The business increased so rapidly that Mr. Rockefeller sold his interest in the commission house in 1865, and with Mr. Samuel Andrews bought out their associates in the refining business, and established the firm of Rockefeller & Andrews, the latter having charge of the practical details. Mr. Rockefeller was then less than twenty-six years old; but an exceptional opportunity had presented itself, and a young man of exceptional ability was ready for the opportunity. A good and cheap illuminator was a world-wide necessity; and it required brain, and system, and rare business ability to produce the best product, and send it to all nations. The brother of Mr. Rockefeller, William, entered into the partnership; and a new firm was established, under the name of William Rockefeller & Co. The necessity of a business house in New York for the sale of their products soon became apparent, and all parties were united in the firm of Rockefeller & Co. In 1867 Mr. Henry M. Flagler, well known in connection with his improvements in St. Augustine, Fla., was taken into the company, which became Rockefeller, Andrews, & Flagler. Three years later, in 1870, the Standard Oil Company of Ohio was established with a capital of $1,000,000, Mr. Rockefeller being made president. He was also made president of the National Refiners' Association. He was now thirty-one years old, far-seeing, self-centred, quiet and calm in manner, but untiring in work, and comprehensive in his grasp of business. The determination which had won a position for him in youth, even though it brought him but four dollars a week, the confidence in his ability, integrity, and sound judgment, which made the banks willing to lend him money, or men willing to invest their capital in his enterprise, made him a power in the business world thus early in life. Amid all his business and his church work, he had found time to form another partnership, the wisest and best of all. In the same high school with him for two years was a young girl near his own age, Laura C. Spelman, a bright scholar, refined and sensible. Her father was a merchant, a Representative in the Legislature of Ohio, an earnest helper in the church, in temperance, and in all that lifts the world upward. He was the friend of the slave; and the Spelman home was one of the restful stations on that "underground railroad" to which so many colored men and women owe their freedom. He was an active member for years of Plymouth Congregational Church in Cleveland, and later of Dr. Buddington's church in Brooklyn, and of the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, under Dr. Wm. M. Taylor. He died in New York City, Oct. 10, 1881.