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Rockefeller family
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The Rockefeller family, the renowned Cleveland family of John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) ("Senior") and his brother William Rockefeller (1841-1922), is an American industrial, banking, and political family of German American origin that made the world's largest private fortune in the oil business during the late 19th and early 20th century, primarily through the Standard Oil Company. The family is also known for its long association with and financial interest in the Chase Manhattan Bank, now JP Morgan Chase.
Name and origin
The name is an anglicized version of the German Rokkenfelder or Rockenfeller, meaning from Rockenfeld.
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Encyclopedia
The Rockefeller family, the renowned Cleveland family of John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) ("Senior") and his brother William Rockefeller (1841-1922), is an American industrial, banking, and political family of German American origin that made the world's largest private fortune in the oil business during the late 19th and early 20th century, primarily through the Standard Oil Company. The family is also known for its long association with and financial interest in the Chase Manhattan Bank, now JP Morgan Chase.
Name and origin
The name is an anglicized version of the German Rokkenfelder or Rockenfeller, meaning from Rockenfeld. The Rockefellers' origin can be explicitly traced back to the villages of Ehlscheid, Segendorf and Fahr (all suburbanised to Neuwied, Rhineland-Palatinate). These are neighbored to the small settlement of Rockenfeld - part of Neuwied's quarter Feldkirchen. In Germany, Rockenfeller is known as a family name.
Family records in parish registers reach back to the end of the Thirty Years' War. The earliest known ancestors (direct line) are Goddard Rockenfeller (*ca. 1590) Johann Wilhem Rockenfeller(*ca. 1628,†1702) and Johannes Rockenfeller (*ca. 1634,†1684). Johann Peter (*1682), son of Johannes, moved in 1723 to Ringoes, New Jersey. Johann Thiel (*1695), grandson of Johann Wilhelm, immigrated in 1735 to Germantown, New York. William Avery Rockefeller was looking for a noble descent and a possible connection to a French Huguenot family de Roquefeullie was discussed. However, this is unlikely because the name Rockenfeld is recorded in the region long before the Huguenots fled France (1685).
Johann Peter's grandson, William, married a distant relative, Christina, the granddaughter of a cousin of Johann Peter. This marriage produced a son, Godfrey, who married Lucy Avery in 1806. Avery's ancestors were part of the Puritan tide from Devon, England to Massachusetts around 1630. Lucy Avery could justly claim descent from Edmund Ironside, the English king, crowned in 1016.
Godfrey and Lucy eventually shifted to the remote, backwater stagecoach stop of Richford, in the western part of New York State. Their son, William Avery Rockefeller (1810–1906) was a trader in salt and timber who adopted a vagabond life as a confidence man and was known as "Big Bill", who sired two illegitimate children with his housekeeper. He married up, to Eliza Davison in 1837; her father, John Davison, was relatively rich for the time. Their second child was John Davison Rockefeller, and their third William Rockefeller.
The Rockefellers eventually settled near Cleveland, Ohio, where they would develop into the world-renowned family empire they are today. It was in Cleveland where John D. Sr. would amass his great fortune through Standard Oil which he formed with his brother William Rockefeller, Henry Flagler, chemist Samuel Andrews, and a silent partner Stephen V. Harkness., and where he would later be buried at Lake View Cemetery. In the generations since, however, the Rockefeller family has largely migrated to New York City, although many descendants remain in Cleveland or have since spread out across the country (e.g. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia). The family business headquarters is now located in New York City's Rockefeller Plaza.
Generational philanthropy
The members of the Rockefeller family are noted for their philanthropy; a Rockefeller Archive Center study in 2004 documents an incomplete list of 72 major institutions that the family has created and/or endowed up to the present day. Historically, the major focus of their benefactions have been in the educational, health and conservation areas.
Family leaders in both philanthropy and business have included John D. Sr., John D. Jr. ("Junior"), John D. III, Laurance Rockefeller and David Rockefeller, who is the family's current patriarch. Several family members have held high public office, including Vice President of the United States (Nelson Rockefeller), United States Senator (Jay Rockefeller), state Governor (Nelson, Jay, and Winthrop Rockefeller), and Lieutenant Governor (Winthrop Paul Rockefeller). Another noted family member was Michael Rockefeller, son of Nelson, an anthropologist who came to media attention after he was presumed killed in New Guinea in 1961.
The corporate, financial and personal affairs of the family - numbering around 150 blood relatives of John D. Rockefeller - are run from the family office, Room 5600, known officially as "Rockefeller Family and Associates". It comprises three floors of the GE Building in Rockefeller Center; all private family legal matters are handled by the family-associated New York law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. Room 5600 is also the base of the current family historian, Peter J. Johnson, who assisted with David Rockefeller's Memoirs, published in 2002.
To distinguish the generations and facilitate communication, the fourth generation is generically known as "The Cousins" (24 in all, with 21 still living) and the younger family members are known as the "Fifth/Sixth" generation. Many if not all of these family members are involved in institutionalised philanthropic pursuits. Family links are solidified through the practice of ritualised family meetings - which started with the regular "brothers' meetings" held in Room 5600 or in their respective private residences, beginning in 1945. Family get-togethers are held today at the "Playhouse", in the Westchester County family estate of Pocantico, in June (the "cousins weekend") and December of each year (see Kykuit).
The edifice complex
Often credited with an "edifice complex", members of the family have been heavily involved in myriad real estate construction projects in the US over the span of the twentieth century. Chief among them:
- The International House of New York - New York, 1924 (Junior) ;
- The College of William and Mary's Wren Building - Virginia, from 1927 (Renovation funded by Junior);
- Colonial Williamsburg - Virginia, from 1927 onwards (Junior, Abby Aldrich, John D. 3rd), historical restoration;
- The Museum of Modern Art - New York, from 1929 (Abby Aldrich, Junior, Blanchette, Nelson, David, David Jr., Sharon Percy Rockefeller);
- The Riverside Church - New York, 1930 (Junior);
- The Cloisters - New York, from 1934 (Junior);
- The Interchurch Center - New York, 1948 (Junior);
- The Asia Society (Asia House) - New York, 1956 (John D. 3rd);
- One Chase Manhattan Plaza - New York, 1961 (David);
- The Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza - Albany, New York, 1962 (Nelson);
- Lincoln Center - New York, 1962 (John D. 3rd);
- The World Trade Center Twin Towers - New York, 1973 (David and Nelson);
- The Embarcadero Complex - San Francisco, 1974 (David);
- The Council of the Americas/Americas Society - New York, 1985 (David).
In addition to this is Senior and Junior's involvement in seven major housing developments: Forest Hill Estates in Cleveland, Ohio; the City Housing Corporations efforts at Sunnyside Gardens in Queens (NY); Thomas Garden Apartments in the Bronx (NY); Paul Lawrence Dunbar Housing in Harlem; Lavoisier Apartments in Manhattan (NY); Van Tassel Apartments in Sleepy Hollow (formerly North Tarrytown), New York; and a development in Radburn, New Jersey. A further project involved David Rockefeller in a major middle-income housing development when he was elected in 1947 as chairman of Morningside Heights Inc. in Manhattan by fourteen major institutions that were based in the area, including Columbia University. The result, in 1951, was the six-building apartment complex known as Morningside Gardens.
Senior's donations led to the formation of the University of Chicago in 1889, where the first American Nobel Prize in science was produced in 1907, and notable for the Chicago School of Economics. This was one instance of a long family and Rockefeller Foundation tradition of financially supporting Ivy League and other major colleges and universities over the generations - seventy-five in total. This includes Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Princeton University, Stanford University, Yale University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Case Western Reserve University, Brown University, Columbia University, and Cornell University. This financial assistance extends overseas to institutions such as London School of Economics and University College London, among many others.
Senior (and Junior) also created the Rockefeller University in 1901; the General Education Board in 1902, which later (1923) evolved into the International Education Board; the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission in 1910; the Bureau of Social Hygiene in 1913 (Junior); the International Health Commission in 1913; and the China Medical Board in 1915.
In the 1920s, the International Education Board granted important fellowships to pathbreakers in modern mathematics, such as Stefan Banach, Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, and André Weil, which was a formative part of the gradual shift of world mathematics to the US over this period. To help promote cooperation between physics and mathematics Rockefeller funds also supported the erection of the new Mathematical Institute at the University of Göttingen between 1926 and 1929, while the rise of probability and mathematical statistics owes much to the creation of the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris by American philanthropy also around this time.
Junior also financially supported numerous other major institutions, notable among them his ongoing support for the highly influential foreign policy think tank, the New York Council on Foreign Relations, established in 1921. In 1978 the Rockefeller Foundation initiated the founding of the financial advisory council called the Group of Thirty, as well as many grants to a myriad of universities, think tanks and other institutions.
Junior was also responsible for the creation and endowment of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, which operates the restored historical town at Williamsburg, Virginia, one of the most extensive historic restorations ever undertaken.
Conservation
Beginning with Rockefeller Senior, the family has been a major force in land conservation. Over the generations, it has created more than 20 national parks and open spaces, including the Cloisters, Acadia National Park, Forest Hill Park, the Nature Conservancy, and Grand Teton National Park, amongst many others. Rockefeller Jr, and his son Laurance (and his son Larry) were particularly prominent in this area. Most of these efforts were accomplished without public fanfare.
The family was honored for its conservation efforts in November, 2005, by the National Audubon Society, one of America's largest and oldest conservation organizations, at which over 30 family members attended. At the event, the society's president, John Flicker, notably stated: "Cumulatively, no other family in America has made the contribution to conservation that the Rockefeller family has made".
International politics/finance/economics
The family has been awarded the annual UNA-USA’s Global Leadership Award, along with other recipients over time, including Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg. Members of the Rockefeller family into the fourth generation (especially the prominent banker and statesman David Rockefeller, who is the present family patriarch) have been heavily involved in international politics, and have donated money, established or been involved in the following major international institutions:
- The Council on Foreign Relations - David, David Jr., Nelson, John D. 3rd, John D. IV (Jay), Peggy Dulany, Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
- The Trilateral Commission - David, Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
- The Bilderberg Group - David, John D. IV.
- The Asia Society - John D. 3rd, John D. IV, Charles, David.
- The Population Council - John D. 3rd.
- The Council of the Americas - David.
- The Group of Thirty - The Rockefeller Foundation.
- The World Economic Forum - David.
- The Brookings Institution - Junior.
- The Peterson Institute (Formerly the
Institute for International Economics) - David. The International Executive Service Corps - David. The Institute for Pacific Relations - Junior. The League of Nations - Junior. The United Nations - Junior, John D. 3rd, Nelson, David, Peggy Dulany, Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The United Nations Association - David.
The family archives
The Rockefeller Archive Center, an independent foundation that was until 2008 a division of Rockefeller University, is a vast three-story underground bunker built below the Martha Baird Rockefeller Hillcrest mansion on the family estate at Pocantico (see Kykuit). Along forty-foot-long walls of shelves on rails, patrolled by ten full-time archivists, is the entire repository of personal and official papers and correspondence of the complete family and its members, along with historical papers of its numerous foundations, as well as other non-family philanthropic institutions. These include: the Commonwealth Fund, Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust, and the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation.
In total, it holds over 70 million pages of documents and contains the collections of forty-two scientific, cultural, educational and philanthropic organizations.
Only the expurgated records of deceased family members are publicly available to scholars and researchers; all records pertaining to living members are closed to historians. As Nelson Rockefeller's researcher, Cary Reich, discovered however, in the case of Nelson's voluminous of papers, about only one third of these files had been processed (that is, each page vetted by the archivists) and released to researchers up to 1996. He reports that it will be many years before all the papers will be open to the public, despite Nelson having died in 1979.
The Center maintains that this repository of records, covering 140-plus years of the records of the family, in addition to non-Rockefeller philanthropic collections, gives unique insights into United States and world issues and social developments in both the 19th and 20th centuries.
Records in the collection are only available up until the early 1960s, generally 1961. Major subjects in the collection include:
- Agriculture,
- The Arts,
- African-American history,
- Education,
- International Relations,
- Economic Development,
- Labor,
- Medicine,
- Philanthropy,
- Politics,
- Population,
- Religion,
- Social Sciences,
- Social Welfare,
- Women's history.
Family wealth
The combined wealth of the family – its total assets and investments plus the individual wealth of its members – has never been known with any precision. In 1992, family members estimated it to be between US$5 billion to $10 billion. The records of the family archives relating to both the family and individual members' net worth is closed to researchers. Independent researchers have valued the assets of the Rockefeller family much higher, some approaching amounts as high as $110 billion.
From the outset, and even today, the family wealth has been under the complete control of the male members of the dynasty, through the family office. Despite strong-willed wives who had influence over their husbands' decisions – such as the pivotal female figure Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, wife of Junior – in all cases they received allowances only and were never given even partial responsibility for the family fortune.
Much of the wealth has been locked up in the notable family trust of 1934 (which holds the bulk of the fortune and matures on the death of the fourth generation), and the trust of 1952, both administered by the Chase Manhattan Bank. These trusts have consisted of shares in the successor companies to Standard Oil and other diversified investments, as well as the family's considerable real estate holdings. They are administered by a powerful trust committee that oversees the fortune. It has consisted over time of high-profile individuals, which have included Paul Volcker, William G. Bowen (former president of Princeton University) and John C. Whitehead (retired co-chairman of Goldman Sachs).
Management of this fortune today also rests with professional money managers who oversee the principal holding company, Rockefeller Financial Services, which controls all the family's investments, now that Rockefeller Center is no longer owned by the family. The present chairman is David Rockefeller, Jr.
In 1992, it had five main arms:
Rockefeller & Co. (Money management: Universities have invested some of their endowments in this company); Venrock Associates (Venture Capital: an early investment in Apple Computer was one of many it made in Silicon Valley entrepreneurial start-ups);Rockefeller Trust Company (Manages hundreds of family trusts);Rockefeller Insurance Company (Manages liability insurance for family members);Acadia Risk Management (Insurance Broker: Contracts out policies for the family's vast art collections, real estate and private planes.)
Family residences
Over the generations the family members have resided in some notable historic homes. A total of 81 Rockefeller homes are on the National Register of Historic Places. Not including all homes owned by the five brothers, some of the more prominent of these are:
- Kykuit - The landmark six-story home on the vast Westchester County family estate, home to four generations of the family;
- Bassett Hall - The house at Colonial Williamsburg bought by Junior in 1927 and renovated by 1936, it was favorite residence of both Junior and Abby and is now a house museum at the family-restored Colonial Revival town;
- The Eyrie - A sprawling 100-room summer holiday home on Mount Desert Island in Maine, subsequently demolished by family members in the 1950s;
- Forest Hill - The family's country estate and summer home in Cleveland for four decades. Built and occupied by Senior, it burned down in 1917;
- Golf House at Lakewood, New Jersey - The former three-story clubhouse for the elite Ocean County Hunt and Country Club, which Senior bought in 1902 to play golf on its golf course;
- The Casements - A three-story house at Ormond Beach in Florida, where Senior spent his last winters, from 1919 until his death;
- 10 West Fifty-fourth Street - A nine-story single family home, the former residence of Junior before he shifted to 740 Park Ave, and the largest residence in New York City at the time, it was the home for the five young brothers. It was later given by Junior to the Museum of Modern Art;
- One Beekman Place - The residence of Laurance in New York City;
- 740 Park Avenue - Junior and Abby's famed 40-room triplex apartment in the luxury apartment building, which was later sold for a record price;
- The JY Ranch - The landmark ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the holiday resort home built by Junior and later owned by Laurance, it was used by all members of the family and had many prominent visitors, including presidents, until Laurance donated it to the federal government in 2001.
Criticism
Through the Rockefeller family's involvement in many aspect of the United States history, such as,the economy, politics, religion, and banks, many people see them as heroic, noble, humble, generous, unselfish, and genuine. Although many have a different view of the Rockefeller family, one that is dark. Many view the Rockefeller family as apathetic, ruthless, and to a degree Narcissistic in the sense that they did what they needed for themselves so that they could flourish and prosper.
Legacy
A trademark of the dynasty over its 140-plus years has been the remarkable unity it has maintained, despite major divisions that developed in the late 1970s, and unlike other wealthy families such as the DuPonts and the Mellons. A primary reason has been the lifelong efforts of "Junior" to not only cleanse the name from the opprobrium stemming from the ruthless practices of Standard Oil, but his tireless efforts to forge family unity even as he allowed his five sons to operate independently. This was partly achieved by regular brothers and family meetings, but it was also because of the high value placed on family unity by first Nelson and John 3rd, and later especially with David.
As for achievements, in 1972, on the 100th anniversary of the founding of Andrew Carnegie's philanthropy, the Carnegie Corporation, which has had a long association with the family and its institutions, released a public statement on the influence of the family on not just philanthropy but encompassing a much wider field. Summing up a publicly poorly grasped but predominant view amongst the international philanthropic world, one sentence of this statement read: "The contributions of the Rockefeller family are staggering in their extraordinary range and in the scope of their contribution to humankind."
As far as wealth is concerned, John D. Rockefeller denied ever being worth $10,000,000,000. However, on September 29, 1916 (notably years after the break-up of his Standard Oil empire by the Supreme Court in 1911), he officially passed that mark and became the richest man who has ever lived, surpassing Carnegie's by far.
He gave away more than half that amount over his lifetime, US$540 million (in dollar terms of that time), and became the greatest lay benefactor of medicine in history. His son, "Junior" also gave away over $537 million over his lifetime, bringing the total philanthropy of just two generations of the family to over $1 billion from 1860 to 1960. Added to this, the New York Times declared in a report in November, 2006 that David Rockefeller's total charitable benefactions amount to about $900 million over his lifetime.
The combined personal and social connections of the various family members are vast, both in America and throughout the world, including the most powerful politicians, royalty, public figures, and chief businessmen. Notable figures through Standard Oil alone have included Henry Flagler and Henry H. Rogers. Contemporary figures include Henry Kissinger, Nelson Mandela, Richard Parsons (Chairman and CEO of Time Warner), C. Fred Bergsten, Peter G. Peterson (Senior Chairman of the Blackstone Group), and Paul Volcker.
The Rockefeller name is imprinted on numerous places throughout the United States, most notably in New York City, but also in Cleveland, where the family originates:
- The Rockefeller Center - A landmark 19-building 22 acre complex in the center of Manhattan established by Junior: Older section constructed from 1930-1939; Newer section constructed during the 1960s-1970s;
- The Rockefeller University - Renamed in 1965, this is the distinguished Nobel prize-winning graduate/postgraduate medical school (formerly the
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, established by Senior in 1901); The Rockefeller Foundation - Founded in 1913, this is the famous philanthropic organization set up by Senior and Junior; The Rockefeller Brothers Fund - Founded in 1940 by the third-generation's five sons and one daughter of Junior; The Rockefeller Family Fund - Founded in 1967 by members of the family's fourth-generation; The Rockefeller Group - A private family-run real estate development company based in New York that originally owned, constructed and managed Rockefeller Center, it is now wholly owned by Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd; The Rockefeller Research Laboratories Building - A major research center into cancer that was established in 1986 and named after Laurance, this is situated at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; The Rockefeller Center - Home of the International Student Services office and department of philosophy, politics and law at the State University of New York at Binghamton; The Rockefeller Chapel - Completed in 1928, this is the tallest building on the campus of the University of Chicago, established by Senior in 1889; The Rockefeller Hall - Established by Senior in 1906, this building houses the Case Western Reserve University Physics Department; The Rockefeller Hall - Established by Senior and completed in 1906, this building houses the Cornell University Physics Department; The Rockefeller Hall - Established by Senior in 1887, who granted Vassar College a $100,000 ($2.34 million in 2006 dollars) allowance to build additional, much needed lecture space. The final cost of the facility was $99,998.75. It now houses multi-purpose classrooms and departmental offices for political science, philosophy and math; The Rockefeller Hall - Established by Senior and completed in 1886, this is the oldest building on the campus of Spelman College; The Rockefeller College - Named after John D. Rockefeller III, this is a residential college at Princeton University; The Michael C. Rockefeller Arts Center - Completed in 1969 in memory of Nelson Rockefeller's son, this is a cultural center at the State University of New York; The Michael C. Rockefeller Collection and the Department of Primitive Art - Completed in 1982 after being initiated by Nelson, this is a wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; The David and Peggy Rockefeller Building - A tribute to David's wife, Peggy Rockefeller, this is a new (completed in 2004) six-story building housing the main collection and temporary exhibition galleries of the family's Museum of Modern Art; The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden - Completed in 1949 by David, this is a major outdoor feature of the Museum of Modern Art; The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum - Opened in 1957 by Junior, this is a leading folk art museum within the complex of Junior's Colonial Williamsburg; The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Hall - The freshman residence hall on the campus of Spelman College; The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Building - Completed in 1918, it is among other things a student residence hall at Spelman College, after the wife of Senior and after whom the College was named; The Rockefeller State Park Preserve - Part of the family estate in Westchester County, this preserve was officially handed over to New York State in 1983, although it had previously always been open to the public; The Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park - Established as a historical museum of conservation by Laurance during the 1990s. The John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway - Established in 1972 through Congressional authorization, connecting Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks; The Rockefeller Forest - Funded by Junior, this is located within Humboldt Redwoods State Park, California's largest redwood state park; Either of two US congressional committees . Rockefeller Park, a scenic park featuring gardens dedicated to several world nations along Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. between University Circle and Lake Erie in Cleveland. The Winthrop Rockefeller Institute of the University of Arkansas System was established in 2005 with a grant from the Winthrop Rockefeller Charitable Trust. The educational center with conference and lodging facilities is located on Petit Jean Mountain near Morrilton, Arkansas, on the original grounds of Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller’s model cattle farm.
John D Junior, through his son Nelson, purchased and then donated the land upon which sits the UN headquarters, in New York, in 1946. Earlier, in the 1920s, he had also donated a substantial amount towards the restoration and rehabilitation of major buildings in France after World War I, such as the Rheims Cathedral, the Fontainebleau Palace and the Palace of Versailles, for which he was later (1936) awarded France's highest decoration, the Grand Croix of the Legion d'Honneur (subsequently also awarded decades later to his son, David Rockefeller).
He also funded the notable excavations at Luxor in Egypt, as well as establishing a Classical Studies School in Athens. In addition, he provided the funding for the construction of the Palestine Archaeological Museum in East Jerusalem - the Rockefeller Museum.
For all of the above reasons, the family and its far reaching philanthropy, and its oil, real estate, banking, and international institutions is still considered today to be America's greatest family. It is also a benchmark for extreme wealth ("as rich as Rockefeller"), as "Senior" is still regarded as the wealthiest man who has ever lived, worth over $300 billion in today's figures, easily surpassing Bill Gates, in terms adjusted by inflation indexing.
Members of the Rockefeller family
Ancestors
- Goddard Rockenfeller (1590–1684) (m.1622) Magdalena (1592–1656)
- Johannes Rockenfeller (1634–1684) (m.1678) Elizabeth Margaretha Remagen (1634)
- Johann Peter Rockefeller (1681, Prussia–1763, Rocktown, NJ) (Arrived in America 1708)
- Peter Rockefeller (1711–1787) (m.1740) Mary Bellis (1723–1772) (Had nine children in all)
- Godfrey Rockefeller (1745–1818)
- Margaret Rockefeller (1750–1797) (m.late 1700s) George Trumbo (1750–1830)
- William Rockefeller (1750–1793) (m.1700s) Christina Rockefeller (1754–1800) (Distant relative) (Had seven children in all)
- Simon William Rockefeller (1775–1839)
- Godfrey Lewis Rockefeller (1783–1857) (m.1806) Lucy Avery (1786–1867) (Had ten children in all)
Eliza Davison (1813–1889)- Lucy Rockefeller (1838–1878) (m.1856) Pierson D. Briggs
- John Davison Rockefeller (1839–1937) (m.1864) Laura Celestia Spelman (1839–1915)
- William Rockefeller (1841–1922) (m.1864) Almira Geraldine Goodsell
- Mary Ann Rockefeller (1843–1925) (m.1872) William Cullen Rudd
- Franklin Rockefeller (1845–1917) (m.1870) Helen Elizabeth Scofield
- Francis Rockefeller (1845–1847)
William W. Rockefeller (1788–1851) (m.early 1800s) Eleanor Kisselbrack (1784–1859)
Descendants of John Davison Rockefeller
To the sixth-generation, with 21 still living in the fourth (the Cousins). The total number of blood relative descendants as of 2006 is about 150.
- Elizabeth "Bessie" Rockefeller Strong (1866–1906) (m.1889) Charles Augustus Strong (1862–1940)
- Margaret Strong (1897–1985) (m.1st.1927) George de Cuevas (1885–1961); (m.2nd.1977) Raimundo de Larrain
- Alice Rockefeller (1869–1870)
- Alta Rockefeller Prentice (1871–1962) (m.1901) Ezra Parmelee Prentice (1863–1955)
- John Rockefeller Prentice (1902–1972) (m.1941) Abra Cantrill (1912–1972)
- Mary Adeline Prentice Gilbert (1907–1981) (m.1937) Benjamin Davis Gilbert (1907–)
- Spelman Prentice (1911) (m.3rd.1972) Mimi Walters
- Pamela Prentice (1938)(m.1st. 1960) Frans H. ten Bos
- Helena ten Bos (1962)(m. 1987) Count Frederic de Belloy de Saint-Lienard
- Joanna ten Bos (1964)(m. 1989) Christopher Booth
- Peter Spelman Prentice (1940)
- Alexandra Sartell Prentice (1962)
- Peter Parmalee Bens (1987)
- Erik Carl Bens (1996)
- Sarah Prentice Bens (1997)
- Michael Andrew Prentice (1964)
- Alta Rockefeller Prentice (1942)
- Michael Sartell Prentice (1944)
- Edith Rockefeller McCormick (1872–1932) (m.1895) Harold Fowler McCormick
- John Rockefeller McCormick (1897–1901)
- Editha McCormick (1903–1904)
- Harold Fowler McCormick, Jr. (1898–1973) (m.1931) Anne "Fifi" Potter Stillman (1879–1969)
- Muriel McCormick (1902–1959) (m.1931) Elisha Dyer Hubbard (1906–)
- Mathilde McCormick (1905–1947) (m.1923) Max Oser (1877–1942)
- John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. (1874–1960) (m.1901) Abigail "Abby" Greene Aldrich
- Abby Rockefeller Mauzé (1903–1976)
- Abby Rockefeller Milton O'Neill (born 1928)
- Marilyn Ellen Milton Simpson (1931–1980)
- Laura Knickerbacker Simpson (1954)
- Donna Rockefeller Deyoung Simpson (1956)
- Abby Rockefeller Simpson (1958)
- Sandra Ferry Rockefeller (1935)
- John D. Rockefeller III (1906–1978) (m.1932) Blanchette Ferry Hooker
- Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (1908–1979) (m.1st.1930) Mary Todhunter Clark (m.2nd.1963) Margaretta Fitler Murphy
- Laurance Spelman Rockefeller (1910–2004) (m.1934) Mary French
- Winthrop Rockefeller (1912–1973) (m.1st.1948) Barbara "Bobo" Sears (m.2nd.1956) Jeannette Edris
- David Rockefeller (1915) (m.1940) Margaret McGrath
An article in the New York Times in 1937 stated that William Rockefeller had, at that time, exactly 28 great-grandchildren.
- Lewis Edward Rockefeller (1865–1866)
- Emma Rockefeller McAlpin (1868–1934)
- William Goodsell Rockefeller (1870–1922)
- William Avery Rockefeller (1896–1973)
- Godfrey Stillman Rockefeller (1899–1983)
- Godfrey Anderson Rockefeller
- James Stillman Rockefeller (1902–2004)
- James Stillman Rockefeller, Jr. (born 1926)
- Liv Merlin Rockefeller Hessler (1957)
- Ola Stillman Rockefeller (1959)
- Nancy Sherlock Carnegie Rockefeller (1927)
- Andrew Carnegie Rockefeller (1929)
- Georgia Stillman Rockefeller (1933) (Married J Harden Rose)
- James Stillman Rose (1958)
- Andrew Carnegie Rose (1960)
- Georgia Rockefeller Rose (1961)
- John Sterling Rockefeller (1904–1988)
- Almira Geraldine Rockefeller (1907) (The wife of MacRoy Jackson, Samuel Weston Scott, and later Hardie Scott.)
- John Davison Rockefeller (1872–1877)
- Percy Avery Rockefeller (1878–1934)
- Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge (1882–1973)
Spouses
- Laura Celestia Spelman "Cettie" (1839–1915) - John D. Rockefeller.
- Abby Greene Aldrich (1874–1948) - John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
- Martha Baird Allen (1895–1971) - John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
- Mary Todhunter Clark "Tod" (1907–1999) - Nelson Rockefeller.
- Margaretta Fitler Murphy "Happy" (born 1926) - Nelson Rockefeller.
- Anne Marie Rasmussen - Steven C. Rockefeller.
- Blanchette Ferry Hooker (1909–1992) - John D. Rockefeller 3rd.
- Sharon Percy - John D. "Jay" Rockefeller, IV.
- Mary French (1910–1997) - Laurance Rockefeller.
- Wendy Gordon - Laurance "Larry" Rockefeller.
- Barbara "Bobo" Sears (1916– 2008) - Winthrop Rockefeller.
- Jeannette Edris (1918–1997) - Winthrop Rockefeller.
- Lisenne Dudderar - Winthrop Paul Rockefeller.
- Margaret "Peggy" McGrath (1915–1996) - David Rockefeller.
- Diana Newell Rowan - David Rockefeller, Jr.
- Nancy King - Richard Gilder Rockefeller.
- Elizabeth "Bessie" Rockefeller (1866–1906).
- Alta Rockefeller (1871–1962).
- Edith Rockefeller (1872–1932).
- Elsie Stillman Rockefeller (1872–1935).
- Isabel Stillman Rockefeller (1876–1935).
Select bibliography
The Rockefeller Billions: The Story of the World's Most Stupendous Fortune. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1965.Aldrich, Nelson W. Jr. Old Money: The Mythology of America's Upper Class. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988.Allen, Gary. The Rockefeller File. Seal Beach, California: 1976 Press, 1976.Boorstin, Daniel J. The Americans: The Democratic Experience. New York: Vintage Books, 1974.Brown, E. Richard. Rockefeller Medicine Men: Medicine and Capitalism in America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.Caro, Robert A. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. New York: Vintage, 1975.Chernow, Ron. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. London: Warner Books, 1998.Collier, Peter, and David Horowitz. The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976.Elmer, Isabel Lincoln. Cinderella Rockefeller: A Life of Wealth Beyond All Knowing. New York: Freundlich Books, 1987.Ernst, Joseph W., editor. "Dear Father"/"Dear Son:" Correspondence of John D. Rockefeller and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. New York: Fordham University Press, with the Rockefeller Archive Center, 1994.Flynn, John T. God's Gold: The Story of Rockefeller and His Times. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1932.Fosdick, Raymond B. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.: A Portrait. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956.Fosdick, Raymond B. The Story of the Rockefeller Foundation. New York: Transaction Publishers, Reprint, 1989.Gates, Frederick Taylor. Chapters in My Life. New York: The Free Press, 1977.Gitelman, Howard M. Legacy of the Ludlow Massacre: A Chapter in American Industrial Relations. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988.Gonzales, Donald J., Chronicled by. The Rockefellers at Williamsburg: Backstage with the Founders, Restorers and World-Renowned Guests. McLean, Virginia: EPM Publications, Inc., 1991.Hanson, Elizabeth. The Rockefeller University Achievements: A Century of Science for the Benefit of Humankind, 1901-2001. New York: The Rockefeller University Press, 2000.Harr, John Ensor, and Peter J. Johnson. The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.Harr, John Ensor, and Peter J. Johnson. The Rockefeller Conscience: An American Family in Public and in Private. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1991.Hawke, David Freeman. John D.: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers. New York: Harper & Row, 1980.Hidy, Ralph W. and Muriel E. Hidy. Pioneering in Big Business: History of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), 1882-1911. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955.Jonas, Gerald. The Circuit Riders: Rockefeller Money and the Rise of Modern Science. New York: W.W.Norton and Co., 1989.Josephson, Emanuel M. The Federal Reserve Conspiracy and the Rockefellers: Their Gold Corner. New York: Chedney Press, 1968.Josephson, Matthew. The Robber Barons. London: Harcourt, 1962.Kert, Bernice. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family. New York: Random House, 2003.Klein, Henry H. Dynastic America and Those Who Own It. New York: Kessinger Publishing, [1921] Reprint, 2003.Kutz, Myer. Rockefeller Power: America's Chosen Family. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1974.Lundberg, Ferdinand. America's Sixty Families. New York: Vanguard Press, 1937.Lundberg, Ferdinand. The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today. New York: Lyle Stuart, 1968.Lundberg, Ferdinand. The Rockefeller Syndrome. Secaucus, New Jersey: Lyle Stuart, Inc., 1975.Manchester, William R. A Rockefeller Family Portrait: From John D. to Nelson. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1959.Moscow, Alvin. The Rockefeller Inheritance. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1977.Nevins, Allan. John D. Rockefeller: The Heroic Age of American Enterprise. 2 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940.Nevins, Allan. Study In Power: John D. Rockefeller, Industrialist and Philanthropist. 2 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1953.Okrent, Daniel. Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center. New York: Viking Press, 2003.Reich, Cary. The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908-1958. New York: Doubleday, 1996.Roberts, Ann Rockefeller. The Rockefeller Family Home: Kykuit. New York: Abbeville Publishing Group, 1998.Rockefeller, David. Memoirs. New York: Random House, 2002.Rockefeller, Henry Oscar, ed. Rockefeller Genealogy. 4 vols. 1910 - ca.1950.Rockefeller, John D. Random Reminiscences of Men and Events. New York: Doubleday, 1908; London: W. Heinemann. 1909; Sleepy Hollow Press and Rockefeller Archive Center, (Reprint) 1984.Roussel, Christine. The Art of Rockefeller Center. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2006.Scheiffarth, Engelbert. Der New Yorker Gouverneur Nelson A. Rockefeller und die Rockenfeller im Neuwieder Raum Genealogisches Jahrbuch, Vol 9, 1969, p16-41.Sealander, Judith. Private Wealth and Public Life: Foundation Philanthropy and the Reshaping of American Social Policy, from the Progressive Era to the New Deal. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.Siegmund-Schultze, Reinhard. Rockefeller and the Internationalization of Mathematics Between the Two World Wars: Documents and Studies for the Social History of Mathematics in the 20th Century. Boston: Birkhauser Verlag, 2001.Stasz, Clarice. The Rockefeller Women: Dynasty of Piety, Privacy, and Service. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.Tarbell, Ida M. The History of the Standard Oil Company. New York: Phillips & Company, 1904.Winks, Robin W. Laurance S. Rockefeller: Catalyst for Conservation, Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1997.Yergin, Daniel. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.Young, Edgar B. Lincoln Center: The Building of an Institution. New York: New York University Press, 1980.
See also
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