Andrew W. Mellon

Thomas Mellon left the bench to open a bank, and his fourth son joined it as a teenager. Andrew enrolled at Western University of Pennsylvania and left without a degree, spent a short stretch in a lumber and coal business, and came back to T. Mellon & Sons full time in 1873 — the year the Panic wiped out part of the family fortune. He took a leading role in the recovery, and by late 1874 deposits stood where they had before the crash. His father gave him power of attorney in 1876, introduced him to a bank customer named Henry Clay Frick, and signed the whole institution over to him in 1882. He was 27 and had never worked anywhere else.

He lent 25,000 dollars in 1889 to a struggling outfit trying to make aluminum industrially, and it became Alcoa. The pattern held. Carborundum in 1898, Gulf Oil out of a reorganized Guffey company in 1907, Union Steel with Frick, Koppers in 1914, and by 1913 a Pittsburgh bank holding more deposits than any other in the city. Harding made him Secretary of the Treasury on March 9, 1921, and he stayed 11 years under three presidents. His argument was that cutting rates at the top would raise revenue rather than lose it. The Revenue Acts of 1921, 1924 and 1926 took the top marginal rate from 58 percent to 25, the national debt fell from 24 billion dollars to 19.6 billion by the end of 1926, and Congress gave him a Board of Tax Appeals to settle disputes with taxpayers.

Nora McMullen was 19 when he met her in 1898 and unhappy in Pittsburgh by 1903. When it came apart he did not want a jury hearing the particulars, so in 1911 he persuaded the Pennsylvania legislature to end jury trials in divorce cases. She went to the newspapers and appealed to King George. The 1912 settlement was on Mellon's terms. A second seam ran through Prohibition. The Treasury he ran enforced it, while Old Overholt, the distillery he owned with Frick, held a medicinal permit to keep selling whiskey to druggists — obtained, it is believed, through his department. He sold his share in 1925. With unemployment near 20 percent, Hoover recorded him urging the government to liquidate labor, stocks, farmers and real estate and purge the rottenness out of the system. Those words survive only in Hoover's memoirs.

Wright Patman moved to impeach him in early 1932 over conflicts of interest, and Hoover removed the problem by making him ambassador to London. The tax-fraud case followed him home. The Board of Tax Appeals heard it from February 1935 to May 1936, and he spent the proceedings disclosing business dealings the public had not seen. Cancer was diagnosed in November 1936 and he died on August 26, 1937 at Southampton, New York. The ruling clearing him of fraud arrived months after the funeral, and his estate paid substantial sums to settle anyway. The museum he offered Roosevelt in 1936, on condition that he name most of its trustees, opened in 1941. The foundation carrying his name is his children's.

Andrew W. Mellon's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Alcoa company
  Grown from a 25,000 dollar loan to the Pittsburgh Reduction Company in 1889 1907
• Gulf Oil company
  Reorganized out of the Guffey petroleum company 1907
• Mellon Institute of Industrial Research company
  Founded with his brother Richard — later merged into Carnegie Mellon University 1913
• Board of Tax Appeals law
  His one legislative win that year — and the body that tried him in 1935 1924
• Revenue Act of 1926 law
  Cut the top marginal rate to 25 percent, closely following his own proposals 1926
• National Gallery of Art building
  His collection and endowment, accepted by Congress on his terms. The West Building opened in 1941 1937

• 1873 aged ~18 Joins T. Mellon & Sons full time as the Panic of 1873 hits Deposits were back to pre-panic levels by late 1874, with Andrew leading the recovery.
• 1882 aged ~27 His father hands him full ownership of the bank at 27
• 1889 aged ~34 Lends 25,000 dollars to the Pittsburgh Reduction Company It was renamed Alcoa in 1907 and became the most profitable thing the Mellons ever backed.
• 1900 aged ~45 Marries Nora McMullen, an Englishwoman 24 years younger
• 1911 aged ~56 Persuades the Pennsylvania legislature to end jury trials in divorce He wanted his own case heard privately by a judge. Nora took it to the press instead.
• March 9, 1921 aged 65 Sworn in as Secretary of the Treasury under Warren Harding
• February 12, 1932 aged 76 Leaves the Treasury as Wright Patman moves to impeach him Hoover made him ambassador to the United Kingdom instead.
• 1936 aged ~81 Offers Roosevelt his collection and an endowment for a national gallery He required that a majority of the trustees be his own choices. Congress agreed.
• August 26, 1937 aged 82 Dies at Southampton, New York, of cancer The Board of Tax Appeals cleared him of fraud months later.

• Henry Clay Frick 1849–1919
  Dominated coke supply for steelmaking and ran Carnegie Steel during the Homestead strike. partner
• Andrew Carnegie 1835–1919
  Steel magnate who built one of the largest steel empires in history and later became a major philanthropist. Pittsburgh rival
• Warren G. Harding 1865–1923
  Twenty-ninth president whose administration was marked by postwar retrenchment and the Teapot Dome scandal. appointed by
• Herbert Hoover 1874–1964
  Engineer and relief administrator whose presidency was consumed by the onset of the Great Depression. advised
• Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882–1945
  32nd President who led the nation through the Great Depression and most of World War II. prosecuted by
• Calvin Coolidge 1872–1933
  Thirtieth president who cut taxes and federal spending during the economic expansion of the 1920s. served under