Mr. Rockefeller was president of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey until Dec. 4, 1911, when he retired and turned the management of his business interests over to his son. The company dissolved and distributed to its stockholders the stock held in the 37 separate companies. Though a few men continued to control a majority interest in all of the separate companies, as time passed the consolidated :interest weakened greatly. In 1892 Rockefeller had owned 256,854 shares of the 972,500 shares of the trust's capitalization. In 1928, together with his son, he owned but little in some of the companies. The average Rocke feller holding was about 15%. Before his retirement Rockefeller had become the wealthiest man in America, and perhaps the wealthiest in modern history, possessing a fortune estimated by some as high as one thousand million dollars. The proper dis posal of these riches had become his chief problem. Rockefeller never made ostentatious show of his wealth. A large share of it went back into industry, more and more into fields not directly connected with oil. Iron ore lands in Minnesota, coal-lands in
Colorado, and stocks in many railways formed a large part of his investments.
As early as 1890 Rockefeller began to organize a system of philanthropic giving as a means of securing the most efficient disposal of his vast fortune. As in business so in philanthropy he again became a pioneer, distributing the largest group of gifts that has ever been made for the promotion of the well-being of mankind throughout the world. The philanthropies are described in full in the article ROCKEFELLER BENEFACTIONS.
For the rise of his fortune see G. H. Montague, Rise and Progress of the Standard Oil Company (19o3) and I. M. Tarbell, History of the Standard Oil Company (1904) containing opposing views of his meth ods, the former sympathetic, the latter hostile ; also B. J. Hendrick, The Age of Big Business (1919) ; Mark Sullivan, Our Times, America Finding Herself (1927). For his philanthropies, see M. DeHowe, Causes and Their Champions (1926). Also see J. D. Rockefeller, Random Reminiscences of Men and Events (1909).