Biography:

The Standard Oil Company and Trust was John D. Rockefeller’s industrial empire and the largest industry monopoly of the nineteenth century.  Standard Oil controlled most of the oil production, refinery, and transport in the United States from 1870 to 1911.
 
In 1863 Rockefeller formed a business partnership with Maurice B. Clark and Samuel Andrews and established an oil refining business in Cleveland, Ohio. In ten years Standard Oil eliminated most of its competitors in Ohio and the Northeastern United States. By 1880, Standard Oil Company controlled most of the oil refinery in the United States.  Rockefeller created the Standard Oil Trust in 1882.  In 1892 the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the Trust dissolved.  However, the court order was impossible to enforce and the Trust continued to operate. In 1899, their New Jersey firm was renamed the Standard Oil Company and became dedicated as a holding company. It assumed the assets and interests formerly held by the Trust.  In May 1911, the US Supreme Court declared Standard Oil in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law and dissolved the company. Despite the Supreme Court's decision, Rockefeller continued to amass a fortune and is considered one of the wealthiest men in US history.