William Avery Rockefeller

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William Avery Rockefeller, Sr. (November 13, 1810 – May 11, 1906) was the father of American oil tycoon and billionaire, John Davison Rockefeller (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) and William Rockefeller (1841–1922), who both founded the Standard Oil company.

William Rockefeller, Sr. was a known bigamist, a quack doctor, and a confidence trickster. An unreliable father, he played virtually no role in his son's business career, but he lived to a great age.

Rockefeller was born in Granger, New York to Godfrey Rockefeller (24 September 1784 - Albany, New York - d. 28 September 1857, Richford, New York) and Lucy Avery (11 February 1786, Great Barrington, Massachusetts - d. ?). He was one of 10 children: (Melinda, Olymphia, Norman, Sally Ann, Jacob S, Mary, Miles Avery, Mary Miranda and Egbert).

The Rockefellers trace their family back to Goddard Rockenfeller (1590) of Fahr, today part of Neuwied, Germany. The first Rockefeller to settle in America was Johann Peter Rockefeller (1710, Segendorf, Neuwied; 1787, Amwell Township, New Jersey).

He and his first wife, Eliza (Davison) Rockefeller, were the parents of 5 other children: Lucy, William, Frank, Mary Ann and Francis (daughter). In 1856 William Avery Rockefeller, Sr. married Margaret Allen in Norwich, Ontario, Canada.

After hearing rumours that the richest man in the world — then at the height of his notoriety as a monopolist — had a shameful family secret, the press went into a frenzy. Joseph Pulitzer offered a reward of eight thousand dollars for information about "Doc Rockefeller" who was known to be alive and living under a false name, but whose whereabouts were a family secret. Despite slender clues picked up from interviews with family members and an eighteen month search, the journalists failed to track him down before he died, and the full story wasn't exposed until two years later.

William Rockefeller had spent sometime in Park River, North Dakota under the alias of Dr. William "Big Bill" Levingston. He died on May 11, 1906, in Freeport, Illinois and was buried there in Oakland Cemetery.