In social class today, my teacher said if someone could find out the last names of the 4 richest families during the Dirty 30’s, she would buy the student lunch!
I searched through my textbook and found nothing! She claims the answers are in there but myself and a friend found no answers.
She said one of the family names was Vanderbilts.
Does anyone know the other 3? This would be really appreciated! 
I can’t find stats but i’d assume rockefeller was another.
Carnagie, Getty?
Ford?
Thanks all!
I will use the first 3 names tomorrow, but unfortunately bradminster, Ford was a guess by someone else and was wrong! Thanks anyways!
I’d think the DuPont Family would have been fairly well off during the Depression.
The four richest families (by my guesses):
The Vanderbilts (steamships and railroads)
The DuPonts (gunpowder)
The Mellons (steel and finance)
The Rockefellers (oil)
Hmm, all I could tell you was how much their houses were worth in 1930 through the census. Nelson Rockefeller had a huge primary house. Worth almost a million dollars. Anyway it’s probably not too useful for your case.
How about the Hearsts?
Since 1918, Forbes magazine has published a list of the richest people in America. (Here’s a link to the first one.)
Find those lists for the 1930’s, and look for people with the same last names to come up with ‘families’. That should give you a pretty good start on this.
I guess this isn’t exactly doing your homework, so…
(and I’m not sure why you call it the “dirty” thirties, unless you lived in Pittsburgh)
From a 1933 newspaper, guesses as to the richest individual, Rockefeller was out as he gave away much of his money before the 1930’s and took a beating in the depression.
Names mentioned as to the richest were Ford, Mellon, Schwab, Baruch, Morgan.
In a 1937 news article, the Ford’s(father and son) were estimated to be worth 1 billion. The Mellons were estimated to be worth 200 million at that point. The Rockefellers were definitey still in there at that point.
I truly think that it would depend on what year you were talking about.
And, from everything I can find, the Fords were certainly one of the top five.
Definitely the Mellons. Final Answer.
Ask your teacher to explain WHY the Fords were NOT in the top four.
A book written in the 1930’s but using income tax returns from 1924, indicated the following for family wealth order(remember, this is 1924 and the stock market/depression could have played havoc with the list)
[ul]Rockefellers Morgans Fords Harkness! Mellons Vanderbilts Whitneys
[/ul]
Thanks to everyone here I was given a free slice of pizza and 5 dollars to spend in the cafeteria…
Score! 
Thank you all!