1855-1937
Banker and Financer

A Father's Footsteps.

Andrew Mellon was the son of Judge Thomas Mellon of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who acquired great deal of wealth from his legal practice but even more from his investments. Andrew learned much from his father, and in the early 1870s he started his own lumber and building business in Mansfield, Pennsylvania. Because of the depression of 1873, his company went out of business. Mellon went on to build his financial reputation in his father's bank. By the age of twenty-seven he was running the banking house, and soon thereafter he received ownership of the bank from his father. Mellon built his fortune through his ability to shrewdly judge both businesses and businessmen and his faithfulness in following his father's rule of constantly reinvesting profits in the businesses that generated them.

Ground-Floor Investments.

Mellon was able to discover several companies in...