The Collected Library, Including Americana and Early Photography

Rockefeller Buys His Own Stock

Cleveland, February 5, 1876. Printed oblong sheet, 6 1/2 x 15 1/2 in. (165 x 394 mm). Stock certificate of the Standard Oil Company (#79) signed by John D. Rockefeller as President, made out to himself for 750 shares. Co-signed by Secretary Henry M. Flagler. Red ink cancel over text and signatures. Accompanying receipt, also #79, pasted to left margin. Creasing from old folds, small closed tear to same, scattered wear to top margin, adhesive stain from mounting.

Rare stock certificate signed by John D. Rockefeller, President of the Standard Oil Company, issuing 750 shares to himself.

The Standard Oil Company was founded in 1870, a conglomeration of past partnerships of Rockefeller's dating back as far as 1863 which he incorporated under one name alongside his brother William, and Henry Flagler. Despite its relatively new and modest structure, it became an immediate contender in the fast-growing oil market, as it already had control of 10% of the petroleum refineries in America. Rockefeller owned more shares than any of his other partners from the beginning, and would buy additional stock for himself on any given chance.

He was so confident in the potential appreciation of the stock that he would offer shares in lieu of cash in business deals or transactions. Biographer Ron Chernow describes, "It mortified Rockefeller that so few trusting souls took Standard Oil stock. Mostly, they doubted that Rockefeller and his Young Turks could realize their experimental plan. As he recalled, 'So when I offered them either spot cash outright for their property or stock in the new company, they took my money and laughed in their sleeves at my folly.' Rockefeller knew, with his customary certitude,
that the people who took shares would be enriched. Indeed, American high society in the twentieth
century would be loaded with descendants of those refiners who opted for stock..." (Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr. 1998. p. 151)