By 1857, English immigrant John Huntington was working in Cleveland as a slate roofer with no indication that he would eventually become one of the most respected and wealthy businessmen in the city. In the 1860s, Huntington solidified his place in the emerging (and highly lucrative) oil refining industry by patenting improvements to heating furnaces, wooden barrel production, and other oil refining methods. John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company bought out the oil refining business Huntington worked at in 1870. Huntington remained involved in the oil industry, and he also went on to own a fleet of lake shipping vessels, became an executive at the Cleveland Stone Company, and served 13 years on the Cleveland City Council.
