Clayton L. Mark, Sr.

Clayton Mark was a prominent Chicago steel industrialist. He was president of the Mark Manufacturing Company (which merged to form Steel and Tube Co of America and was sold in 1923 to Youngstown Steel Tube Company) based in Evanston, IL, a director and second vice president of the National Malleable Castings Co (Cleveland), and a director of the Interstate Foundry Co and the Protection Mutual Fire Insurance Co. Mark's company started out making well-drilling bits and then manufactured metal pipe.

The family built 999 Lake Road, Lake Forest, an Italian villa designed in 1912 by prominent architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, likely with the assistance of David Adler who was just about to leave the Shaw office to start his own firm (1913). The decorative first-story grill on the house incorporate the letter "m" for Mark. Shaw had earlier designed a home in Evanston, IL for Mark's parents, Cyrus and Rebecca Strohm Mark. [After Mark's death, the Isham family bought the house, whose gardens were designed for the Mark's by Rose Standish Nichols, author of the 1902 English Pleasure Gardens.]

In 1917, Mark commissioned Shaw to design a workers' town of affordable housing called Marktown, adjacent to Mark's steel company in Indiana Harbor, East Chicago, IN. He had purchased the site for the factory and 8,000 person town in 1913. Marktown was never completed as planned because of World War I, but a small section of National Register houses exists. The town featured narrow streets with gabled colorful houses up against the sidewalk. It resembles Shaw's Market Square in Lake Forest, IL. See http://www.marktown.org/tour.html

Clayton and Anna Lareau Griffith (died 1915, age 53) Mark had nine children: Clarence Griffith (1882-1955 in Nantucket); Alice (1884-1965 in Lake Forest) m McMicken Hanchett; Clayton (1889-1948) m Gladys Stephens; Lydia Marie (1892-1962) m1 Arthur MacDonald m2 John Saville; Phyllis Frances (1898-1984 at Lake Forest) m Evert Wyman; Cyrus Wolfe (1900-1963 in Lake Forest); Scytha (1902-1968 in NYC) m Alvin Ehret; Griffith Mark (1904-1978 at Lake Forest) m Elinor Patterson; Anna Griffith (1906-1996 in Greenwich, CT) m Avery B Rockefeller. [Avery Rockefeller 1903-1986) was the son of Percy Avery Rockefeller, one of the richest financiers of his time. Rockefeller, who became a banker, attended Yale University, but on 20 September 1923, he secretly married Anna Mark, daughter of Clayton Mark. Following the marriage, the newlyweds eloped, planning to complete their education before telling their parents. However, the arrival of Avery, Jr. in 1924 made a mess of their plans and they were forced to reveal the marriage.]

In 1918, the Hospital Association of Lake Forest was organized to plan for a publicly-funded hospital to replace Alice Home Hospital which was too small to serve the growing Lake Forest community. The directors were Clayton Mark, Delevan Smith, Dr. Arthur Bevan, John T. Pirie, and Ezra J. Warner, Jr.. It took until 1941 to build the hospital.

From 1911-1920, Mark was president of Lake Forest College, which had been chartered as three separate entities under one Board in 1865. Mark had the difficult task of financially separating Ferry Hall, Lake Forest Academy, and Lake Forest College. His plan, despite criticism, ultimately succeeded in creating three independent organizations.

Mark also served three terms as president of the Chicago Board of Education.

The 1912 History of Lake County, Il states, "Clayton Mark was born near Fredericksburg, PA June 30 1858. He came to Chicago in 1872 and established himself in the manufacturing business. He is the President of the National Malleable Castings Co. and of the Mark Manufacturing Co. He was married in 1880 to Miss Anna S. Griffith. A busy man, Mr. Mark has had time for civic service and President for the last three years of that period. He came to Lake Forest in 1906, and rebuilt for his home the old Stokes-[Henry C.] Durand mansion." p. 516 The Durand house burned in April, 1912 at the same time that the Titanic sank.

According to a Zanesville, OH, newspaper, Clayton Mark left $550,000 in trust to his nine children.#

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Oct 1 2016, 21:33:08 UTC