Standard Oil an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act, Section II. It ordered Standard to break up into 34 independent companies with different boards of directors, the biggest two of the companies were Standard Oil of New Jersey (which became Exxon) and Standard Oil of New York (which became Mobil). Standard's president, John D. Rockefeller, had long since retired from any management role. But, as he owned a quarter of the shares of the resultant companies, and those share values mostly doubled, he emerged from the dissolution as the richest man in the world. The dissolution had actually propelled Rockefeller's personal
Associated Oil Company properties. The presidents of the companies were: W. G. Kerckhoff for Reed Crude Oil Company; Burton E. Green for Green-Whittier Oil Company; Charles A. Canfield for Canfield Oil Company; M. H. Whittier for Kern Oil Company; John A. Bunting for San Joaquin Oil & Development Company. Securing agreements from 34 other oil companies in the area the Associated Oil Company was incorporated on October 7, 1901 and on January 1, 1902 began actively producing and marketing crude oil. The Standard Oil Company and the Southern Pacific Railroad acquired an interest in Associated Oil for the purposes of transporting their own