Clayton Mark and Company

Clayton Mark founded Clayton Mark and Company in 1900 in Evanston to manufacture wrought steel pipe and water well supplies.[2] 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.[3] It was the single largest employer in the city, with overall sales exceeding $10,000,000 a year.[3] Clayton Mark products were sold throughout the United States and many countries worldwide.[3] For example, Mark's forged steel unions (high pressure fittings) were used in oil wells from Texas to Arabia.[3] The steel tubing manufactured at Clayton Mark and Company was used in the making of furniture, automobiles, and bicycles whose market was worldwide.[3] Mark conduit was used in house construction for the conduction of electrical wiring.[3] The firm's water well systems, supplies, and devices were used for pumping water out of the ground in rural districts around the globe.[3]

Clayton Mark also co-founded with his father Cyrus the Mark Manufacturing Company in Northwest Indiana. In addition, he founded Marktown, a planned worker community to house its employees in East Chicago, Indiana.[4][5]