Samuel Livingston Mather, Sr was an American capitalist.
Background
Samuel Livingston Mather, Sr was born on July 1, 1817 in Middletown, Connecticut. His father, Samuel, was descended from the Rev. Richard Mather of Dorchester, Massachussets; his mother, Catherine (Livingston), was a daughter of Abram Livingston of Stillwater, N. Y. Samuel Livingston Mather's grandfather, Samuel, was a lawyer of Middletown, and a stockholder in the Connecticut Land Company which purchased the Western Reserve Tract along the south shore of Lake Erie. His son, Samuel Mather, Jr. , graduated from Yale College in 1792 and went into the commission business in Albany, N. Y.
Education
Samuel Livingston graduated from Wesleyan University, Middletown, in 1835.
Career
He was in his father's employ for a time and later, until 1843, was in the commission business in New York City on his own account. During these years he twice visited Europe. He was subsequently sent to Cleveland to dispose of the family's Western Reserve holdings and to act as agent for other eastern interests with land in Ohio. Soon after his settlement in Cleveland he was admitted to the bar, but never practised law. The discovery of iron ore in the Lake Superior region determined his life interest. About 1850 several Cleveland business men, of whom he was one, organized the Cleveland Iron Mining Company to conduct exploration for iron ore and to purchase ore lands. In 1853 Mather became secretary-treasurer, and the driving force in the organization. Within a year the company began shipping ore. For a short time the ore was hauled by wagons to the lake shore, transferred to small wooden sailing vessels, unloaded for portage at "The Soo, " loaded again for lake passage to Cleveland, and there transferred to canal and railroads for distribution to the furnaces of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Under Mather's guidance the Cleveland Iron Mining Company, later known as the Cleveland Cliffs Company, steadily improved the means of shipping iron ore, building railroad lines and larger ore boats. The construction of the canal at Sault Sainte Marie greatly facilitated the company's ore trade. The foresight and business ability of Mather and a few others revolutionized the iron industry in the United States; gave it a bountiful supply of raw material; and drew it toward northern Ohio, and the lake ports. The beginning of Cleveland's industrial prominence may be attributed to the Cleveland Iron Mining Company more than to any other single enterprise. After his death his sons, Samuel, 1851-1931, and William G. Mather, carried on and developed further their father's manifold iron interests.
Achievements
In 1869 Mather became president and treasurer of the company, offices which he held until his death. As the iron industry developed he extended his personal activities and investments into allied fields. He was secretary and manager of the Marquette Iron Company, a director of the Bancroft Iron Company, president of the Cleveland Boiler Plate Company, of the American Iron Mining Company, and of the McComber Iron Company.
Personality
He gave liberally of his abundant means to charitable and religious objects.
Connections
On September 24, 1850, Mather married Georgiana Pomeroy Woolson, who died November 2, 1853; on June 11, 1856, he married Elizabeth Lucy Gwin.
