Miami and Palm Beach, Florida. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Flagler

Standard Oil Trust

In response to state laws that had the result of limiting the scale of companies, Rockefeller and his associates developed innovative ways of organizing to effectively manage their fast-growing enterprise. On January 2, 1882, they combined their disparate companies, spread across dozens of states, under a single group of trustees. By a secret agreement, the existing 37 stockholders conveyed their shares "in trust" to nine trustees: John and William Rockefeller, Oliver H. Payne, Charles Pratt, Henry Flagler, John D. Archbold, William G. Warden, Jabez Bostwick, and Benjamin Brewster.

“Whereas some state legislatures imposed special taxes on out-of-state corporations doing business in their states, other legislatures forbade corporations in their state from holding the stock of companies based elsewhere. (Legislators established such restrictions in the hope that they would force successful companies to incorporate—and thus pay taxes—in their state.)”  Standard Oil's organizational concept proved so successful that other giant enterprises adopted this "trust" form.

By 1882, Rockefeller's top aide was John Dustin Archbold, whom he left in control after disengaging from business to concentrate on philanthropy after 1896. Other notable principals of the company include Henry Flagler, developer of the Florida East Coast Railway and resort cities, and Henry H. Rogers, who built the Virginian Railway. In 1885, Standard Oil of Ohio moved its headquarters from Cleveland to its permanent headquarters at 26 Broadway in New York City. Concurrently, the trustees of Standard Oil of Ohio chartered the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey (SOCNJ) to take advantage of New Jersey's more lenient corporate stock ownership laws. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil#Standard_Oil_Trust

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A stock certificate is issued by businesses, usually companies. A stock is part of the permanent finance of a business. Normally, they are never repaid, and the investor can recover his/her money only by selling to another investor. Most stocks, or also called shares, earn dividends, at the business's discretion, depending on how well it has traded. A stockholder or shareholder is a part-owner of the business that issued the stock certificates.

Item ordered may not be exact piece shown. All original and authentic.
Price: $3,740.00