John Dustin Archbold
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John Dustin Archbold (1848-1916) was an American capitalist and one of the United States' earliest oil refiners. He was the grandfather of zoologist Richard Archbold.
Archbold was born at Leesburg, Ohio, and educated in public schools. In 1864 he went to the north-west Pennsylvania oil fields and spent eleven years in the oil industry there. When John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company began buying up refiners in this oil rich region, many independent refiners felt squeezed out, and Archbold was among Standard's harshest and loudest critics. However, Archbold was subsequently recruited by Rockefeller to Standard Oil where he became a director and served as its vice-president until its dissolution in 1911.
Archbold was involved in a scandalous affair involving monetary gifts to the Republican Party. In 1912, he was called to testify before a committee which was investigating political contributions made by the Standard Oil Company to the campaign funds of political parties.
He claimed that President Theodore Roosevelt was aware of the $125,000 contribution made by Standard Oil Company to the 1904 campaign fund of the Republican Party, but President Roosevelt produced letters written by him which directed his campaign managers to return such monetary contributions if they were offered.
Archbold is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York.
[edit] Further reading
- Chernow, Ron. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. London: Warner Books, 1998.
- Yergin, Daniel. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.
