Samuel Dodd

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Samuel Calvin Tate Dodd (born February 20, 1836 in Franklin , Pennsylvania , † January 30, 1907 in Pinehurst , North Carolina ) was an American lawyer . From 1881 to 1905 he worked for the Standard Oil Company .

Samuel Calvin Tate Dodd (1836-1907)

Youth and education

Samuel Dodd was the son of Levi and Julia Parker Dodd. After attending school in Franklin, he learned the printing trade at the local weekly newspaper. He later studied at Waterford Academy and Jefferson College in Washington , Pennsylvania (today: Washington & Jefferson College ). Back in Franklin, he taught at a school in 1857 and learned from a lawyer. In 1859 Dodd was admitted to the bar. In the same year Edwin L. Drake found the first oil well in nearby Titusville .

Dodd also had a musical side. He wrote the first poem on crude oil, The Land of Grease , in 1860 , as a parody of Lord Byron's poem Isles of Greece .

In 1860 he married Mary E. Greer, with whom he had two children and who died in 1873. In 1877 he married Melvina Smith, who also bore him two children.

job

As the oil industry developed in Pennsylvania, he became a sought-after lawyer. He handled sales and leases, was well versed in corporate law, and has litigated before the Franklin court. He quickly gained a good reputation in the oil pioneer fields. In 1872 he was elected as a delegate to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention , where he took a leading role in some amendments to the state constitution.

Working for Standard Oil

When Dodd joined the Standard Oil Company in 1881 , he found the following situation: Rockefeller had partnered with partners since the beginning of his business life because he never had enough capital on his own. When he got into the oil business with a refinery, he founded the Standard Oil Company of Ohio in 1870 and each of the co-founders received shares (shares that had to remain in the company) according to the capital contributed. Main shareholders were: John D. Rockefeller : 30%, Samuel Andrews : 16.67%, Henry Flagler : 16.67%, William Rockefeller : 13.34%, Stephen V. Harkness : 13.34%, OB Jennings (brother-in-law of William Rockefeller): 10%.

In 1872 he formed JA with his Cleveland Standard Refinery, the Acme Oil Company of New York (located at Titusville ), Imperial Oil Company in Oil City , Atlantic Refining Company of Philadelphia, Camden Company of Maryland, Charles Pratt & Co. of New York, JA Bostwick & Co., Sone & Fleming Manufacturing Company, Warden, Frew & Co. of Philadelphia, and the Baltimore United Oil Company of Baltimore formed an alliance: the Central Association of Refiners .

By 1873, Standard Oil had acquired about 80 percent of the refining capacity in Cleveland, which was about a third in the United States. When the Philadelphia bank, Jay Cooke & Company , financier for railroad construction, went bankrupt in 1873, it triggered a stock market crash and a recession that lasted six years. Standard Oil was able to take advantage of this situation and buy up many refineries in the oil region of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh , Philadelphia and New York that were facing bankruptcy. These companies also became part of Standard Oil.

Standard Oil initially focused on horizontal integration (ie at the same stage of production) by gaining control over other oil refineries. But then soon the need for vertical integration (i.e. also at other levels of production and distribution) became apparent, mainly through the acquisition of pipelines, rail tank cars, terminal facilities and oil drum manufacturing plants. Here one company quickly followed the other. The primary goals, however, have always been to improve the quality and make the product cheaper.

The goals of the association (alliance) were according to Dodd:

A Reduce transport costs both locally and to the seaports

  • 1. by improving and expanding their piping system;
  • 2. through the construction and provision of tank wagons with which the oil could be transported more cheaply and the costs for the barrels could be saved
  • 3. Build oil tanks in which the oil could be stored
  • 4. Acquisition and expansion of terminals for the arrival, handling and shipping of oil
  • 5. Purchase and construction of tugs and barges for the port and navigation on rivers
  • 6. Construction of shipyards, docks and warehouses for shipping abroad

B. Producing better quality oil for lighting at an affordable price by bringing in the knowledge, experience and skill of everyone involved, as well as their secret manufacturing processes and patents. By building factories on an extensive and perfect scale with improved machinery and equipment.

C. As the refineries merged, there was also a need to manufacture related materials such as barrels, zinc canisters and boxes for their packaging, paint, glue and sulphurous acid - all on a large scale and with the best machinery to save costs.

D. Employ the best scientific and technical staff to improve and research crude oil / petroleum products and to reduce the cost of lighting petroleum by making profits from these by-products.

E. Employing agents to enter new markets around the world who will convince people everywhere of the safety and low cost of petroleum oil and find out the cheapest and best method and then supply it to the population.

E. All of the routes listed are intended to increase the supply of oil and its by-products, thereby lowering the price for the consumer.

To accomplish these goals, a merger was imperative because it required millions of dollars. At the time, the partners were not sufficiently aware of how much money was needed. It turned out that the pipelines and tank farms alone cost $ 30 million.

The Standard Oil Trust

A trust was an arrangement whereby the shareholders in a group of companies transferred their shares to trustees who controlled all companies. In return, the shareholders received certificates entitling them to a certain share in the group results of the jointly managed companies. The concept of a trust was first proposed by Samuel Dodd for Standard Oil.

The document establishing the Standard Oil Trust was signed on January 2, 1882. Each Allianz shareholder received 20 trust certificates for each share of the previous Standard Oil Company of Ohio.

Transfer of 34,993 shares of $ 100 each from Rockefeller to the Trustees of Standard Oil Trust

A board of directors of nine trustees was established for the trust, who received control of all of Standard Oil's holdings and its numerous subsidiaries. The first 9 were named in the founding agreement with:

  • John D. Rockefeller, Oliver H. Payne, and William Rockefeller, term of office until 1885;
  • Jabez A. Bostwick, Henry M. Flagler, and WG Warden, term of office until 1884;
  • Charles Pratt, Benjamin Brewster, and John D. Archbold , tenure until 1883.

At the annual meeting, the certificate holders then elected three new trustees for three years each. The board of trustees elected the chairman from among their number. The trustees appointed the directors and officers for each of the associated companies. They could set up committees and hire lawyers and other advisors. All profits from these companies were transferred to the trustees who decided the dividends. This arrangement allowed all companies to operate in unison as an extremely disciplined monopoly.

Rockefeller transferred 34,993 shares of $ 100 each to the Trustees of Standard Oil Trust for one share dated December 23, 1882 of Standard Oil. The text on it reads:

' Organized under the Manufacturing Laws of Ohio

Standard Oil Company. Capital Stork $ 3.5 million. all paid. 35,000 shares $ 100 each. '

This is to certify that Trustee of Standard Oil Trust is entitled to thirty four thousand nine hundred ninety three Shares of One Hundred Dollars each in the Capital Stock of the Standard Oil Company, transferable on the Books of the Company in person or by Attorney only on the surrender of this certificate and due payment of all liabilities on the part of the holder to the company subject to the provisions of Laws and the By Laws of the Company. This certificate is valid only when signed by the President and Secretary.

Cleveland O. Dec. 23 1882

Signed: HM Flagler Sect. JD Rockefeller Presi.

When the trust was founded, it consisted of 40 people and 15 companies, which in turn owned shares in other companies. The initial capital was $ 70 million and was later increased to $ 95 million. In the founding year of 1882, the Ohio Supreme Court declared the Standard Oil Trust to be an illegal monopoly and ordered its dissolution. However, this dragged on for years for various reasons. Within 7–8 years, the Standard Oil Trust came into possession of most of the petroleum industry-related companies and had achieved its intended goal.

In 1891 the Ohio Attorney General brought charges against the Standard Trust for breach of corporate law, including: "All the owners and holders of its capital stock, including all the officers and directors of said defendant company, signed said agreements without attaching the corporate name and seal. " (All owners and holders of the capital stock, including all their agents and directors of the named company, have made said agreements without adding the company name and seal.) They would have exercised privileges, rights and sales rights that had not been transferred to it (the trust) . The defendants, on the other hand, said that even without individual contracts they had shown sufficiently socially compliant behavior that made the necessity of formal social action superfluous, such as the acceptance of company resolutions or the drawing of a name. ( "Have we not shown sufficient actual corporate conduct to obviate obviate the necessity for formal corporate action, such as the adoption of resolutions or the signing of a name?" ) Mr. Monnet, the Attorney General in Ohio, stated that alone the trustees had a total of 466,280 trust certificates and Rockefeller again had more than half of them. That made 723,138 of a total of 972,500 certificates. In order to forestall a conviction to dissolve the trust, the Trustees and John D. Rockefeller announced an agreement to dissolve the trust in 1892, so that all shareholders have to hand over their shares to the lawyer named therein, John Besinger. It was recorded that Rockefeller handed over his 256,854 shares, which he owned on July 1, 1892, out of a total of 972,500 shares.

20 companies in the Standard Oil of New Jersey 1899

On May 5, 1893, America hit another severe economic crisis with "Industrial Black Friday" after 1873, and the following three years were marked by depression and uncertainty.

Relocation to New Jersey

The trust was dissolved and the last 34 companies in the alliance were reorganized into 20 companies in New Jersey. In 1899, Standard Oil was established as a holding company in Bayonne, New Jersey, under the name Standard Oil Company of New Jersey . The Standard Oil Company of New Jersey owned $ 100 million in common stock and $ 10 million in preferred stock and was entitled to own the stock of each of the various companies affiliated with the Standard Oil Company to be bought by all parties who have such a stick whenever they wish to sell it. Standard Oil was never publicly traded.

Opponent of the Sherman Antitrust Act

Dodd has been a staunch opponent of the Sherman Antitrust Act since the draft law became known in 1876. In his opinion, if a law were to be passed prohibiting individuals or firms engaged in the same business from agreeing on prices or joining forces, the annual income from oil exports would not be 50 million. Without the piping system, cheap transportation, and improvements in manufacturing, American markets in Europe and Asia could not hold out against Russia for a year. Russian oil came onto the market not only in Russia and the Orient, but also in Austria, Germany and even England. Since then, Russian competition has had to be fought in every corner of the eastern hemisphere. By 1879, with the support of the Rothschild Bank in Baku, the Nobel Brothers had built 195 refineries that were producing 1.4 million barrels a year.

The bill, introduced by Ohio Senator John Sherman, was passed into law by the Washington Senate on June 20, 1890.

When John D. Rockefeller retired from management in September 1905, Dodd also left Standard Oil and retired. He died on January 30, 1907 in his winter home in Pinehurst , North Carolina, and was buried in the Franklin cemetery in his hometown.

Publications

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bethuel Lewis Dodd and John R. Burnet: Genealogies of the male descendants of Daniel Dod, of Branford, Conn., A native of England. 1646 to 1863. Publisher: Daily Advertiser, Newark 1864 - pages 154-155 names of Levi and Samuel Dodd
  2. ↑ John J. McLaurin: Sketches in crude-oil. Published by the author in Franklin, Pa. 3rd edition 1902 Dodds poem page 423
  3. ^ Journal of the Convention to Amend the Constitution
  4. ↑ Biographical Sketches Samuel CT Dodd (PDF; 117 kB) - page 2
  5. ^ Gilbert Holland Montague: The Rise and Progress of the Standard Oil Company 1904 - Part II
  6. ^ Samuel T. Dodd: Combinations: their uses and abuses, with a history of the Standard Oil Trust. , Pages 22-23
  7. ^ The Standard Oil Trust Agreement Charters and By Laws in: Charles A. Whiteshot: “The oil-well driller; a history of the world's greatest enterprise, the oil industry ”. Publisher: CA Whiteshot, Mannington, W.Va., 1905 - pp. 193-198
  8. ↑ Charles A. White Shot: "The oil-well driller; a history of the world's greatest enterprise, the oil industry ”. Publisher: CA Whiteshot, Mannington, W.Va., 1905, 283
  9. ↑ Charles A. White Shot: "The oil-well driller; a history of the world's greatest enterprise, the oil industry ”. Page 204
  10. ↑ Charles A. White Shot: The oil-well driller; - page 205
  11. ^ Samuel T. Dodd: Combinations: their uses and abuses, with a history of the Standard Oil Trust. P. 33.
  12. ^ Sherman Antitrust Act 1890
personal data
SURNAME Dodd, Samuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dodd, Samuel Calvin Tate
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American attorney with the Standard Oil Company
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1836
PLACE OF BIRTH Franklin , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 1907
Place of death Pinehurst , North Carolina