Clayton Mark

In addition to being a pioneer maker of steel pipe in the United States, Mark founded Marktown, a planned worker community in northwest Indiana on the National Register of Historic Places.

His earliest paternal ancestor in America was William Killian Mark, who emigrated with his brothers from Switzerland to Lebanon County, Pennsylvania in 1735.

Construction was stopped when only a fraction of the original plans for Marktown were completed due to the aftereffects of World War I, and the sale of his steel plant to Youngstown Sheet and Tube.

All of the original structures stand, and are considered representative of the planned industrial community movement of the late 19th and early 20th century.

[11] Mark's chief civic interest was in the field of public education, and he had a large impact on the shaping of the Chicago School Systems.

[5] Mark served several terms as President of the Civic Federation of Chicago from 1907 to 1929, an active reform group that addressed the city's social and political problems.

Clayton Mark has been described by historians as taking part in a phenomenal number of civic affairs with overwhelming energy and drive, and that "…he tried in every way to protect and foster the things in life that made it possible for him so it would be possible for others.