In 1867, he moved to Marquette, Michigan, where he opened a hardware store selling tools and supplies to iron mining companies.

He invested widely in Michigan iron mines, and by 1882 was a wealthy man ready to form his own company.

[5] In April 1886, Mather hired local stenographer Harry Coulby,[6] who swiftly worked his way up in the corporate ranks to become head of the company's Marine Department.

It formed a subsidiary, the Interlake Iron Corp., to hold its smelters, and expanded coal mining into Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

Elton Hoyt II, who had succeeded Coulby as head of the Marine Department in 1929,[11] became president and chief executive officer of Pickands Mather in 1939.

[13] To enable the company to better meet the challenges of the rapidly changing economic environment, Sherwin incorporated Pickands Mather in 1960.

[14] In December 1972, Diamond Shamrock sold Pickands Mather for $66 million to the Moore-McCormack Company, operator of a large fleet of international freighters and some of the last American-owned passenger ocean liners.

)[15] The sale was consummated by 36-year-old James R. Barker, Moore-McCormack's CEO and a former mid-level manager in the Marine Vessel Department of Pickands Mather from 1963 to 1967.

[14] In 1973, Elton Hoyt III was named president and chief executive officer of Pickands Mather, a position he held until his retirement in 1983.

[16] Continuing downward price pressure on commodities and shipping rates significantly harmed Pickands Mather's revenues in the 1970s and 1980s.

Moore-McCormack sold the iron and coal mining businesses of Pickands Mather to Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. in November 1986 for an undisclosed sum.