Oliver Burr Jennings

Oliver Burr Jennings (June 3, 1825 – February 12, 1893) was an American businessman and one of the original stockholders in Standard Oil.

Early life Jennings was born in 1825 in Fairfield, Connecticut, to Abraham Gould Jennings and Anna (née Burr) Jennings. His brother was Frederick B. Jennings. Through his great-grandfather, Peter Burr, he was distantly related to U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr.

Standard Oil In 1862, he returned to New York with the intention of retiring from all business activities. Due to his close relationship with his wife's brother-in-law, Standard Oil co-founder William Rockefeller Jr., he became interested in the affairs of the Standard Oil Company.

Jennings served as a director of Standard Oil of Ohio and then as a trustee of the Standard Oil Trust that resulted from the company's reorganization in 1882. Together, Oliver and Esther had five children: a philanthropist. Walter Jennings (1858–1933), the director of Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and president of the Jekyll Island Club from 1927 until 1933. Helen Goodsell Jennings (1860–1946), who married Dr. Walter Belknap James (1858–1927), president of the Jekyll Island Club from 1919 until 1927. Emma Brewster Jennings (1861–1942), who married Hugh D. Auchincloss Sr. (1858–1913). Oliver Gould Jennings (1865–1936), who married Mary Dows Brewster (b. 1871), daughter of Benjamin Brewster and Elmina Hersey Dows.

Jennings died in 1893 at his residence in New York City.

Descendants Jennings's grandchildren include businessman Benjamin Brewster Jennings (1898–1968) and stockbroker Hugh D. Auchincloss Jr. (1897–1976), who married Janet Lee Bouvier. and Anne Burr Auchincloss, who married Wilmarth S. Lewis and spent her fortune to setting up the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale University, devoted to the life and works of Horace Walpole, the builder of Strawberry Hill House.