William A. Clark: The Copper King Whose Bribery Fueled the 17th Amendment

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William A. Clark was born in Pennsylvania in 1839, moved to Iowa, taught school and studied some law before heading to Montana in 1862. After a short stint of mining he made his first money supplying miners, driving mule teams between Salt Lake City and the boom towns and carrying mail with his brothers. He opened a bank in Deer Lodge, foreclosed on struggling mines during busts, and became one of Montana's three copper kings, adding power companies, newspapers, timberland and railroads. In the 1870s he moved his family to New York to study mineralogy and assaying at Columbia so no expert could cheat him. Mark Twain called him the most putrid human being under the flag.

Clark used his Butte Miner newspaper in politics and fought rival Marcus Daly over the state capital, backing Helena against Anaconda. In 1899 he bribed Montana legislators for a U.S. Senate seat, and after weeks of Senate hearings he was not seated. He later served one term. He built a 121 room Fifth Avenue mansion and died there of pneumonia in 1925 with a fortune near $300 million. Clark County, Nevada, grew from land he subdivided for a railroad stop that became Las Vegas.

• When the governor left for San Francisco, the lieutenant governor appointed Clark to the vacant seat, and the governor rushed back to revoke it.
• He reportedly said he never bought a man who was not already for sale, and the scandal helped drive the 17th Amendment.
• For the mansion he bought a stone quarry in Maine and a bronze factory, and it burned seven tons of coal a day.
• At 62 he married 23 year old Anna La Chapelle, his former ward, and his nephew Walter died on the Titanic.
• Son William Jr. founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic, while daughter Huguette lived as a recluse in a hospital room until dying at 104 in 2011.