Before he was old enough to vote, William Larimer Mellon decided that he had not been born to sit at a desk. He refused to finish school, was miserable as a shipping clerk. To curb his restlessness, staid Uncle Andrew Mellon assigned him some oil leases that had turned up in the course of some family deals. To them, William added scores of others. He built a refinery and pipeline, surprised his money-wise family by organizing an integrated oil business which he sold to the Rockefellers in 1895 for about twice what it cost.
After that, restless William knew what...
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