William Rockefeller Sr.

William Avery "Devil Bill" Rockefeller Sr. (November 13, 1810 – May 11, 1906) was an American businessman, lumberman, herbalist, salesman, and con artist who went by the alias of Dr. William Levingston. He worked as a lumberman and then a traveling salesman who identified himself as a "botanic physician" and sold elixirs. He was known to buy and sell horses, and was also known at one point to have bought a barge-load of salt in Syracuse. Land speculation was another type of his business, and the selling of elixirs served to keep him with cash and aided in his scouting of land deals. He loaned money to farmers at twelve percent, but tried to lend to farmers who could not pay so as to foreclose and take the farms. Two of his sons were Standard Oil co-founders John Davison Rockefeller Sr. and William Avery Rockefeller Jr. Family William Avery Rockefeller was born in Ancram, New York. He was the eldest son of businessman/farmer Godfrey Lewis Rockefeller (September 24, 1783 in Albany, New York – September 28, 1857 in Richford, New York) and Lucy Avery (February 11, 1786 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts – April 6, 1867). Godfrey and Lucy had married on September 20, 1806, in Amwell, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Bill had two elder sisters—Melinda and Olympia—as well as seven younger siblings; Norman, Sally, Jacob, Mary, Miles, Mary Miranda, and Egbert. Ancestry The Rockefellers trace their patrilineal line to Goddard Rockefeller (born Gotthard Rockenfeller) (1590) of Fahr, today part of Neuwied, Germany, and the now deserted village of Rockenfeld as namesake. The first Rockefeller to emigrate to America (1723) was Johann Peter Rockenfeller (1710 in Segendorf, Neuwied – 1787 in Amwell Township, New Jersey), who changed his name to Rockefeller. Godfrey Lewis Rockefeller was a son of distant cousins William Rockefeller (1750–1793) and Christina Rockefeller (1754–1800). Lucy Avery was born to Miles Avery and Melinda Pixley, New England Yankees of mostly English descent, being a descendant of James Avery. Marriage and children Rockefeller married his first wife, Eliza Davison, on February 18, 1837 in Niles, Cayuga Co., New York. Rockefeller met Eliza on one of his business trips in Upstate New York. It is said that Rockefeller pulled out a slate and chalk to communicate when he arrived at the Davison residence, as he often pretended to be deaf and dumb on his selling trips.