Louis Severance
| Louis Henry Severance | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
August 1, 1838 Cleveland, Ohio, USA |
| Died | June 25, 1913 (aged 74) Cleveland, Ohio |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Treasurer of Standard Oil Company; investor; philanthropist |
| Employer | Standard Oil Company, Commercial National Bank |
| Organization | Union army volunteer, in the defense of Washington D.C. |
| Known for | Leading sponsor of Ohio education, the YMCA, and Presbyterian missions; church elder |
| Net worth |
 $305 million in 2006 dollars. |
| Movement | Anti-Slavery |
| Spouse(s) | Fanny Benedict Severance, Florence Severance |
| Children | John, Elizabeth, and Anne Belle |
| Parent(s) | Solomon Severance, Mary Severance |
| Relatives | Grandfather, David Long (Cleveland's first physician); nephew, Allen |
Louis Henry Severance (August 1, 1838 – June 25, 1913), oilman and philanthropist was a founding member of the Standard Oil Trust, the first treasurer of Standard Oil, and a sulfur magnate.
Severance was born in Cleveland on August 1, 1838; his father, Solomon, having died that July. He and his brother Solon were raised by the widow Mary Severance, in the Cleveland home of her father, David Long (Cleveland's first physician). Louis picked up his mother's commitment to the Presbyterian mission and the anti-slavery cause.
He attended public school, and at 18 (in 1856) joined the Commercial National Bank. The following year a friend from his church introduced Severance to the Norwalk Fanny Benedict; they married in 1862, producing John Severance in May 1863. That year Severance became a 100-day Union army volunteer, in the defense of Washington D.C.
His bank lent to John D. Rockefeller's oil business, and in 1864 Severance started an oil exploration, and refinery business himself, in the oil boom town of Titusville, Pennsylvania. The family prospered; Elizabeth was born in 1865, and Anne Belle in 1868, but by 1881 Severance's youngest daughter was registered both as "Anne Belle" and "Annie Belle" in the Oberlin College calendar (p. 78), and appears as "Annie B. Severance" in the 1880 Cleveland census. Her life is recorded in the book In memoriam: Annie Belle Severance (1896). Her death on the Isle of Wight, aged 28, is recorded as "Severance, Annie Belle". In 1872 their last child was stillborn, and Fanny died in 1874. After this, he returned to Cleveland, where the children's uncle, Solon, raised them with his own three children. (Louis Severance later supported his nephew, Allen; funding his lifelong study of theology.)
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