Clark Mills, an American sculptor, born in Onondaga co., N. Y., Dec. 1, 1815. He lost his parents in childhood, and learned the trade of a plasterer, which he followed in Charleston, S. C, for nine years. He early manifested a taste for sculpture, and in 1846 made a marble bust of John C. Calhoun, which was purchased for the city hall of Charleston. In 1848 he was invited to furnish a design for an equestrian statue of Jackson, for Lafayette square, Washington. His design was accepted, and he finished, after two years' labor, a full-sized model in plaster, which was so balanced that it rested on the horse's hind feet alone, without other support. Mills had now to build a foundery and to learn the practical business of casting, for there was no establishment large enough for the purpose, and no workman in the country capable of casting so large a mass. After numerous trials, interrupted by unforeseen accidents, he produced a perfect cast in October, 1852, and the statue was set up in 1853, on Jan. 8, the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans. It was completed at a loss to him of $7,000, but congress made him an appropriation of $20,000. At the same session the sum of $50,000 was appropriated for a colossal equestrian statue of Washington, which was inaugurated in Washington on Feb. 22, 1860. Mr. Mills's next employment was the casting of the colossal statue of Liberty, from a design by Crawford, which now crowns the dome of the capitol.

It was finished in 1863.