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