May 15, 1911: The Breakup of Standard Oil

1904 political cartoon, showing Standard Oil as an octopus,

grabbing multiple smaller companies at once.

May 15, 1911: The Supreme Court of the United States renders its verdict in the case of Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States. It found Standard Oil Company of New Jersey guilty of monopolizing the petroleum industry, through a series of abusive and anticompetitive actions. The Sherman Antitrust Act was one of the broken laws cited in the case. The Court's remedy was to divide Standard Oil into several geographically separate and eventually competing firms.

John D. Rockefeller, his brother William A. Rockefeller Jr., and Henry Flagler founded Standard Oil in Cleveland in 1863. Through its streamlining of refining petroleum, and its brilliant logistics, it became one of the biggest companies in America. Rockefeller ran the company as its chairman, until his retirement in 1897.

He remained the major shareholder, and, in 1911, with the SCOTUS-forced dissolution of the trust into 43 smaller companies, Rockefeller became the richest person in modern history, America's 1st billionaire, as the initial income of these individual enterprises proved to be much bigger than that of a single larger company.

John Davison Rockefeller

Standard Oil of New Jersey, the entity controlling Standard Oil at the time of the breakup, has since continued on. It would eventually be known as Esso (S.O., for "Standard Oil,"). In 1972, the name was changed to Exxon. In 1998, it merged with Mobil. Today, ExxonMobil is the largest investor-owned oil company in the world. Chevron and Marathon Oil are also Standard Oil descendants, while British Petroleum (BP) bought Standard Oil descendant Amoco.

The federal government, presided over by President William Howard Taft, "busted" the "trust" that was Standard Oil. His predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt, has been called "the trustbuster," but Taft, with his legal background and absolute dedication to the law, used the law to bust more trusts in 4 years than TR did in 7 1/2 years. TR may have set that standard (if you'll pardon the unintentional pun), but, in this one regard, the usually much more conservative Taft surpassed the great progressive.

Charles Evans Hughes was the last serving Justice from Standard Oil v. U.S., on the Court until 1941. He was also the last surviving Justice, living until 1948.

By the middle of the 20th Century, enough time had passed that, when people thought of the Rockefeller family, thought of banking and politics -- not oil, the business that made its fortune. John D. Rockefeller Jr. and son David ran Chase Manhattan Bank; John Jr.'s sons Nelson and Winthrop served as Governors of New York and Arkansas, respectively, while Nelson ran for President 3 times and eventually served as Vice President under Gerald Ford; and John D. Rockefeller IV, a.k.a. Jay Rockefeller, served West Virginia as Governor and U.S. Senator.

*

May 15, 1911 was a Monday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Highlanders beat the Cleveland Naps, 6-3 at League Park in Cleveland. Russ Ford (no relation to Whitey) outpitched Fred Blanding. Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, the slugger, 2nd baseman and manager for whom the Cleveland team was named, did not play. A rookie named Joe Jackson, with shoes, did, and went 1-for-4. The Naps became the Indians in 1915, and the Guardians in 2022. The Highlanders became the Yankees in 1913.

* The New York Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-6 at the Polo Grounds. Fred Merkle, he of the 1908 "Boner," hit a home run.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Chicago Cubs, 6-2 at Washington Park in Brooklyn.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Boston Rustlers, 12-10 at the 3rd and last version of the South End Grounds in Boston. Honus Wagner went 3-for-5 with a home run and 4 RBIs.

The Boston team of the National League was known as the Doves when George Dovey, and then his brother John Dovey, owned the team. In 1911, William H. Russell bought the team, and renamed it for himself, the Rustlers.

He died a few weeks after the end of the 1911 season, and his heirs sold the team to James Gaffney, an official in New York's Tammany Hall political organization. Such officials were called "Braves," in connection with Tammany's identification with Native Americans. So the team became the Boston Braves in 1912.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 21-5 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. Sherry Magee went 4-for-5, and Dode Paskert and Fred Luderus each got 3 hits for the Phils.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4 in 10 innings at Bennett Park in Detroit. Ty Cobb went 2-for-4 with a walk, a stolen base and an RBI. In the next off-season, Bennett Park was torn down, and a new ballpark was built on the site, which would one day be renamed Tiger Stadium.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 6-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Washington Senators, 8-0 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Jack Powell pitched a 3-hit shutout.