John Dustin Archbold (July 26, 1848 – December 6, 1916) was an American businessman and one of the United States' earliest oil refiners. His small oil company was bought out by John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. Archbold rose rapidly at Standard Oil, handling many of the complex secret negotiations over the years. By 1882, he was Rockefeller's closest associate, and typically acted as the company's primary spokesman. Rockefeller, after 1896, left business matters to Archbold while he pursued his philanthropy; as vice president, Archbold effectively ran Standard Oil until his death in 1916. Inspired by Rockefeller's policies, Archbold's main goals were stabilization, efficiency, and minimizing waste in refining and distributing petroleum products. When the company was broken up by the Supreme Court in 1911 into 34 smaller operations, Archbold became president of the largest one, Standard Oil of New Jersey. Personal life Archbold was born to Methodist minister Reverend Israel Archbold and Frances Foster Dana (Archbold) in Leesburg, Ohio. After being educated in public schools, he moved to Pennsylvania by 1864. On February 20, 1870, Archbold married Annie Eliza Mills, "daughter of Samuel Myers Mills of Titusville and Lavinia Jenkins." The couple had four children: Mary Lavina Archbold (b 1871) Anne Mills Archbold (b 1873), mother of John Dana Archbold Frances Dana Archbold (b 1875) John Foster Archbold (b 1877–1930), father of zoologist Richard Archbold In 1885, Archbold purchased a large mansion in Tarrytown, New York. The estate, called Cedar Cliff, was located at 279 S. Broadway just across from the Carmelite Transfiguration Church. Professional life Standard Oil Company In 1864, Archbold went to the north-west Pennsylvania oil fields and spent 11 years in the oil industry there. When John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company began buying up refiners in this oil-rich region, many independent refiners felt squeezed out, and Archbold was among Standard's harshest and loudest critics. In 1885, after becoming skeptical of reports of oil discoveries in Oklahoma, he sold-out at a loss, saying "I'll drink every gallon produced west of the Mississippi!" Archbold was subsequently recruited by Rockefeller to Standard Oil, where he became a director and served as its vice-president and president until its dissolution in 1911. Between 1911 and 1916, Archbold was president of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. Archbold once made a $250,000 donation to the National Kindergarten Association, to whose board of directors his wife was elected in 1911. The