William Rockefeller, Sr.¶

Dr. Livingstone¶

From: The Code Family by Lewis Gaubert

The following newspaper clippings, pertaining to Edward and Susan are of considerable interest.

Sunday, Fargo Forum - - Fargo, North Dakota April 12, 1942

Lisbon, North Dakota - The story was a newspaper sensation of the day, 87-year-old Edward Code reminisces when one gets him to tell of the part he played in it.

The story - - - well, it was the identification of a mysterious "Dr. Livingstone" who Lived in Park River, North Dakota as the father of the late multi-millionaire, John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

In 1879, Edward Code joined his three brothers, William, Benjamin and John near Park River. There he ' 'squatted" on land which he homesteaded when it had been surveyed.

A Stranger Arrives¶

Two years later, in 1881, a stranger came and bought rights to a quarter adjoining Code' s. His name was Dr. Livingstone and he had, as his occupation, the trade of healing. "Doc" Livingstone and Code became well acquainted and "fiddled" many an evening in the long winter months, together.

Livingstone had a partner named Johnson, also known as a doctor, who wore long hair and dressed as an Indian. Johnson and Livingstone would pass out handbills to the townspeople describing the "doctor's" professional qualifications in glowing terms. They would take Livingstone's medicine jug and proceed to minister to their clientele.

Livingstone Prospers¶

Livingstone, evidently, made some money, for he and Johnson both acquired property. When he left Park River, he deeded his property to a son-in-law named Briggs, who was married to John D. 's sister.

Portion of 1893 Plat map of Walsh County, North Dakota: Edward Code (green), William and Margaret Code (Blue), Benjamin Code (Pink), John and Mary Wadge (Parents of Edward’s spouse Susan) (yellow).

Note: Two properties southwest of Edward Code’s property identified as belonging to P. D. Briggs – Pierson Briggs was married to Lucy Rockefeller daughter of William Rockefeller and purchasing agent for Standard Oil Company.

Reporters of eastern papers had been hunting the nation over for John D. Rockefeller's father, largely because the son had gained such worldwide fame as an oil tycoon. A woman reporter traced John D. 's father to Freeport, Illinois. She wrote the story to that point. Then a young man reporter took up the search. Armed with a picture of the elder Rockefeller, the young reporter finally found an old druggist in Freeport who recognized it. The druggist hunted up the jug in which he had been shipping medicine to Rockefeller and gave the address as Park River.

To Park River¶

Arriving in Park River the reporter sought out the mayor to inquire for his quarry. The mayor recognized the picture as that of Dr. Livingstone. He sent the reporter to Edward Code. The reporter compared descriptions and dates with Code, then checked Walsh County real estate transfers. He found a transfer from William Rockefeller to the son-in-law, Briggs, covering the farm next to Code's and other property. (Who’s Who lists John D. Rockefeller as the son of William Rockefeller). Having clinched his story, the young reporter hastened back east to release his "beat".

Edward Code later moved to Lisbon where he has resided for many years. Among other recollections, the Lisbon man has, is that when his first son was born, "Doc" Livingstone came to him and offered him a dollar if he would name the boy William. He had already determined he would name the son William for his brother who had encouraged him to come to Park River to homestead. The son, William, is now located at Boise, Idaho.

Notes pertaining to foregoing clipping:

I’ll bet when Grampa Code and "Doc" Livingston fiddled on those lory winter evenings that they tried some of "'Doc's' medicine, don't you? Grampa was batching it the first two years he homesteaded.

Apparently, Grampa changed his mind about naming his first son William. His first son was name Milton Edward, his second son was Fordyce William.

Newspaper Story¶

Rockefeller's Father in North Dakota¶

Source

William Avery Rockefeller, Sr.

When William Avery Rockefeller lived near the present town of Park River, N.D., during the spring and summers of 1881 through 1889, his son, John D. Rockefeller, was becoming the richest man in the world.

John D. Rockefeller formed the Standard Oil Trust in 1882, which controlled more than 90 percent of the oil-refining capacity in this country. Not only was William Rockefeller the father of the world's wealthiest person, but through his bloodlines came a U.S. vice president, three governors, two U.S. senators and many corporation leaders. William Rockefeller used the pseudonym William Levingston while living in Dakota Territory.

Historians have not treated William Rockefeller kindly, and much of that is because of his own doing - he was not a very likable person. At best, he was ambitious, clever and cared little about what people thought of him, but the descriptions of him were much worse. He has been called a bigamist, quack doctor, snake-oil salesman and confidence trickster.

William Rockefeller abandoned his wife and was accused, without evidence, of a number of crimes ranging from horse stealing to counterfeiting. John D. Rockefeller did a good job concealing the true identity and whereabouts of his notorious father.

William Rockefeller was born Nov. 13, 1810, to Godfrey and Lucy Avery Rockefeller in Dutchess County, N.Y. Godfrey was a farmer and William was the third of 10 children. In the mid-1830s, William Rockefeller began courting Eliza Davison, the daughter of a prosperous farmer. Her father did not approve, but despite his objections the two were married on Feb. 26, 1837. Her father's wisdom proved true when William Rockefeller hired his former girlfriend as a housekeeper and got her pregnant twice while married to Eliza.

It wasn't long before Rockefeller began taking business trips, leaving his wife for extended periods of time. They had six children between 1838 and 1845. By the end of the 1840s, William Rockefeller's devil-may-care attitude soon got him in trouble. Because William Rockefeller never repaid a $1,500 loan, Eliza's father, John Davison, seized their property and many of their possessions. Then in July 1849, William Rockefeller was indicted for sexually abusing a housekeeper. Ruined financially and by reputation, the Rockefellers eventually moved to Strongsville, a suburb of Cleveland.

In Ohio, William Rockefeller came up with a scheme to make money by claiming he had discovered a cure for cancer. Billing himself as Dr. William A. Rockefeller, a "celebrated cancer specialist," he charged $25 per treatment and then sold bottles of his medicine to patients.

He would travel from town to town and, upon his arrival, put up fliers that stated "all cases of cancer" could be cured. He would stay long enough to bilk all he could from cancer victims and then move on to the next town. This presented another problem.

Not only was he still wanted by authorities over in New York, but angry relatives of the deceased cancer victims who he had bilked were now looking for him. William Rockefeller began to use different aliases. The one he settled on in the early 1850s was William Levingston.

In 1853, on a trip to Norwich in Ontario, he met an attractive woman named Margaret Allen, who was less than half his age. She became Mrs. William Levingston three years later. They bought a farm north of Decatur, Ill., in 1867. Two years later, they moved to Freeport, Ill.

About this time, William Rockefeller's oldest son, John D., began to periodically send him large amounts of money. Since the two men had little time to bond as father and son, one can speculate that this was a form of hush money.

It is easy to assume that his son, who was making a fortune and a huge name for himself, did not want the public to learn about his wayward father. To get his father away from Margaret, at least for extended periods of time, John persuaded his father to go to northern Dakota Territory.

In 1881, William Rockefeller and his friend, C. D. Johnston, arrived in Walsh County, where each established homestead. In 1883, Johnston sold his quarter-section to Pierson Briggs, William Rockefeller's former son-in-law. Briggs was the purchasing agent for Standard Oil. Soon, both William Rockefeller and Briggs began to purchase additional land because, it has been speculated, they learned the Great Northern Railroad would be arriving in 1884.

William Rockefeller returned to Freeport after the harvest each year to spend the winters with his unlawful wife, Margaret. When his legal wife, Eliza, died in March 1889, William Rockefeller sold his land near Park River to Briggs and returned to Freeport.

Land records show that William Rockefeller periodically returned to Park River to buy and sell land. They also show another wife by the name of Florinda, "formerly of the city of Grafton."

William Rockefeller died May 11, 1906 and was buried in an unmarked grave. It wasn't until two years later that the country, through an article printed in the New York World, learned that the father of the richest man in the world was a bigamist who lived under a false name in what is now northeastern North Dakota.

Additional Notes¶

Pierson Briggs came to Park River in 1884. Briggs avenue is named for him. He started and ran a meat market and left Park River in 1901 or 1902. William Livingston had a farm east of Park River and P. D. Briggs ran it as long as Livingston owned it. Briggs Avenue is named after him and is the first road east of Code Avenue.

Pierson Briggs was a fifty-year resident of Cleveland and married to Lucy Rockefeller, sister of John D. Rockefeller. He was a purchasing agent for Standard Oil from 1870 to 1890. He died October 12, 1912.

Eliza's father had sued Bill in the Supreme Court of Cayuga for failure to pay a $1,175 debt. His plea states that Bill had asked him for help with his bail for the rape charges, but that Eliza's father had not seen Bill since.

After hearing rumors that John D. Rockefeller—then the richest man in the world at the height of his fame—had a shameful family secret, the press went into a frenzy. Joseph Pulitzer offered a reward of $8,000 for information about "Doc Rockefeller," who was known to be alive and living under a false name, but whose whereabouts were a family secret.

Despite slender clues picked up from interviews with family members and an 18-month search, the journalists failed to track him down before he died.