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#5 Cox family, $41 Billion
Fortune Founded: 1898, Source of Wealth: Media, Company Headquarters: Atlanta, GA Number of Family Members: 5
The Cox family has shifted in focus over the decades--from newspaper publishing at its start to cable TV and automotive technology now. The clan's fortune dates to 1898, when James M. Cox purchased the Dayton Evening News. The company subsequently expanded to TV, radio and more: Cox Enterprises includes Cox Communications (cable TV, broadband) and Cox Media Group (newspapers, TV, radio stations), and automotive assets. In October 2015, it completed its $4 billion acquisition of DealerTrack, a maker of software for car dealerships. Through Cox Enterprises, the family already owns AutoTrader.com, Kelley Blue Book and Manheim car auctions. The fortune is divided among James Cox's five grandchildren: Jim Kennedy (pictured, above; he is Cox Enterprises' current chairman), Blair Parry-Okeden, James Chambers, Katharine Rayner and Margaretta Taylor.

#4 Cargill-MacMillan family, $49 Billion
Fortune Founded: 1865, Source of Wealth: Cargill Inc., Company Headquarters:, Minneapolis, MN, Number of Family Members: 23 (Estimated)
There are more billionaires in the Cargill-MacMillan clan -- 14 of them --than in any other family in the world, by Forbes' reckoning. Along with several other cousins, they own 88% of Cargill Inc., one of America's largest private companies. The $108 billion (revenues) agribusiness giant sells food, processes crops, trades commodities, sources ingredients and provides financial risk management. It all started with W.W. Cargill, the son of a Scottish sea captain, who founded the company as a small grain storage business in 1865 at the close of the American Civil War. He got rich as railroads expanded westward at the end of the century, turning the Great Plains into America's bread basket. Cargill's son-in-law, John MacMillan, took over the business in 1909. The final member of the family to serve as CEO, Whitney MacMillan (pictured above), stepped down in 1995. Today only six members of the family sit on Cargill's 17-person board, thanks to an agreement between family factions in the mid-1990s. The family leaves 80% of the company's net income inside the company for reinvestment each year.

#3 Mars family, $78 Billion
Fortune Founded: 1911, Source of Wealth: Candy, Company Headquarters: McLean, VA, Number of Family Members: 3
The three Mars siblings, Forest Jr., Jacqueline (pictured above) and John, own Mars, the world's largest and most secretive candy company, with $33 billion in sales.[/b] The siblings, who sit on the board but have no daily role, inherited the company in 1999 when their father Forrest Sr. died. Their grandfather Frank began selling candy from his Tacoma, Washington kitchen in 1911. Their father joined the company in 1929, around the same time the company invented the malt-flavored nougat that became the basis of Milky Way and Snickers. Later the company invented M&Ms, over 400 million of which are produced in the U.S. each day. Mars also makes Uncle Ben's rice and owns pet food brands Pedigree and Whiskas. In March 2016, Mars announced it endorses limitations on added sugar in its products and supports U.S. government efforts to include added sugars in food labeling. Jacqueline is a trustee of the U.S. Equestrian Team and sits on the board of directors of the National Sporting Library and Fine Art Museum. Her son, Stephen Badger, serves on the Mars Inc. board of directors. Forrest is interested in historical preservation and is a trustee of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. His eldest daughter Victoria Mars is chairman of the board of directors of Mars Inc.

#2 Koch family, $82 Billion
Fortune Founded: 1925, Source of Wealth: Diversified, Company Headquarters: Wichita, KS, Number of Family Members: 4
A failed takeover attempt by brothers William and Frederick Koch resulted in the two cashing out of the family business for a reported $800 million in 1983. That gave the other two siblings, Charles (pictured above) and David, free reign to expand Koch Industries, which is now the nation's second largest private company (behind Cargill) with more than $100 billion in sales. Feeling shortchanged, William and Frederick spent more than a decade suing for more, to no avail, and today are worth a fraction of their more powerful siblings, who both rank among the nation's top 10 richest individuals. William runs Oxbow Corp., an energy and industrial materials company, while Frederick, an art-lover, has stayed under the radar. The conglomerate was founded by their father, Fred Sr, who first made his money by developing a new oil refining process in the 1920s.

#1 Walton family $130 Billion
Fortune Founded: 1962, Source of Wealth: Wal-Mart Company Headquarters: Bentonville, AR, Number of Family Members: 7
The Waltons are the richest family in America thanks to their ironclad control over the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart. Seven heirs of founders Sam Walton (d. 1992) and his brother James "Bud" (d. 1995) own about half of the company's stock. Founded in 1962 in Rogers, Ark. and taken public in 1970, today it's the biggest business in the U.S. in terms of revenues, with $482 billion in sales. In June 2016 Walmart shrunk its board from 15 members to 12 --keeping Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom and embattled Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer as members. The retiring Jim Walton (Sam's youngest child, pictured above with his sister Alice) was replaced by his son, Steuart, the first Walton grandchild to join the board. Jim's brother, Rob Walton, who was chairman for two decades, remains a director alongside current chairman Greg Penner, his son-in-law. The Walton family fortune is primarily held by Sam's three living children -- Rob, Jim and Alice -- daughter-in-law Christy and her son, Lukas, plus Bud's two daughters, Ann Walton Kroenke and Nancy Walton Laurie.