Father of world's richest man lived secretly in Freeport
FREEPORT — There were secrets behind the brick walls at 515 W. Clark St., where Dr. William and Margaret Levingston lived.
Levingston was an assumed name, taken by a bigamist and a con man nicknamed "Big Bill" who peddled herbal remedies and cancer treatments around the country, historians say.
In Freeport, he claimed to be an eye and ear specialist, but Levingston was a quack.
And the biggest secret: His real name was William Avery Rockefeller and he was the father of John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil Co. and at the time the richest man in the world.
At the dawn of the 20th Century, there was national intrigue and mounting clues of Dr. Levingston's secret Freeport life.
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Publisher Joseph Pulitzer offered $8,000 ($210,000 in today's dollars) to anyone who could provide information on Rockefeller's father. William Randolph Hearst also offered a tidy sum for the story.
These days it is accepted as fact by historians that Big Bill, who died in 1906 in Freeport, fathered John D. Rockefeller with Eliza Rockefeller. In a span of two years, Big Bill had two children with Eliza and two more with the family housekeeper in a span of four years. He abandoned his family in the 1850s, but never got a divorce before marrying a second wife, Margaret Allen, in 1856.
The Rockefeller clan denied any genetic connection to Levingston, who took his secrets to the grave.
"I think he probably didn't want to be arrested for being a bigamist," said Jean Fyock, a self-proclaimed Freeport historian, on why Levingston may have changed his name and lived in obscurity in northern Illinois.
"His family was rather well off and wouldn't want to have such an embarrassment in front of the Carnegies and other folks."
A year before Levingston's death, McClure's magazine published a picture it claimed was William Avery Rockefeller.
"Everything about the picture indicated it to be the counterfeit resemblance of the old Freeport citizen and immediately the story of his alleged relationship to the Standard oil magnate spread like a prairie fire," read a May 12, 1906, story in the Rockford Daily Register-Gazette on the death of Levingston.
In 1908, Hearst's New York World published a story, "Secret Double Life of Rockefeller's Father," saying it had "enough evidence to declare the oil king's father and Dr. Levingston were the same person."
The story described Levingston as a "roving, mysterious person" who left Freeport for months and would return with a large sum of money.
"He would go to small towns, put up at a hotel for a week or so, getting out handbills, and advertising himself as the 'celebrated Dr. Levingston,'" according to newspaper accounts. "He advertised to cure anything but made a specialty of cancer and kidney troubles."
Frank Rockefeller, another son, said the story was an "unqualified lie."
"The whereabouts of my father concerns no one but his immediate family, and it is precisely to protect himself from being hounded by cranks and others who would break in upon the peace and quiet of his retired life that he prefers to live in such seclusion as best suits his convenience, admitting to his retirement only such trusted friends who had demonstrated their personal attachment beyond doubt," Frank said.
John D. Rockefeller may have even visited Freeport. Fyock said she's read accounts from the 1930s and 1940s from Freeport residents who reported that when Levingston died two men arrived in a private car. They were believed to be his sons, John D. and William Rockefeller.
Levingston is buried next to Margaret in Freeport's Oakland Cemetery.
Brian Leaf: 815-987-1343; bleaf@rrstar.com; @b_leaf
Name: William A. Rockefeller, (aka Dr. William Levingston)
Age: Deceased
City of residence: Freeport
Occupation: Con-man, quack doctor
Profile: William A. Rockefeller, (aka Dr. William Levingston)
Date of death: June 24, 1922
City of residence: Freeport
Occupation: Con-man, quack doctor