The Pickands, Mather and Company (f.1883), is an important Cleveland, Ohio based mining and transportation company. It originated when Samuel Mather joined in partnership with Jay Morse and Colonel James Pickands in an iron ore mining venture. The firm quickly grew to become one of the four major ore houses in the United States. Its initial interests were comprised of two small mines in upper Michigan the products of which were shipped by a single wooden steamer. By the 1900s, the firm's ambitions and needs grew to include more property in northern Michigan and in northwest Ohio. By this time it had also become a sales agent in the new iron ranges of Wisconsin and Minnesota. To meet its ore transport demands, the firm formed the Interstate Steamship Co. in 1913 which became the second largest fleet on the Great Lakes. By the 1920s the company was the second largest producer of iron ore in the country. In 1929, coal production became a major interest. To facilitate such growth a subsidiary, the Interstate Iron Corporation, was also formed in 1929. A major financial step was taken in the early twentieth century when Pickands, Mather and Company established an alliance with the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, a successful steel firm. Although threatened in 1929 to be taken over by Cyrus Eaton's Midwest Steel Company, Youngstown Steel was preserved through the intervention of Pickands, Mather and Company. This successful attempt to protect its interest came at a severe cost to Pickands, Mather and Company. The resulting financial difficulties were exacerbated during the Great Depression years. However, the demands associated with World War II increased the firm's financial worth as well as its industrial status. Pickands, Mather and Company had also been known for its pioneer research in taconite. It became an international corporation in the mid 1950s when its interests spread into the iron fields of Canada. Pickands, Mather and Company was incorporated in 1960 and in 1973 it became part of Moore McCormack Resources, Inc., a shipping company.
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From the guide to the Pickands, Mather and Company Records, 1889-1969, (Western Reserve Historical Society)
