Captain of a fast-growing industrial empire that now employed 7,000 people, Clergue was celebrated by boards of trade, politicians, and the media as having conquered the wilderness of Algoma, which until this point had been little impacted by European colonization. Implementing his theory of industrial integration, Clergue formed the Consolidated Lake Superior Company, which had a controlling stake in all of the industrial interests he had founded, with most of the remaining shares held by his Philadelphia and New York financial backers. It was initially valued at million.
