Commodore Vanderbilt reportedly said that Rockefeller was the one man in America who could dictate terms to him; meanwhile, his son, William H. Vanderbilt, discreetly purchased Standard Oil stock for his own account.34 It was the younger Vanderbilt who said presciently of Rockefeller in the 1870s: “He will become the richest man in the country,” thus inheriting the title from his father.35 Standard Oil eventually became so enmeshed in the railroad business that it controlled virtually all the oil traffic that traveled over the Erie and the New York Central tracks.
