John D. Rockefeller's father lived 50 years as "Dr. Levingston" with a second wife and was buried under the false name

William Avery Rockefeller married Eliza Davison, and their son John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839. On 26 July 1849 a court at Auburn, New York, indicted William for raping Ann Vanderbeak, who had worked in the household; nothing came of the charge. He left the family and travelled as "Dr. William Levingston", selling herbal cures. In 1856, still married to Eliza, he married Margaret Allen in Norwich, Ontario. They had no children. John D. built Standard Oil into the largest fortune in the United States. Joseph Pulitzer offered $8,000 for information on "Doc Rockefeller", and reporters did not find him. He died in Freeport, Illinois, on 11 May 1906, aged 95, and was buried in Oakland Cemetery as Levingston. In February 1908 newspapers reported that the Freeport doctor was the oil king's father. Asked to deny it, his widow said: "I refuse to either confirm or deny." In April 1908 a paper quoted his former business partner, a Dr. Johnston, who said Levingston had told him he was Rockefeller and that John D. was his son. Margaret's estate, not the Rockefellers, paid for his gravestone. John D. never publicly acknowledged his father's second marriage. In 2026 the grave in Freeport still carries the Levingston name^†.