Oliver Burr Jennings (June 3, 1825 – February 12, 1893) was an American businessman and one of the original stockholders in

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co- ...

Early life

Jennings was born in 1825 in

Fairfield, Connecticut Fairfield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It borders the city of Bridgeport and towns of Trumbull, Easton, Weston, and Westport along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. Located within the New York metropolitan ar ...

, to Abraham Gould Jennings and Anna (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Burr) Jennings. His brother was Frederick B. Jennings. At a young age he came to New York to learn the dry goods business. Through his great-grandfather, Peter Burr, he was distantly related to

U.S. Vice President The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice pr ...

Aaron Burr Aaron Burr Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805. Burr's legacy is defined by his famous personal conflict with Alexand ...

Career

In 1849, he headed West to seek his fortune in the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California f ...

. He set up a general mercantile store in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

with Benjamin Brewster and amassed a considerable fortune by outfitting prospecting camps along the coast and around

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

Standard Oil

In 1862, he returned to New York with the intention of retiring from all business activities. Due to his close relationship with his wife's brother-in-law, William Avery Rockefeller, Jr., he became interested in the affairs of the

Company. In 1871, when Standard Oil was incorporated in Ohio, Jennings was one of the original stockholders. Of the initial 10,000 shares,

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...

received 2,667;

William Rockefeller William Avery Rockefeller Jr. (May 31, 1841 – June 24, 1922) was an American businessman and financier. Rockefeller was a co-founder of Standard Oil along with his elder brother John Davison Rockefeller. He was also part owner of the Anaconda ...

Henry Flagler Henry Morrison Flagler (January 2, 1830 – May 20, 1913) was an American industrialist and a founder of Standard Oil, which was first based in Ohio. He was also a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida and founder ...

, and Samuel Andrews received 1,333 each;

Stephen V. Harkness Stephen Vanderburgh Harkness (November 18, 1818 – March 6, 1888) was an American businessman based in Cleveland, Ohio. He invested as a silent partner with John D. Rockefeller, Sr. in the founding of Standard Oil and served as a director of St ...

received 1,334; Jennings received 1,000; and the firm of

Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler was a business concern formed in 1867 in Cleveland, Ohio which was a predecessor of the Standard Oil Company. The principals and namesakes were John D. Rockefeller, William Rockefeller, Samuel Andrews, and Henry M. ...

received 1,000. Jennings served as a director of

Standard Oil of Ohio The Standard Oil Company (Ohio) was an American oil company, a successor of the original company established in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller. It was established as "Standard Oil Company of Ohio" as one of the separate entities created after t ...

and then as a trustee of the

Standard Oil Trust Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co- ...

that resulted from the company's reorganization in 1882.

Personal life

On December 13, 1854, he married Esther Judson Goodsell (1828–1908) in Fairfield. Her younger sister, Almira Geraldine Goodsell, was the wife of Standard Oil co-founder William Rockefeller, Jr. Together, Oliver and Esther had five children: * Annie Burr Jennings (1855–1939), a philanthropist. * Walter Jennings (1858–1933), the director of

Standard Oil Company of New Jersey ExxonMobil, an American multinational oil and gas corporation presently based out of Texas, has had one of the longest histories of any company in its industry. A direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the company traces its root ...

and president of the

Jekyll Island Club The Jekyll Island Club was a private club on Jekyll Island, on Georgia's Atlantic coast. It was founded in 1886 when members of an incorporated hunting and recreational club purchased the island for $125,000 (about $3.1 million in 2017) from John ...

from 1927 until 1933. * Helen Goodsell Jennings (1860–1946), who married Dr. Walter Belknap James (1858–1927), president of the Jekyll Island Club from 1919 until 1927. * Emma Brewster Jennings (1861–1942), who married Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, Sr. (1858–1913). * Oliver Gould Jennings (1865–1936), who married Mary Dows Brewster (b. 1871), daughter of Benjamin Brewster and Elmina Hersey Dows. Jennings died in 1893 at his residence in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. His estate amounted to , which he left entirely to his family.

Descendants

Jennings's grandchildren include businessman Benjamin Brewster Jennings (1898–1968) and stockbroker Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, Jr. (1897–1976), who married

Janet Lee Bouvier Janet Norton Lee Auchincloss, previously Bouvier, (December 3, 1907 – July 22, 1989) was an American socialite. She was the mother of the former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Lee Radziwill. Early life Janet Norton Lee was born on December ...

. and Anne Burr Auchincloss, who married Wilmarth S. Lewis and spent her fortune to setting up the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale University, devoted to the life and works of

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whig politician. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twi ...

, the builder of

Strawberry Hill House Strawberry Hill House—often called simply Strawberry Hill—is a Gothic Revival villa that was built in Twickenham, London, by Horace Walpole (1717–1797) from 1749 onward. It is a typical example of the " Strawberry Hill Gothic" style of ar ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jennings, Oliver Burr 1825 births 1893 deaths People from Fairfield, Connecticut Businesspeople from San Francisco People of the California Gold Rush Founders of the petroleum industry American businesspeople in the oil industry Standard Oil 19th-century American businesspeople Businesspeople from Connecticut