Clayton Mark and Company

Clayton Mark and Company was a manufacturer of steel pipe and water well supplies located in Evanston, Illinois. The company was notable for creating Marktown, a planned worker village.

History

Clayton Mark founded Clayton Mark and Company in 1900 in Evanston Illinois to manufacture wrought steel pipe and water well supplies. Clayton Mark, along with his four sons Clarence Mark, Clayton Mark, Cyrus Mark, and Griffith Mark held various positions in the firm and made it a driver of Evanston’s economy. It was the single largest employer in the city, with overall sales exceeding $10,000,000 a year. Clayton Mark products were sold throughout the United States and many countries worldwide. For example, Mark’s forged steel unions (high pressure fittings) were used in oil wells from Texas to Arabia. The steel tubing manufactured at Clayton Mark and Company was used in the making of furniture, automobiles, and bicycles whose market was worldwide. Mark conduit was used in house construction for the conduction of electrical wiring. And Clayton Mark and Company’s water well systems, supplies, and devices were used for pumping water out of the ground in rural districts around the globe.

Clayton Mark and Company saw a decline in business during and after World War I, and was sold to Youngstown Sheet and Tube in 1923.^[1]

References

1. ^ "Marktown Historic District". http://www.marktown.org/. Retrieved 14 November 2011. 

• Smith, S.H.; Mark, S (2011). "Marktown: Clayton Mark’s Planned Worker Community in Northwest Indiana". South Shore Journal 4. http://www.southshorejournal.org/index.php/issues/volume-4-2011/82-marktown. 
• "Clayton Mark Firm is Leader in Industry". Evanstonian Review. 26 July 1945. 
• "Clayton Mark Products Used Throughout the World". Evanstonian Review. 7 May 1953.