CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - “Oh, he was a real rich guy. He was the first really, really rich guy,” explained Tom Kelly, author of “The Cleveland 200: The Most Noted, Notable and Notorious in the First 200 of a Great American City.”

“Cleveland boomed because of Rockefeller,” he said.

Born in 1839, John Davison Rockefeller boomed as well, making his fortune in Cleveland with the founding of Standard Oil in 1870.

“He was brutal with his competitors,” said Kelly. “He found ways to put them all out of business.”

He not only built an oil empire but a mansion on Millionaires’ Row on Euclid Avenue, then a summer home at his estate at Forest Hill in East Cleveland, all while Standard Oil grew.

“He just kept building his business,” Kelly explained, controlling not just oil but the refineries and

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