Stephen V. Harkness

Stephen Vanderburgh Harkness (November 18, 1818 – March 6, 1888) was an American businessman based in Cleveland, Ohio. He invested as a silent partner with John D. Rockefeller, Sr. in the founding of Standard Oil and served as a director of Standard Oil until his death.

Stephen Harkness was born on November 18, 1818, in Fayette, New York, to David M. Harkness and Martha Cook. His mother died before he turned two, and his father moved with Stephen to the Western Reserve region of Northeast Ohio. He also had a sister Martha A Harkness(Russell) who was born in 1820. They settled in Milan. The widower David married Elizabeth Ann Caldwell Morrison. They had a son, Daniel M. Harkness.

After David died in 1825, the widow Elizabeth took the two boys back to Seneca County, New York, where she had grown up. She married Isaac Flagler, a Presbyterian minister in Milton. They also had a son together, Henry Flagler.

At age twenty-one, after finishing his apprenticeship as a harness maker, Stephen Harkness moved to Bellevue, Ohio with his paternal uncle Lamon G. Harkness. Stephen worked for a time in harness making but in 1855, he set up a distillery in Monroeville, Ohio and it became successful.

In 1864, Stephen Harkness formed a partnership with William Halsey Doan (grandson of one of the original settlers of Cleveland, Ohio) to provide crude oil to refineries. He became quite wealthy through the profits from this industry.

Stephen sold his Monroeville businesses in 1866 and moved to Millionaires Row in Cleveland. There he organized The Euclid Avenue National Bank and was president of Belt Mining Company.

Harkness invested heavily with his younger stepbrother Henry Flagler and John D. Rockefeller in Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler, the corporate forerunner to Standard Oil. Harkness became its second largest shareholder. Although Harkness was a silent partner, he was a member of Standard Oil's Board of Directors until his death in 1888.

Harkness was active in the development of Cleveland, Ohio. He collaborated with Charles F. Brush and Rockefeller to build the Cleveland Arcade, one of the first enclosed shopping malls in the United States, modeled after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy.