14 Facts About Thomas Mellon

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

Thomas Mellon's family had come into Ireland from Scotland and Holland around the middle of the seventeenth century.

In 1816, his grandfather, Archibald Thomas Mellon, emigrated to the United States, settling in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

Thomas Mellon wrote in his autobiography that at the age of ten, he had been struck by "wealth and magnificence I had before no conception of" upon viewing the mansion of prominent landowners Jacob Negley and Barbara Ann Negley.

Thomas Mellon was himself admitted to the bar on December 15,1838, and opened his own law firm, focusing on civil cases.

Thomas Mellon invested the proceeds from his legal work shrewdly, buying up large portions of downtown Pittsburgh real estate.

In 1877, Thomas Mellon was approached to finance the Ligonier Valley Railroad.

Thomas Mellon divested himself of most of the rest of his property on February 3,1890, leaving it in the hands of his sons.

Thomas Mellon died on his 95th birthday, February 3,1908, at his home in East Liberty.

Thomas Mellon was survived by his wife, who lived for about a year after his death, and three children.

Thomas Mellon maintained a "country house" at 401 North Negley Avenue in East Liberty, where he indulged a passion for horticulture, raising fruit trees and other crops.

Thomas Mellon took an interest in the poetry of Robert Burns and in the history of Ireland.

Thomas and Sarah Mellon had eight children, five of whom survived to adulthood:.

Thomas Mellon entrusted his sons with business ventures from very early ages.