Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/54

28 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO his business successes, save as these were one condition of all that followed, but through his philanthropies, which extend round the world, and are so organized that they will continue to influence, and, in ever-widening circles, to bless the human race. To say the least that can be said, our race will be a healthier, a more intel- ligent, and therefore a happier race because he lived. When, on November 8, 1892, the Board of Trustees " voted unanimously that, in recognition of the fact that the University owes its existence and its endowment to Mr. Rockefeller, the words 'Founded by John D. Rockefeller' be printed in all official publications and letterheads under the name of the University, and be put upon the Seal," it expressed far less than the full truth. Other institutions have been founded by some particular man. They might have been founded by some other man just as well. But there was no other man to do for the University of Chicago what Mr. Rockefeller did for it. Without him an institution of education of some kind might have been established in Chicago, but nothing resembling the University of Chicago would have existed. John D. Rockefeller was born at Richford, New York, on July 8, 1839. His family removed to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1853. After two years' further study in the public schools, the boy, then fifteen or sixteen years old, became a clerk and bookkeeper in a commission house. In 1858 at nineteen years of age he put all his savings, about eight hundred dollars, with ten or twelve hundred dollars borrowed from his father, into a commission business. This prospered and expanded into a commission and oil business. Largely through Mr. Rockefeller's agency the Standard Oil Com- pany was organized in 1870, with him as its president. The busi- ness prospered prodigiously and Mr. Rockefeller soon became known as a very wealthy man. He had been brought up to give regularly a part of his income to causes of religion and benevolence. He had united with a Baptist church in Cleveland while a boy and became a deeply religious man and greatly interested in philan- thropic causes. As his fortune increased, his contributions for benevolence multiplied. In 1882 the Baptist Union Theological Seminary began its effort to secure a second hundred thousand dollars of endowment. Through Rev. Dr. S. W. Duncan, a former