32. Rockefeller began buying up oil leases nationwide as the Pennsylvania fields dried out
With production on the wane in Pennsylvania, the region where Rockefeller had established wells for the bulk of his oil fortune, he began to buy up what were perceived to be profitable oil fields to the west, in Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and Illinois. He also tired of the daily toil protecting his name and reputation in the press and his business and fortune from politicians. As the nineteenth century drew to an end, Rockefeller began to spend his time in more leisurely pursuits, including becoming an avid golfer, and a habitue of the new sport – bicycling – which was a national fad at the turn of the century. He withdrew from the daily bustle of New York City to a new estate he had built in the Hudson Valley north of the city just as the former governor of New York, Theodore Roosevelt, ascended to the presidency.