The Marshalls – $12B
The Marshalls also make for another excellent example of American wealth that came from oil. Howard Marshall II was the person who founded this family empire. The patriarch was a shareholder of the Great Northern Oil Company, though he traded them for what ended up becoming a 15% stake in one of the most profitable investment companies in America at the time: Koch Industries. He ended up leaving his shares to just one of his kids: J. Howard II. Unfortunately, he earned a reputation for giving the family various legal problems. He famously married Anna Nicole Smith, a former Playboy model, who was much younger than him. When she ended up with the majority of the empire, the other members of the family sued her in the hopes of reclaiming the fortune.
The Marshalls – $12B
