Photo: Ethel C. Standiford, photographer. Cleveland Public Library , public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
William Gwinn Mather was born in Cleveland in 1857. His father, Samuel Livingston Mather, was a leader of the Cleveland Iron Mining Company, one of the first iron companies on the Marquette Range.
Running the company
William Mather became president of Cleveland Iron Mining in 1890. The next year it merged with the Iron Cliffs Company to form Cleveland-Cliffs. He led the company until 1933 and then served as chairman.
Under Mather, the company grew into one of the largest iron producers in the country, with mines, railroads, ships and timberland.
Company towns
Mather believed better housing and services would keep good workers. In 1907 and 1908 the company built Gwinn, south of Marquette, as a planned town with parks, a school and well-made houses. It was named for his mother’s family.
The company also built hospitals and paid for community buildings. In Ishpeming, the Mather Inn, opened in the early 1930s, carries his name.
Legacy
Mather died in 1951. A Great Lakes freighter named for him, the SS William G. Mather, is now a museum ship in Cleveland. In Marquette County, his name is still attached to the places the company built.
