Mellon family

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Mellon family
Judge Thomas Mellon.jpg
Thomas Mellon
AWMellon (cropped) (b).jpg
Andrew Mellon
Wm. L. Mellon of Pittsburgh before the Borah Committee, 10-28-24 LCCN2016849634 (cropped)(c).jpg
William L. Mellon
Current region Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Place of origin County Tyrone, Ireland
Founded
  • 1816
  • 208 years ago
FounderArchibald Mellon
Connected families Bruce family
Larimer family
Estate(s) Rokeby Stables; Oak Spring

The Mellon family is a wealthy and influential American family from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The family includes Andrew Mellon, one of the longest serving U.S. Treasury Secretaries, along with famous members in the judicial, banking, financial, business, and political professions. Other notable figures include the prominent banker, R.B. Mellon, and his son R.K. Mellon, who provided funding and leadership for the first Pittsburgh Renaissance.

Contents

History

Thomas Mellon, founder of the Mellon banking dynasty. Thomas Mellon.jpg
Thomas Mellon, founder of the Mellon banking dynasty.

The American branch of the Mellon family traces its origins to County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. In 1816, Archibald Mellon emigrated from Northern Ireland to the United States and set up residence in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. [1] Two years later, Archibald was joined by his son, Andrew, and his family.

The family's wealth originated with Mellon Bank, founded in 1869 by Archibald's grandson, Thomas Mellon. Under the direction of Thomas's son, Andrew William Mellon, the Mellons became principal investors and majority owners of Gulf Oil (which merged with Chevron Corporation in 1985), Alcoa (since 1886), The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (since 1970), Koppers (since 1912), New York Shipbuilding (1899–1968) and Carborundum Corporation, [2] as well as their major financial and ownership influence on Westinghouse Electric, [3] [ dead link ] H.J. Heinz Company,[ citation needed ] Newsweek , U.S. Steel,[ citation needed ] First Boston Corporation and General Motors.[ citation needed ] The family bank later became part of BNY Mellon.

The family also founded the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., donating both art works and funds, and is a patron to the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Yale University, the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti, and with art the University of Virginia. Carnegie Mellon University, and its Mellon College of Science, is named in honor of the family, as well as for its founder, Andrew Carnegie, who was a close associate of the Mellons. The family's founding patriarch was Judge Thomas Mellon (1813–1908), [4] the son of Andrew Mellon and Rebecca Wauchob, who were Scotch-Irish farmers from Camp Hill Cottage, in Lower Castletown, County Tyrone, Ireland, and emigrated to what is now the Pittsburgh suburb of north-central Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. The family can be divided into four branches: the descendants of Thomas Alexander Mellon Jr, of James Ross Mellon, of Andrew William Mellon, and of Richard Beatty Mellon. The Mellon family are members of the Episcopal Church. [5]

Prominent members

Andrew Mellon, prominent banker and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury throughout the Roaring Twenties. MELLON, ANDREW. SECRETARY LCCN2016860988 (cropped).jpg
Andrew Mellon, prominent banker and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury throughout the Roaring Twenties.

Members

Network

Associates

The following is a list of figures closely aligned with or subordinate to the Mellon family.

Businesses

The following is a list of companies in which the Mellon family have held a controlling or otherwise significant interest.

Philanthropy & Miscellaneous Nonprofit Institutions

The following is a list of philanthropies and other non-profit institutions which were founded by or have otherwise been closely tied to the Mellon family.

Buildings, estates & historic sites

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Mellon</span> American businessman and politician (1855-1937)

Andrew William Mellon, known also as A. W. Mellon, was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. The son of Mellon family patriarch Thomas Mellon, he established a vast business empire before moving into politics. He served as United States Secretary of the Treasury from March 9, 1921, to February 12, 1932, presiding over the boom years of the 1920s and the Wall Street Crash of 1929. A conservative Republican, Mellon favored policies that reduced taxation and the national debt of the United States in the aftermath of World War I. Mellon also helped fund and manage Kennywood Park in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Mellon Scaife</span> American Mellon family heir, and newspaper owner (1932–2014)

Richard Mellon Scaife was an American billionaire, a principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, and the owner and publisher of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. In 2005, Scaife was number 238 on the Forbes 400, with a personal fortune of $1.2 billion. By 2013, Scaife had dropped to number 371 on the listing, with a personal fortune of $1.4 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mellon Financial</span> Former investment firm located in the US

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allegheny Cemetery</span> United States historic place

Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a historic rural cemetery.

Mellon may refer to:

Cordelia Scaife May was a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-area political donor and philanthropist. An heiress to the Mellon-Scaife family fortune, she was one of the wealthiest women in the United States. Her philanthropy and political causes included environmentalism, birth control and family planning; overpopulation control measures, making English the official language of the United States, and strict immigration restrictions to the United States. According to The New York Times, "she bankrolled the founding and operation of the nation’s three largest restrictionist groups—the Federation for American Immigration Reform, NumbersUSA and the Center for Immigration Studies," and she left the bulk of her assets to the Colcom Foundation, whose major activity has been the sponsorship of immigration restriction.

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Thomas Mellon was a Scots-Irish American businessman, judge, and lawyer who was best known as the founder of Mellon Bank and patriarch of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larimer (Pittsburgh)</span> Neighborhood of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States

Larimer is a neighborhood in the East End of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States. The neighborhood takes its name from William Larimer, who grew up in nearby Westmoreland County and, after making a fortune in the railroad industry, built a manor house overlooking East Liberty along a path that came to be called "Larimer Lane" and later Larimer Avenue.

Sarah Cordelia Mellon Scaife was an American heiress, philanthropist, and Republican Party donor. Her legacy includes the Sarah Scaife Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Koppers</span> Pittsburgh-based chemical company

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Richard King Mellon, commonly known as R.K., was an American financier, general, and philanthropist from Ligonier, Pennsylvania, and part of the Mellon family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Larimer Mellon Sr.</span> American businessman (1868–1949)

William Larimer Mellon Sr., sometimes referred to as W. L., was an American businessman who was active in Republican Party politics. A co-founder of Gulf Oil, he was a member of the prominent Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phipps family</span> American family

The Phipps family of the United States is a prominent American family that descends from Henry Phipps Jr. (1839–1930), a businessman and philanthropist. His father was an English shoemaker who immigrated in the early part of the 19th century to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before settling in Pittsburgh. Phipps grew up with Andrew Carnegie as a friend and neighbor. As an adult, he was Carnegie's business partner in the Carnegie Steel Company and became a very wealthy man. He was the company's second-largest shareholder and also invested in real estate.

Rachel Larimer Mellon Walton was an American philanthropist, a member of one of the most prominent families in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the longest serving member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's board of directors.

William Larimer "Larry" Mellon Jr. (1910–1989) was an American philanthropist and physician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Mellon</span> American businessman

Matthew Taylor Mellon II was an American businessman who was a chairman of the New York Republican State Committee's finance committee. He was a member of the prominent Mellon family.

<i>Mellon: An American Life</i>

Mellon: An American Life is a biographical book detailing the life Andrew Mellon (1855–1937), American banker, businessman, and philanthropist. Written by Sir David Cannadine, Dodge Professor of History at Princeton University, the book describes how Mellon built his personal wealth by investing and running businesses in major industries, eventually becoming the Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. He was also noted for founding the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Cannadine acknowledges the controversy that surrounds Mellon and the other industrialists of his era. Like John D. Rockefeller Jr., Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie, John Pierpont Morgan Sr., and William Randolph Hearst, the businessmen were part of a fundamental transformation of the American economy in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

References

  1. ↑ "Thomas Mellon '" from modest Tyrone roots to founder of American dynasty". www.newsletter.co.uk. October 22, 2018. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  2. ↑ "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
  3. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=1929012.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Dan (July 1, 2007). "Mellon family's legacy lives on". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette .
  5. ↑ W. Williams, Peter (2016). Religion, Art, and Money: Episcopalians and American Culture from the Civil War to the Great Depression. University of North Carolina Press. p. 176. ISBN   9781469626987. The names of fashionable families who were already Episcopalian, like the Morgans, or those, like the Fricks, who now became so, goes on interminably: Aldrich, Astor, Biddle, Booth, Brown, Du Pont, Firestone, Ford, Gardner, Mellon, Morgan, Procter, the Vanderbilt, Whitney. Episcopalians branches of the Baptist Rockefellers and Jewish Guggenheims even appeared on these family trees.
  6. ↑ "Obituary: Paul Mellon" . The Independent. 3 February 1999. Archived from the original on 2022-05-25. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  7. ↑ Tanfani, Joseph (25 July 2013). "Late heiress' anti-immigration efforts live on". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013.
  8. ↑ "Obituary: Richard M. Scaife / Ideologue, philanthropist, newspaper publisher". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  9. ↑ Imbach, Florian. "Der Mann ohne Heimat" . Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  10. ↑ Lowitt, Richard (2016). Twentieth-Century Oklahoma: Reflections on the Forty-Sixth State. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 317. ISBN   978-0-8061-4910-3. OCLC   910936292.
  11. ↑ "Mellons in Pittsburgh" (PDF). Old Post Gazette. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  12. ↑ "Beaver County Times - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
  13. ↑ "Helen Mellon Schmidt obituary". St. Augustine Record. September 27, 2007. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  14. ↑ "Mrs. Edward P. Mellon's obituary". New York Times. September 6, 1938. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  15. ↑ "Matthew T. Mellon '22". paw.princeton.edu. Princeton Alumni Weekly. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  16. ↑ "Paid Notice: Deaths WALTON, RACHEL MELLON". The New York Times . 14 March 2006. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  17. ↑ "The Heinz Endowments : Board of Directors" . Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  18. ↑ "Miss Orr Marries James Walton Jr". The New York Times. 8 September 1991. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  19. ↑ McNulty, Timothy. "'Throwback' to the golden age of wealth and power in the city" . Retrieved 31 May 2013.
  20. ↑ Pace, Eric (2 December 2000). "Gwen Grant Mellon, 89, Dies; Founder of a Haitian Hospital". The New York Times . Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  21. ↑ "Wood & Torbert Families - William Larimer Mellon III". www.woodvorwerk.com.
  22. ↑ "Anna Burke, Justin Patterson". The New York Times . 22 September 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  23. ↑ Grove, Lloyd (July 8, 1998). "Child of Fortune, Take 2". The Washington Post . Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  24. ↑ Vondas, Jerry (August 5, 2003). "Renowned decorator also respected for generosity". TribLIVE.com. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  25. ↑ "Constance Barber Mellon, 41, Prominent Patron of the Arts". The New York Times . 4 January 1983. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  26. ↑ Cannadine 2006, pp. 80–81.
  27. ↑ Kotz, David M. (1980). Bank Control of Large Corporations in the United States. University of California Press. p. 114. ISBN   0-520-03937-8.
  28. 1 2 3 4 5 6 White, Leslie A. (2016). Modern Capitalist Culture. New York City, NY: Routledge. pp. 378–379. ISBN   978-1-59874-157-5. The Mellon family controlled, through ownership of stock, seven of the 200 largest non-financial corporations in 1937. (1) Gulf Oil Corporation was controlled through 70 percent of the common stock owned by members of the Mellon family. Gulf Oil Corporation in turn controlled the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company through predominant minority (34 percent) ownership of common stock. The Mellon family [also] owned 52 percent of the common, 82 percent of the preferred, stock of (3) Koppers United Company. This is a holding company owning all the voting stock of Koppers Company, one of the largest producers of coke and coal in the United States. Koppers Company is also a holding company, owning 67 percent of the Virginian Corporation, which in turn held controlling interests in (4) The Virginian Railway and (5) The Brooklyn Union Gas Company. Slightly more than half of the common stock, and 33.9 percent of the preferred, of the (6) Pittsburgh Coal Company were owned by members of the Mellon family.(7) The Aluminum Company of America was controlled [by the Mellon family] through ownership of 35.2 percent of the common, 25 percent of the preferred, stock, by far the largest block in existence.
  29. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Mellon's Miracle". LIFE. New York City, NY: Time Inc. 14 May 1956. pp. 151–159. Retrieved 2024-03-04. Today the Mellons control or own substantial shares in a $6 billion industrial and financial domain. In addition to the holdings in the bank, now the Mellon National, the family owns about 30% of Alcoa, 41.3% of Gulf Oil, 33% of the First Boston Corporation, 40% of Koppers Company, and 100% of Carborundum Company.
  30. 1 2 3 Kenny, Bill (2020). A History of Maine Railroads. The History Press. p. 92. ISBN   9781467145299. "Guilford Transportation Company (GTI) became a major player in carrying freight throughout the Northeastern United States when it entered the railroad business in 1981. It bought not only the Maine Central Railroad but also the Boston and Maine Corporation and the Delaware and Hudson Railway Company...GTI changed its name to Pan Am Systems in 2006. The company is privately owned by an heir to the Mellon banking fortune, Timothy Mellon, and other stakeholders including David Fink, formerly of Penn Central, and his son, David A. Fink.
  31. 1 2 Ravo, Nick (1997). "Thomas Evans, 86, a Takeover Expert, Dies". New York Times. Retrieved 2024-03-04. During the days when Wall Street was as boring as a gray flannel suit, [Thomas Mellon] Evans was one of its more daring and rapacious characters, waging waves of takeover battles. Sometimes, he was victorious, as with the Crane Company, and a cement maker, the Medusa Corporation. Sometimes, he was defeated, as he was with Anaconda and Westinghouse Air Brake.
  32. 1 2 Cannadine 2006, p. 137.
  33. ↑ "Mellons Seeking Insurance Stock; Indemnity Corporation Assets Would Pay for Shares of General Corporation" . New York Times. New York City, New York. 6 November 1945. Retrieved 29 October 2024.
  34. ↑ Smith, Rachel E. (2008). Latrobe and the Ligonier Valley. Arcadia Publishing. p. 57. ISBN   978-0-7385-5729-8. Judge Thomas Mellon bought the Ligonier and Latrobe Rail Road in 1871 when the line was still incomplete. Mellon changed the name to the Ligonier Valley Railroad and completed the line in 1877.
  35. 1 2 Chavez, Lydia (1981-05-27). "Mellon Also Buying the Maine Central". New York Times. p. 5, Section D. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  36. ↑ Warren, Kenneth (1996). Triumphant Capitalism: Henry Clay Frick and the Industrial Transformation of America. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 195. ISBN   0-8229-3889-8.
  37. ↑ Lundberg, Ferdinand (2007-03-15) [1937]. "VII. Press of the Plutocracy" . America's 60 Families . Vanguard Press. ISBN   978-1406751468. LCCN   37030388. OCLC   256489013. OL   6360759M . Retrieved 2022-07-08– via Internet Archive. p. 259: After losing a good deal of money with this early partisan of the New Deal, which subsequently reversed policy, Harriman and Astor bought a large interest early in 1937 in News-Week. There they joined a group of other important stockholders, which included Ward Cheney, of the Cheney silk family, John Hay Whitney, and Paul Mellon, son of Andrew W. Mellon.
  38. ↑ Wondrich, David (2 September 2016). "The Rise & Fall of America's Oldest Whiskey". The Daily Beast . Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  39. ↑ "Coal Conference Gives Leaders Hope." Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The Pittsburgh Press, July 3, 1931, p. 3 of pp. 1, 3 (subscription required).
  40. ↑ Starr, Jerold M. (2001). Air Wars: The Fight to Reclaim Public Broadcasting. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. p. 56. ISBN   1-56639-913-0. The Post-Gazette's new competition came from the Greensberg— now Pittsburgh—Tribune Review owned by Richard Mellon Scaife, heir to banking, oil and steelmaking fortunes.
  41. ↑ "Richard Mellon Scaife, billionaire who once owned Sacramento Union, dies". 5 July 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  42. ↑ Holbrook, Stewart (2017) [2010]. The Age of the Moguls. Routledge. p. 218. ISBN   978-1-4128-1082-1. At Butler, Pennsylvania, [Andrew] Mellon built the Standard Steel Car Company to manufacture railroad rolling stock.
  43. ↑ Cannadine 2006, pp. 176–177.
  44. ↑ Cannadine 2006, pp. 225–228.
  45. ↑ "Richard Scaife, Conservative Champion, Newsman & Philanthropist, Dies". TribLive.com. Tribune-Review Publishing Company. 2014-07-04. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  46. ↑ Tribune Review 2014.
  47. 1 2 Spring, Joel (2011). The Politics of American Education. New York City, New York: Taylor & Francis Group. p. 100. ISBN   0-203-83899-8.
  48. 1 2 3 Kulish, Nicholas; McIntire, Mike (August 14, 2019). "Why a Banking Heiress Spent Her Fortune on Keeping Immigrants Out". The New York Times. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
  49. ↑ "Foundation Gets $708,942." Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 27, 1971, p. 6 (subscription required).
  50. ↑ Dewey, Susan (2013). "Treasuring the Dunes". Cape Cod Home. Cape Cod Life Publications. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
  51. ↑ Reginato 2010.
  52. ↑ Heyl, Eric (2014-07-05). "Dick Scaife found peace in the beauty of his childhood home, Penguin Court". TribLive.com. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
  53. ↑ Jacob, Mary K. (2021-10-25). "Cape Cod estate of Bunny Mellon, known as Scallop Path, sold for $19M". New York Post. Retrieved 2023-02-24.

Bibliography

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