Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company

The Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company was formed in 1891 with the merger of the Cleveland Iron Mining Co. and the Iron Cliffs Co. The Michigan office of the new company was established in Ishpeming. By the turn of the century, the company comprised a combination of constituent, allied and associated companies. Some were mining concerns, but others were established or aquired to provide transportation, to deal in land and lumber, or to manufacture products from iron or lumber. The Land and Lumbering Depts. were formed in 1896 with offices in Negaunee.

From the description of Records of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 41501387

Great Lakes based corporation with interests in shipping, mining energy, and timber.

From the description of Records, 1935-1981. (Bowling Green State University). WorldCat record id: 24595863

The records in this group were a gift to the Michigan Department of Conservation, Parks Division, from the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company.

From the description of Payroll records, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1865-1915. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789120

From the description of Administrative correspondence, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1860-1905. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789112

From the description of Records of iron ore and coal, various mines, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1865-1897. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789131

From the description of Correspondence, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1866-1897. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789116

From the description of Record of contractors and ores transported, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1870-1891. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789129

From the description of General business records, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1865-1933. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789114

From the description of Manifests, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1867-1891. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789125

From the description of Mine inventories, various mines, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1867-1899. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789118

From the description of Journals, company store, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1866-1875. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789119

The records in this group were a gift to the Michigan Department of Conservation, Parks Division, from the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company. The Jackson Iron Company, one of the companies which merged to form the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Co., built a furnace town named Fayette (after Fayette Brown). Here the ore from the mines of the region were converted to pig iron before shipment to the lower lakes. A fire in 1883 destroyed the furnaces, casting house, various stockhouses, other buildings, and supplies. The company rebuilt the town, but it never regained the success it had as a furnace town. In the early 1890's, the machinery was disassembled, the residents moved, and the town settled into quiet decay. In 1959, the state of Michigan acquired Fayette and restored it as a state historical park.

From the description of Record of ore received at furnace Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1890-1893. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789107

From the description of Correspondence, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1866-1883, 1904. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789095

From the description of General administrative records, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1866-1930. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789110

From the description of Payrolls, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1866-1895. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789100

From the description of Weekly report, mine and furnace production, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1869-1896. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789102

From the description of Statements of iron sales, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 1867-1893. (State Archive of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 48789105

In 1847, a group of men from the Cleveland area pooled their money and their minds to create the Cleveland Iron Company. Their objective was to explore for minerals in the remote wilderness of Michigan₂s Upper Peninsula, just three years after iron ore was discovered near what is now Negaunee, Michigan, in 1844. The articles of agreement to form this new company were drawn up on November 9, 1847, and the first stock in the new venture was issued on November 27, 1847. Reborn as Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. in the mid-1980s, and Cliffs Natural Resources in 2008, the company has remained in the forefront of the North American iron ore business since opening its first mine in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in 1850, achieving longevity by successfully adapting its operations to major changes that drove many competitors out of business. Today's Cliffs is a pre-eminent global producer and merchant of iron ore and other steel-related products (excerpted from http://www.cliffsnaturalresources.com/About/Pages/History.aspx, accessed January 2011).

From the description of Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company Forest Survey Records, 1896-1943 1919-1943. (Michigan Technological University). WorldCat record id: 711888569

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is North America's largest supplier of iron-ore pellets to the steel industry and is the oldest iron-mining firm with headquarters in Cleveland. The company's origin dates to 9 Nov. 1847, when 15 Cleveland men interested in exploring the vast iron ore deposits on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan formed the Cleveland Iron Mining Co. It was incorporated in Michigan in 1850 and reorganized in Ohio 3 years later. Samuel Livingston Mather (b. 1817) was the leading force for the business in its first 50 years. The company sent the first cargo of ore through the Sault Ste. Marie canal in 1855. It built railroads and docks in that area and, in 1869, started its own fleet of ore carriers, which were shipping 200,000 tons of ore annually by 1880. As surface mining was depleted in the 1880s, the firm pioneered in devising an underground mining system. In 1883, Mather's oldest son, Samuel Mather, left Cleveland Iron to form the rival firm Pickands Mather & Co. By the end of the decade, Samuel L. Mather began talks to merge Cleveland Iron with its prime competitor, the Iron Cliffs Co., but died before negotiations were completed in 1891.

After his death, Mather's youngest son, William G. Mather, became president of the newly formed Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co. and led the firm's diversification into ore-related industries. Acquiring 330,000 acres of timberland on the Upper Peninsula, the company moved into the forest-products and chemical industries. The firm was an innovator in the application of electricity to mining, which subsequently led to its involvement in the utility business, providing electricity not only to the mines but also to the Upper Peninsula communities. Desiring more control over its coal supply, in the late 1910s the company acquired coal mines in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Cleveland-Cliffs expanded its iron ore business by acquiring several smaller iron companies in the Marquette Range and eventually moving into Minnesota's Mesabi Range during World War I, giving it a total of 29 mines and 23 freighters. Working with the U.S. Bureau of Mines in the 1950s, Cleveland-Cliffs helped pioneer the development of taconite ore pellets. The company expanded its iron ore operations to Australia and Canada in the 1960s and by the end of the following decade Cleveland-Cliffs had sizable interests in uranium and shale oil fields, as well as, within the oil and gas drilling industries. The company also widened its holdings in the forest products industry. In the 1980s the company refocused its efforts on its core iron ore business and disposed of most other interests. In 1985, the company reorganized by forming Cleveland-Cliffs Inc as the parent company and the following year, Cleveland-Cliffs acquired Pickands, Mather, & Co, then one of its chief competitors. In 1994 the firm acquired a property now called Northshore Mining Co. in Silver Bay, MN, which was one of the industry's first iron ore pellet producers. By 1995, Cleveland-Cliffs managed 7 iron mines in the U.S., Canada, and Australia that supply steel-producing partners and customers in North America, Europe, and the Pacific Basin. As the North American steel industry continued to struggle against imported steel at the end of the 1990s, Cleveland-Cliffs attempted to control costs through strategic consolidations and expansion. In 2003, the Plain Dealer reported that the company was in negotiations to supply iron-ore for China's steel industry. Currently, Cleveland-Cliffs employs over 3,000 workers at its North American operations.

(Source: Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Retrieved from http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=CI2 on December 22, 2009.)

From the guide to the Cleveland Cliffs Company photograph collection, 20th century, (Cleveland State University)