How did John D. Rockefeller managed to fund his first business-venture as a book-keeper?

Question

He was a book-keeper at first and earned meagre wages but still he managed to start his first business, a food and grain firm, within 2-3 years of getting his job. How did he fund it?

Moreover, how did he later fund his oil refineries?

Answer 1

I offer here a quote from the web page identified below.

"Hewitt & Tuttle, a small company of produce

shippers and commission merchants employed

him as an assistant bookkeeper.  Rockefeller

worked hard and impressed his employers,

arranging complicated transportation deals

moving freight by railroad, canal and lake boats.  

He began to trade for his own account and his

combination of caution; precision and resolve

brought him to the attention of the Cleveland

business community.

In 1859, several months before his 20th birthday,

Rockefeller entered into business for himself,

forming a partnership with a neighbor, Maurice

Clark.  Each man put up $2,000, John had

$1,000 he had saved and he borrowed the

other $1,000 from his father.  Due to Rockefeller’s

natural business abilities, Clark & Rockefeller

earned a small profit their first year in business

and the company became very successful."

So apperantly he saved some of his income from his job as a bookkeeper and saved profits from his own speculative transactions using the company's ships.  It helps to have an uncle who can help you oult with a large loan. $1000 was a princely sum back then.  Naturally the truth has been polished just a bit but he must have been shrewd businessman and a risk-taker engaging in some kind of arbitrage using the company's transportation to make his deals possible while he worked for the shipper.

Answer 2

most likely save money instead of buying wants .material goods .did without in the beginning .we now want everything now .and I can be just as bad at times .that's how most people in the early nineteen hundreds did it .and they hoped for the best .

Answer 3

When Rockefeller was 16 he got his first job as a clerk. At that time he promised when he retired he would give one tenth of his money to charity. In 1858 he went into the produce commission business. His firm, Clark & Rockefeller, invested in an oil refinery in 1862.

The rest is history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Roc...