With contemporaries like the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers, the Mellons are often overlooked in discussions of families who amassed incredible fortunes during and after the Gilded Age.
It doesn't help that the Mellon family's rags-to-riches story has settings that are far from picturesque -- the farmlands of Ireland before the potato famine, and the industrial city of Pittsburgh.
However, the family's shrewd investments always put them on the cutting edge of technology during a period of mass industrialization: an easy formula for unimaginable riches.
What sets the Mellon dynasty apart from many others is the diversity of their wealth. At the turn of the twentieth century, the Mellons acquired significant interests in major oil, steel, aluminum, and coal companies -- and still keep their family name on a major bank, BNY Mellon, to boot. Descendants of the architects of the Mellon family's wealth have been born into prosperity, but have largely protected, rather than enhanced, the family fortune.
Thomas Mellon, the patriarch of the dynasty, was born in 1813 in Northern Ireland.
In the old country, the Mellons were a family of farmers. The family house, pictured to the right, has been converted into the Ulster American Folk Park Museum. At the age of five, Thomas and his family emigrated to the U.S.
Source: Thomas Mellon and His Times
As a young teenager, Thomas was inspired by Benjamin Franklin.
In his autobiography, Thomas recounts finding The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin when he was 14, which made him yearn for a future greater than farming.
Source: Thomas Mellon and His Times
He became the first in the family to graduate from college in 1837, and went on to become a lawyer.
Thomas attended the Western University of Pennsylvania (currently University of Pittsburgh). After graduation, he worked as a clerk for the county and opened his own practice located in Pittsburgh in 1839.
Source: The Judge: A Life of Thomas Mellon, Founder of a Fortune
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