Includes bibliographical references (p. 539-547) and index.

Beginnings in Ulster, the crossing, and the fourth R -- From plowboy to professor -- Choosing the law, shopping for a wife, the Great Fire of 1845 -- The Taub, Winebiddle, and Negley fortunes, or what Thomas Mellon married -- Home life on Negley Lane, raising the Mellon boys -- Years of the law, first encounter with James B. Corey, the Lee case, clash with Colonel Black, Entering the coal business, Judge Thomas Mellon -- The storm over James's enlistment -- Closet philosopher Mellon, his infatuation with Herbert Spencer, views on religion and education -- On capital punishment and the jury system; four hangings; Judges McClure, Sterrett, and Stowe -- Banker and businessman, his Larimer and Caldwell in-laws, the founding of Mellon Brothers and of T. Mellon & Sons, loans to Henry Clay Frick -- The panic of 1873, his finest hour -- The ABCD lawsuits -- Early life of Andrew W. Mellon, his friendship with Henry Clay Frick -- The Mellons build a railroad, leadership of the family passes to Andrew -- The judge's clashes with organized labor: the "great uprising" of 1877, prosecution of David Jones, slander suit against the National Labor Tribune -- A passage to Ireland, "sinking" the island -- The reluctant politician -- Andrew the financier, his father's influence -- The judge writes his memoirs, how to defeat poverty -- The short life and long death of George Mellon, odyssey of the Glen Eyre, Richard is given half of T. Mellon & Sons -- The judge's relations with Frick and Carnegie -- False spring at Kansas City, destitute of the fortune -- The inclines abandoned, the "boodlers" routed, Judge Mellon sued for slander -- Selwyn and George "return" -- The long twilight -- In the judge's shadow: an epilogue.