Mellon family


The Mellon family is a wealthy and influential American family from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, whose members include one of the longest-serving U.S. Treasury Secretaries.

History

The family fortune originated with Mellon Bank, founded 1869. They became principal investors and majority owners of Gulf Oil, Alcoa, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Koppers, New York Shipbuilding and Carborundum Corporation, as well as their major financial and ownership influence on Westinghouse, H. J. Heinz, Newsweek, U.S. Steel, Credit Suisse First Boston and General Motors.
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, the son of Andrew Mellon and Rebecca Wauchob, who were Scotch-Irish farmers from Camp Hill Cottage, Lower Castletown, parish of Cappagh, 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.

Prominent members