John D. Rockefeller: Anointed with Oil

Rockefeller's bosses said nothing about pay at first. He did not complain. He was happy just to learn about business. Hewitt and Tuttle helped to link an increasingly national economy. They handled shipments by wagon, train, or boat of everything from grain to marble. Rockefeller inspected deliveries, corrected bills, paid them, and recorded the payments in the firm's books. [This was so delightful to me, all the method and system of the office,] he would write. He served the system faithfully. He refused a boatman's demands to pad an invoice. He pressed a debtor quietly but steadily for an hour. The man finally gave in, saying, [I never saw such a pestering collector!]

After some three months, about New Year's Day, Hewitt finally gave Rockefeller $50 and a salary of $25 a month (about $454 a month in modern dollar values, far below minimum wage). [I felt like a criminal,] Rockefeller would recall. He strove to deserve the money. He came at 6:30 a.m. He ate a lunch from home at his desk. He often returned after supper. He once tried to slow down. [I have this day covenanted with myself not to be seen after 10 o'clock p.m.] At work, he wrote in a dime notebook

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