This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American

people. John D. Rockefeller had a very unusual childhood. His father dubbed Devil Bill was a smooth-talking

snake oil salesman, while his mother was a very devoted and disciplined Christian who taught John to work, save, and give to

charities. This often demonized so-called robber baron reshaped America, creating an industry

centered around the world's most important resource, oil. Here to tell this story is Bert Fulsom,

author of The Myth of the Robber Barons. What you're about

to hear was shared before a live audience in Santa Barbara, California for the Young America's

Foundation. Let's take a listen. Rockefeller is an entrepreneur of the late 1800s, and the two things

that I would say, you know, we're looking for bullet points. What should we know

about Rockefeller above all? He's the first billionaire in U.S. history. He did it in the oil industry.

He had about a 70% market share in oil sales in the world, in the 1880s and 1890s.

And he did it with oil refining. He was in the refining, not the drilling business, but the

refining business. And I know when you're thinking of oil, you're thinking, well, cars and all

of this. They came in in the're thinking of oil, you're thinking, well, cars and all of this,

they came in in the later part of Rockefeller's generation. He mainly was kerosene, which was used

for lamps to light your home. So it's mainly kerosene, not so much oil as we think of in the way of

gasoline.

Second point, he was a Christian,

and I mean a Bible believing serious Christian.

The Bible taught him to tithe 10%.

He tithed everything he ever earned

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