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Robert W. Stewart

Chairman of the board of Standard Oil of Indiana from 1918 to 1929; tried twice after his Senate testimony and acquitted both times; lost a stockholder vote to John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s side on 7 March 1929.

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  1. chair of Standard Oil Company of Indiana (Chairman of the Board) 1918–1929

In 1928 a Senate committee on public lands asked him about the Continental Trading Company and its profits. Time reported that in June 1928 a jury acquitted him of contempt for refusing to answer, and that in July a grand jury indicted him for perjury over his Teapot Dome testimony; the Annals of Iowa says he was tried twice, for contempt and then perjury, and acquitted each time. The Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society says he was never charged or prosecuted; Time and the Annals contradict that.

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Timeline 1 date
  1. 1918–1929 Robert W. Stewart chair of Standard Oil Company of Indiana
Proof 4 sources
  1. “Battle of the Century” in Whiting, Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society, Oct 2020. Scholarship & press
    by 1918 was Chairman of the Board of Standard Oil of Indiana
    It seems to me that I owe fully as much to the person holding ten shares of Standard Oil of Indiana
  2. Notable Deaths: Robert Wright Stewart, Annals of Iowa, 1947. Scholarship & press
    Mr. Stewart served as chairman of the board of directors of Standard Oil of Indiana from 1918 until 1929.
    Stewart's own senate testimony resulted in his being tried twice, first for contempt and then for perjury, in each case he was acquitted
  3. The Congress: Stewart Acquitted, Time, 25 Jun 1928. Scholarship & press
    was acquitted of contempt charges arising from his refusal to answer questions put to him by the Senate Committee on Public Lands
  4. National Affairs: Perjury, Time, 2 Jul 1928. Scholarship & press
    was last week indicted by the Federal Grand Jury of Washington, D. C., for perjury, in connection with his testimony before the Senate Teapot Dome Committee
Page history 3 changes
  1. Second revision of Too Big to Fail: the FTC's 1917 finding, the 1952 report's seven firms, the 1984 hearing record, and corrected cards for Spirit, beef, tickets, Google and the final verdictAlibek05663c47
  2. Revise Too Big to Fail after the skeptic's review: read to 2 November 2026, a verdict card that separates findings from shares, the 1929 fight with its scandal and the board's stand, and sources for every cardAlibekc819f2cb
  3. Add the story Too Big to Fail: Standard Oil's stockholders, the phrase's origin in 1984, and market-by-market cases to November 2026Alibekaa9c434d

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