History of Onondaga County New York United States of America

Our database does not include an historic photo for Onondaga County New York, do you have one you would like to contribute? Contact Us!

Biographies:

Biography of Clark Mills

Clark Mills, sculptor, was born in Onondaga county, N.Y., Dec. 1, 1815. He was, early left an orphan, and in 1828 he ran away from his uncle's home, went to New Orleans and was employed by a millwright. From there he went to Charleston, S.C., and engaged with a plasterer, and while experimenting he discovered a method by which he could take a cast from the living face and reproduce it in a plaster bust at small expense of time and labor. He devoted himself to this as a means of support, and in 1845 repro, duced the plaster bust of Calhoun in marble by sculpture, which was purchased and placed in the city hall at Charleston in 1846, and he was awarded a gold medal by the city council. He educated himself as a sculptor, by making portrait busts of the prominent men of South Carolina. He was about to sail for Europe to study in Italy in 1848, when he was invited to make a design for an equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson for the government. He completed a model in eight months and was obliged to learn the' business of casting, there being no foundry or workmen in the United States capable of producing it in metal. The statue, cast from British guns taken in the war of 1812, was accepted and unveiled in Lafayette-square, Washington, D.C., Jan. 8, 1853, the anniversary of the battle of. New Orleans. This first effort to cast a large statue in metal in America was attended with much labor and many delays and was completed at a personal loss to Mr. Hills of $7,000, which congress afterward repaid out of an appropriation of $20,000 voted for a copy to he erected in New Orleans, La. His second commission, a colossal equestrian statue of Washington at the battle of Princeton, for which congress appropriated $50,000, was unveiled at Washington, Feb. 22, 1860. He also cast a colossal statue of "Liberty" from Crawford's design, to surmount the dome of the capitol at Washington, and it was placed in position in 1863. He took a life mask of Lincoln a short time before the assassination. He died in Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 1883.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Onondaga County New York

Biographies:

Local History and Genealogy Links: