Mather, Samuel (1851-1931)
Dates
- Existence: 1851 - 1931
Biography
Samuel Mather, wealthy Cleveland industrialist, was an original trustee of the CMA and a signer of its articles of incorporation in 1913. He was a member of the boards of the Horace Kelley Art foundation and of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust, which together with a third trust financed the CMA’s building and works of art for the collection. Mather himself supported the museum with financial donations and contributed to purchases of artwork. During his lifetime he gifted a sculptural relief, Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, c. 1500-1530; a glazed terra cotta plaque, The Entombment, late 1400s; and a sacrificial vessel, Ming dynasty. Upon his death, Mather, the richest man in Ohio, directed his heirs to give the CMA additional artworks in his personal collection. Samuel’s brother, William Mather, was president of the CMA from 1933 to 1949; in 1941 the museum presented an exhibition of nine works dating from the 13th to the 16th centuries from The Samuel Mather Collection Given by His Heirs.
Born and educated in Cleveland, Mather belonged to one of the oldest and most prominent families in New England, nearly all of them being descendants of the Reverand Richard Mather who arrived in Boston from England in 1635. Other relatives were Increase Mather, president of Harvard College in the late 17th century, and his son Cotton Mather, Harvard graduate and senior pastor of the Old North Church in Boston. Samuel Mather planned to attend Harvard but a mining accident while working for his father’s business required lengthy recuperation. Mather married Flora Stone in 1881 and fathered four children.
In 1882, Mather co-founded Pickands, Mather & Co., a rival to Cleveland Iron. After two years, the company leased a mine in the Gogebic Range, later acquiring interests in the Minnesota Mesabi and Michigan Marquette Ranges. Mather allied Pickands-Mather with the steel industry and facilitated the U.S. Steel merger in 1902. In addition to his directorship of U.S. Steel, Samuel Mather was identified with more than twenty-five corporations, serving as director of Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company and the American Shipbuilding Company.
Mather and his wife were involved in philanthropic activity for most of their lives. Samuel Mather was senior warden and vestryman of Trinity Cathedral, president of Federated Churches of Greater Cleveland, and a trustee and benefactor of Hiram House. During World War I he organized the War Chest, donating over $750,000, and receiving the Cross of the Legion of Honor from the French government. In 1919, he helped establish the Community Chest, contributing $100,000 annually, and in 1930 established a $1.6 million trust fund to insure its prosperity. Major beneficiaries upon his death included Western Reserve University, University Hospitals of Cleveland, John Carroll University, Kenyon College, the Episcopal Church, St. Luke's Hospital of Tokyo, Japan, and the Community Chest. Because of declining stock values in the Depression, the bequests could not be paid. As the value of the estate increased with market improvements, heirs contested the will, since Mather had changed the terms within a year of his death, and some bequests were invalidated.
Sources:
Ingalls Library clipping file.
“Mather, Samuel,” Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, accessed 4/18/25.
-Biography by Anne Cuyler Salsich, April 2025