Joshua Hunt
Joshua Hunt, the chief controller of these
works, is of English antecedents, his great-grandfather, Roger Hunt, having
come from Birmingham, England, to America at a date contemporaneous with the
establishment of the Penn Colony, and settled in Chester County, Pa. He married
Esther Aston, daughter of George and Elizabeth Aston, and had among his sons
Samuel, grandfather of the subject of this biographical sketch, whose birth
occurred Nov. 29, 1745. He was united in marriage to Mary, daughter of William
and Mary Beale, to whom were born five sons and three daughters. Thomas, of this
number, whose birth occurred Dec. 19, 1791, married Rachel, daughter of William
and Elizabeth Evans, of Lancaster County, Pa. Their children are Elizabeth (Mrs.
Aaron Baker), Mary C. (Mrs. Josiah Phillips), and Joshua. The latter was born
on the 13th of May 1820, in Chester County, Pa., his residence during the
following ten years. Later he, for six years, resided in Philadelphia, and
during this period was a pupil at the Quaker Boarding-School at Westtown,
Pa. In 1836, Mr. Hunt began an
active business career at Harrisburg as superintendent of a rolling-mill
erected by his father in that city. This property having been consumed by fire
in 1842, he returned to Philadelphia, and entered the rolling-mill
operated by his father. One year
later he removed to Catasauqua, and entered the office of the Crane Iron-Works,
with a view to acquiring a knowledge of the operations
of an iron furnace.
After a brief interval spent at Poughkeepsie,
he returned to Catasauqua, and became assistant superintendent of the Crane
Iron Works, in which capacity he acted until 1867, when he was tendered the superintendency, and continued in that relation until Jan. 1,
1882. On severing his connection with the company, Mr. Hunt was presented with
an elegant testimonial, consisting of an elaborate service of silver, as an
expression of the value of his services, accompanied with the assurance that
during his connection with the furnace it had attained a high degree of prosperity.
He was at this time, and is still, identified with the Lehigh Fire-Brick
Company, Limited, as its chairman. Having removed to Catasauqua when the place
was but a mere hamlet, he has been largely identified with its development and
growth, and foremost in all business schemes which promoted its advancement.
Mr. Hunt was married on the 13th of August, 1844
to Miss Gwenllian, daughter of David and Elizabeth
Thomas, to whom were born children, — Thomas, Samuel, John, William,
George E., and Joseph, all deceased and Elizabeth (Mrs. Robert H. Hepburn),
David, Joshua, Roger, and Gwenllian. Mrs. Hunt died
Oct. 25, 1875, and be was again married May 4, 1880, to Mrs. Hannah L. Mays,
daughter of Dr. John Romig of Allentown. Mr. Hunt is president
of the Catasauqua Gas- Light Company, which he organized, is chairman of the
Baker Lime Company, Limited, also of the Bryden
Forged Horse Shoe Company, Limited, and has acted as president of the Catasauqua
and Fogelsville Railroad. In politics lie was early a Whig, and subsequently
became a Republican. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of
Catasauqua, in which he has for nearly forty years officiated as elder.
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June 2014