William Andrews Clark Sr. (January 8, 1839March 2, 1925) was an American politician and entrepreneur, involved with mining, banking, and railroads.

Biography

Clark was born in

Connellsville Connellsville is a city in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, southeast of Pittsburgh and away via the Youghiogheny River, a tributary of the Monongahela River. It is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The population was 7,637 at th ...

, Pennsylvania. He moved with his family to Iowa in 1856 where he taught school and studied law at Iowa Wesleyan College. In 1862, he traveled west to become a miner. After working in quartz mines in Colorado, during 1863 Clark made his way to new gold fields to find his fortune in the Montana gold rush. He settled in the capital of Montana Territory, Bannack, Montana, and began

placer mining Placer mining () is the mining of stream bed (Alluvium, alluvial) deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit mining, open-pit (also called open-cast mining) or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment. Placer minin ...

. Though his claim paid only moderately, Clark invested his earnings in becoming a trader, driving mules back and forth between Salt Lake City and the boomtowns of Montana to transport eggs and other basic supplies. He soon changed careers again and became a banker in Deer Lodge, Montana. He repossessed mining properties when owners defaulted on their loans, placing him in the mining industry. He made a fortune with copper mining, small

smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including Silver mining#Ore processing, silver, iron-making, iron, copper extracti ...

s, electric power companies, newspapers, railroads (trolley lines around Butte and the

San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad The Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad was a rail company in California, Nevada, and Utah in the United States, that completed and operated a railway line between its namesake cities ( Salt Lake City, Utah and Los Angeles, California), via ...

from Salt Lake City, Utah to San Pedro and Los Angeles, California), and other businesses, becoming known as one of three " Copper Kings" of

Butte, Montana Butte ( ) is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. The city covers , and, according to the ...

, along with Marcus Daly and

F. Augustus Heinze Frederick "Fritz" Augustus Heinze () (December 5, 1869 – November 4, 1914) was an American businessman, known as one of the three Copper Kings of Butte, Montana, along with William Andrews Clark and Marcus Daly. He was an intelligent, charis ...

. Between 1884 and 1888, Clark constructed a 34-room, Tiffany-decorated home on West Granite Street, incorporating the most modern inventions available, in

. This home is now the Copper King Mansion bed-and-breakfast, as well as a museum. In 1899, Clark built Columbia Gardens for the children of Butte. It included flower gardens, a dance pavilion, amusement park, lake, and picnic areas. An evening scene between characters Arline Simms (played by

Anne Francis Anne Francis (also known as Anne Lloyd Francis; September 16, 1930 – January 2, 2011) was an American actress known for her ground-breaking roles in the science-fiction film ''Forbidden Planet'' (1956) and the television action-drama seri ...

) and Buz Murdock (played by George Maharis) from the ''

Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

'' television series 1961 episode "A Month of Sundays" was shot on location at Columbia Gardens where she emotionally falls into his arms on the grand staircase. Clark later built a much larger and more extravagant 121-room mansion on

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

in New York City, the

William A. Clark House The William A. Clark House, nicknamed "Clark's Folly", was a mansion located at 962 Fifth Avenue on the northeast corner of its intersection with East 77th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. It was demolished in 1927 an ...

. He died on March 2, 1925, and is interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.

Political career

Clark served as president of both Montana state constitutional conventions in 1884 and 1889. Clark yearned to be a statesman and used his newspaper, the ''Butte Miner'', to push his political ambitions. At this time, Butte was one of the largest cities in the West. He became a hero in

Helena, Montana Helena (; ) is the capital city of Montana, United States, and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. Helena was founded as a gold camp during the Montana gold rush, and established on October 30, 1864. Due to the gold rush, Helena would ...

, by campaigning for its selection as the state capital instead of Anaconda. This battle for the placement of the capital had subtle Irish vs. English, Catholic vs. Protestant, and non-Masonic vs. Masonic elements. Clark's long-standing dream of becoming a United States Senator resulted in scandal in 1899 when it was revealed that he bribed members of the Montana State Legislature in return for their votes. At the time, U.S. Senators were chosen by their respective state legislatures. The corruption of his election contributed to the passage of the 17th Amendment. The U.S. Senate refused to seat Clark because of the 1899 bribery scheme, but a later senate campaign was successful, and he served a single term from 1901 until 1907. In responding to criticism of his bribery of the Montana legislature, Clark is reported to have said, "I never bought a man who wasn't for sale." Clark died at the age of 86 in his New York City mansion. His estate at his death was estimated to be worth $300 million, (equivalent to $ in today's dollars), making him one of the wealthiest Americans ever. In a 1907 essay,

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

, who was a close friend of Clark's rival, Henry H. Rogers, an organizer of the

Amalgamated Copper Mining Company Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan ama ...

, portrayed Clark as the very embodiment of Gilded Age excess and corruption:

Family

Clark was married twice. His first marriage was to Katherine Louise "Kate" Stauffer in 1869 until her death in 1893. Together, they had seven children: * Mary Joaquina Clark (1870 – 1939), m. Everett Mallory Culver, Charles Potter Kling, and Marius de Brabant * Charles Walker Clark (1871 – 1933), m. Katherine Quinn Roberts and Cecelia "Celia" Tobin * Unnamed son (1874–1874) * Jessie Clark (1875–1878) * Katherine Louise Clark (1875-1974)), m. Dr. Lewis Rutherford Morris (1862-1936) (great-great-grandson of

Lewis Morris Lewis Morris (April 8, 1726 – January 22, 1798) was an American Founding Father, landowner, and developer from Morrisania, New York, presently part of Bronx County. He signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence as a delegate to the Continen ...

) *

William Andrews Clark Jr. William Andrews Clark Jr. (March 29, 1877 – June 14, 1934) was a Los Angeles-based philanthropist and the youngest surviving son of copper baron and U.S. Senator William Andrews Clark Sr. and his first wife, Katherine. Early life William Andr ...

(1877–1934), m. Mabel Foster and Alice McManus * Paul Francis Clark (1880–1896) After Kate's death in 1893, William married his second wife, the woman who had been his teenage ward, Anna Eugenia La Chapelle (March 10, 1878, Michigan – October 11, 1963, New York). They claimed to have been married in 1901 in France. Anna was 23 and William was 62. They had two children: * Louise Amelia Andrée Clark (August 13, 1902, Spain – August 6, 1919, Rangeley, Maine) * Huguette Marcelle Clark (June 9, 1906, Paris, France – May 24, 2011, New York City) In early 1946, Anna commissioned the Paganini Quartet, and acquired the four famous Stradivarius instruments once owned by Niccolo Paganini for their use. Clark donated 135 acres to the

Girl Scouts Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...

in honor of his elder daughter (by his second wife), Louise Amelia Andrée (who died a week before her 17th birthday of

meningitis Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusion or ...

), who had been very happy there. The Girl Scout camp in Briarcliff Manor was named Camp Andree Clark.

William Andrews Clark Jr.

Clark's son, William Andrews Clark Jr., founder of the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

in 1919, left his library of rare books and manuscripts to the regents of the University of California, Los Angeles. Today, the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library specializes in English literature and history from 1641 to 1800, materials related to

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

and his associates, and fine printing.

Huguette Marcelle Clark

Huguette (pronounced ), born in Paris, France in June 1906, was the youngest child of Clark with his second wife, Anna Eugenia La Chapelle. She married once but divorced less than a year later. She led a reclusive life thereafter, seldom communicating with the public nor with her extended family. For many years, she lived in three combined apartments, with a total of 42 rooms, on New York's Fifth Avenue at 72nd Street, overlooking Central Park. In 1991, she moved out and for the remainder of her life lived in various New York City hospitals. In February 2010, she became the subject of a series of reports on MSNBC after it was reported that the caretakers of her three residences (including a $24 million estate in Connecticut, a sprawling seaside estate in Santa Barbara, California and her Fifth Avenue apartments valued at $100 million) had not seen her in decades. These articles were the basis for the 2013 bestselling book ''Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune.'' by investigative reporter Bill Dedman. Her final residence was Beth Israel Medical Center, where she died on the morning of May 24, 2011, age 104. Huguette's extraordinary collection of arts and antiquities were consigned to go on the auction block at Christie's in June 2014, over three years after her death.

Walter Clark

Clark's nephew, Walter Miller Clark, son of James Ross and Miriam Augusta (Evans) Clark, along with Walter's wife, Virginia (McDowell) Clark, were passengers on the RMS ''Titanic''. He was among the 1,514 who died on April 15, 1912, after the ship struck an iceberg at 2:20 a.m. She survived and arrived in New York City a widow. Some of Mr. Clark's personal items were retrieved in the debris field during an expedition to the site of the sinking in 1994. They were identified by engraved initials. They included shaving soap, toiletry items, cuff links, and gambling chips. Walter's wife, Virginia, was rescued by the RMS ''Carpathia''.

Legacy

Clark's art collection was donated to the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. after his death, greatly enriching that museum's holdings of European as well as American art. The Clark donation also included the construction of a new wing for the Corcoran, known appropriately as the Clark Wing. The city of Las Vegas was established as a maintenance stop for Clark's

. He subdivided into 1200 lots, some of which on the corner of Fremont Street in Las Vegas sold for as much as $1750. The Las Vegas area was organized as Clark County, Nevada, in Clark's honor. Clark's involvement in the founding of Las Vegas is recounted in a decidedly negative light by Chris Romano in the "Las Vegas" episode of Comedy Central's

Drunk History ''Drunk History'' is an American educational comedy television series produced by Comedy Central, based on the Funny or Die web series created by Derek Waters and Jeremy Konner in 2007. They and Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are the show's exec ...

, with Rich Fulcher portraying Clark.

Clarkdale, Arizona

Clarkdale, Arizona, named for Clark, was the site of smelting operations for Clark's mines in nearby Jerome, Arizona. The town includes the historic Clark Mansion, which sustained severe fire damage on June 25, 2010. Clarkdale is home to the Verde Canyon Railroad wilderness train ride which follows the historic route that Clark had constructed in 1911 and home to the Copper Art Museum.

Notes

Sources

*
NBCNews.com: Huguette Clark, the reclusive heiress, and the men managing her money, an NBCNews.com special report
* *

External links

NBCNews.com: Huguette Clark, the reclusive heiress, and the men managing her money, an NBCNews.com special report

''Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune''

Biographical Sketch
* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, William Andrews 1839 births 1925 deaths American bankers American philanthropists Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) American businesspeople in metals Democratic Party United States senators from Montana History of Clark County, Nevada Clark, William A. Iowa Wesleyan University alumni Montana Democrats Montana pioneers People from Connellsville, Pennsylvania People from Deer Lodge, Montana Use mdy dates from August 2011 William A.