30. Standard Oil abandoned Cleveland for New York
With more and more of his business dependent on the activities of other businesses, Rockefeller moved Standard Oil to New York, joining his fellow business magnates by building a mid-town mansion and establishing his business headquarters downtown. While most of his fellow titans of industry commuted to their offices in liveried carriages, or increasingly in chauffeur driven automobiles, Rockefeller went to work every morning using the elevated railroad, handing out dimes and nickels and ignoring those importuning him for larger donations. Reading his daily newspaper enroute, he was aware of the problems soon to be posed to his empire by the Sherman Antitrust Act, which in 1890 appeared to be a tool for the management of labor unions, but which carried the provisions which could be used to break up the Standard Oil Trust.