William Gwinn Mather was an American industrialist.

Mather was born in Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 and attended Trinity College

Trinity College (Connecticut)

Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...

 for his undergraduate and MA degrees. Mather headed the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company for 50 years from 1890 through 1940. During his tenure he consolidated several mining operations and diversified into iron-ore industries and steel operations. The company's flagship bulk freighter

Steamship William G. Mather Maritime Museum

The Steamship William G. Mather is a retired Great Lakes bulk freighter now restored as a museum ship in Cleveland, Ohio, one of four in the Great Lakes region...

 was named in his honor, and today serves as a maritime museum

Maritime museum

A maritime museum is a museum specializing in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on large bodies of water...

 in Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

.

Gwinn Estate

Mather is also known for the palatial estate he built outside of Cleveland and the gardens designed by Charles A. Platt

Charles A. Platt

Charles Adams Platt was a prominent artist, landscape gardener, landscape designer, and architect of the "American Renaissance" movement. His garden designs complemented his domestic architecture.-Early career:...

 and Warren H. Manning

Warren H. Manning

Warren Henry Manning was an influential American landscape designer and promoter of the informal and naturalistic “wild garden” approach to garden design...

. The gardens, named for Mather's mother Elizabeth Lucy Gwinn, include a mixture of formal and "wild" gardens and extensive statuary and fountains designed by significant sculptors including Paul Manship

Paul Manship

Paul Howard Manship was an American sculptor.-Life:Manship began his art studies at the St. Paul School of Art in Minnesota. From there he moved to Philadelphia and continued his education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts...

.

Gwinn Michigan

In 1901 Mather purchased land in Marquette County Michigan for his company's operations. He had Warren H. Manning

Warren H. Manning

Warren Henry Manning was an influential American landscape designer and promoter of the informal and naturalistic “wild garden” approach to garden design...

 design a residential community to support his operations. On June 24, 2002, Gwinn, Michigan

Gwinn, Michigan

Gwinn is an unincorporated community in Marquette County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The community is in Forsyth Township at on M-35 near the forks of the east and middle branches of the Escanaba River. Gwinn is a census-designated place for statistical purposes, and the CDP includes the...

 was listed in the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

as the "Gwinn Model Town Historic District, Forsyth Township, Marquette County, Michigan".