What we want is a sensible, plain arrangement in keeping with our rooms.”3 It took time for the family to adjust to Forest Hill. As he wrote of the Forest Hill fireplaces in 1877: “I have seen a good many fireplaces here don’t think the character of our rooms will warrant going into the expenditures for fancy tiling and all that sort of thing that we find in some of the extravagant houses here. Rockefeller molded his house for his own use, not to awe strangers. His house was bare of hunting trophies, shelves of richly bound but unread books, or other signs of conspicuous consumption. “At a time when moguls vied to impress people with their possessions, Rockefeller preferred comfort to refinement. But I also want him to learn the lesson of being careful of the little things.” Afterward, Rockefeller told his barber, “I don’t care about the boy giving his money in that way. “Let’s figure it out first,” Rockefeller advised and made Junior run through calculations that showed he would lose eleven cents interest while the Sunday school gained nothing in return. Once, while Rockefeller was being shaved at Forest Hill, Junior entered with a plan to give away his Sunday-school money in one lump sum, for a fixed period, and be done with it. Aware of the rich children spoiled by their parents, Senior seized every opportunity to teach his son the value of money. “For this boy destined to be the world’s greatest heir, money was so omnipresent as to be invisible-something “there, like air or food or any other element,” he later said-yet it was never easily attainable.11 As if he were a poor, rural boy, he earned pocket change by mending vases and broken fountain pens or by sharpening pencils.

Titan by Ron Chernow