Thomas Mellon (1) (1813–1908)

2795 Thomas Mellon and His Times, by Thomas Mellon (read 28 Oct 1995) This is an extraordinary book. It was written in 1885 and is the story of the author's life to that time. He was born in Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland, Feb 3, 1813 and died Feb 3, 1908. He was the father of several sons, the most famous being Andrew, Secretary of the Treasury under Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover. Thomas Mellon was a lawyer, judge (10 years), and a banker. He laid the foundation of the Mellon fortune, but was not a philanthropist. His book is interesting and was written for his family and this second edition was published in 1994 by University of Pittsburgh Press, with a full "scholarly apparatus"--footnotes, introduction, bibliography, index, etc. He was bigoted, especially against Irish Catholics--he says Cromwell's policies should have continued in force in Ireland and all the Catholics should have been expelled as was done in Ulster! But he was also possessed of a lot of frugal common sense, and all in all I found the book well-worth reading.… (meer)