To avoid Civil War combat, he hired substitute soldiers
In 1859, Rockefeller started a produce commission business with a partner, Maurice B. Clark, and raised $4,000 in capital ($120,637 in 2021 dollars). Clark proposed the collaboration and offered $2,000 toward the goal. From there, Rockefeller progressed steadily in business, making money each year of his career. Clark & Rockefeller made $4,400 (on nearly half a million dollars in sales) and $17,000 in their first and second years of business, respectively, and their profits skyrocketed with the outbreak of the American Civil War when the Union Army called for massive amounts of food and supplies.
With the Civil War drawing to a conclusion and the prospect of wartime profits dwindling, Clark & Rockefeller turned their attention to crude oil refining. While his brother Frank was fighting in the Civil War, Rockefeller operated his business, and to avoid Civil War combat, he hired substitute soldiers. He contributed to the Union cause, as did many wealthy Northerners who want to avoid battle. "I wanted to go in the army and do my part," stated Rockefeller. "But it was simply out of the question. There was no one to take my place. We were in a new business, and if I had not stayed it must have stopped, and with so many dependent on it."
Rockefeller was an abolitionist who supported President Abraham Lincoln and the newly formed Republican Party. "God gave me money," he continued, and he didn't apologize for it. Following Methodist preacher John Wesley's credo, "get all you can, save all you can, and give all you can," he felt at rest and righteous. The federal government was subsidizing oil prices at the time, driving the price up from $.35 a barrel in 1862 to as much as $13.75. This resulted in a surplus of oil drilling, with thousands of speculators seeking to make a fortune. Most failed, but those who found oil didn't even have to be efficient. They would blow holes in the ground and collect as much oil as they could, frequently resulting in creeks and rivers running with waste oil instead of water.
