In 1853 the Rockefeller family moved to Cleveland, Ohio; and John, then fourteen years of age, entered the high school. He was a studious boy, especially fond of mathematics and of music, and learned to play on the piano; he was retiring in manner, and exemplary in conduct. When between fourteen and fifteen years of age, he joined the Erie Street Baptist Church of Cleveland, Ohio, now known as the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, where he has been from that time an earnest and most helpful worker in it. The boy of fifteen did not confine his work in the church to prayer-meetings and Sunday-school. There was a church debt, and it had to be paid. He began to solicit money, standing in the church-door as the people went out, ready to receive what each was willing to contribute. He gave also of his own as much as was possible; thus learning early in life, not only to be generous, but to incite others to generosity. When about eighteen or nineteen, he was made one of the Board of Trustees of the church, which position he held till his absence from the city in the past few years prevented his serving. He has been the superintendent of the Sunday-school of the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church for about thirty years. When he had held the office for twenty-five years the Sunday-school celebrated the event by a reception for their leader. After addresses and music, each one of the five hundred or more persons present shook hands with Mr. Rockefeller, and laid a flower on the table beside him. From the first he has won the love of the children from his sympathy, kindness, and his interest in their welfare. No picnic even would be satisfactory to them without his presence. After two years passed in the Cleveland High School, the school-year ending June, 1855, young Rockefeller took a summer course in the Commercial College, and at sixteen was ready to see what obstacles the business world presented to a boy. He found plenty of them. It was the old story of every place seeming to be full; but he would not allow himself to be discouraged by continued refusals. He visited manufacturing establishments, stores, and shops, again and again, determined to find a position. He succeeded on the twenty-sixth day of September, 1855, and became assistant bookkeeper in the forwarding and commission house of Hewitt & Tuttle. He did not know what pay he was to receive; but he knew he had taken the first step towards success,--he had obtained work. At the end of the year, for the three months, October, November, and December, he received fifty dollars,--not quite four dollars a week. The next year he was paid twenty-five dollars a month, or three hundred dollars a year, and at the end of fifteen months, took the vacant position with the same firm, at five hundred dollars, as cashier and bookkeeper, of a man who had been receiving a salary of two thousand dollars.