My Genealogy Hound

DAVID HUNT, Secretary and Treasurer of the Lehigh Firebrick Company at Catasauqua, is a member of one of the oldest and most distinguished families of Pennsylvania. He traces his lineage to Birmingham, England, where the family was one of prominence and wealth, and had as their coat-of-arms a crest with a hound on one side and a dolphin on the other. About 1680, at a date contemporaneous with the establishment of the Penn Colony, Roger Hunt emigrated from England to America and settled in Chester County, Pa. His wife was Esther, daughter of George and Elizabeth Aston.

Among the children of Roger and Esther Hunt was Samuel, whose birth occurred November 29, 1745. He married Mary, daughter of William and Mary Beale, and five sons and three daughters blessed their union. Thomas, of this number, whose birth occurred December 19, 1791, married Rachel, daughter of William and Elizabeth Evans, of Lancaster County, Pa. They were the parents of three children: Elizabeth, the wife of Aaron Baker; Mary C., who married Josiah Phillips, and Joshua, our subject’s father. Grandfather Hunt was engaged in the iron business, and owned a rolling mill at Harrisburg, and later one in Philadelphia, both of which were burned. In addition to these enterprises he was largely interested in lands in Virginia. His death occurred in Delaware. One of his uncles, Roger Hunt, was a commissioned officer in the service of George III., and later was a Captain in General Washington’s Army.

The father of our subject, Joshua Hunt, was born in Chester County, Pa., May 13, 1820, and at the age of ten years accompanied his parents to Philadelphia, where the ensuing six years were passed. During that period he was a student in the Quaker Boarding School at Westtown, Pa. In his youth he learned the iron business and acquired a thorough knowledge of every department of that industry. In 1836 he began his active business careerat Harrisburg as Superintendent of a rolling mill erected by his father in that city. His property having been consumed by fire in 1842, he returned to Philadelphia and entered a rolling mill operated by his father. One year afterward he came 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. For about one year Mr. Hunt had charge of a blast furnace in Poughkeepsie. In 1841 he accepted the position of Assistant Superintendent of the Crane Iron Works, in which his labors were so satisfactory that in 1867 he was chosen Superintendent, and remained in that position until the 1st of January, 1882. On severing his connection with the company he was presented with a beautiful 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.

Among the other enterprises with which Joshua Hunt was closely connected was the Lehigh Fire-brick Company, of which he was Chairman. He was also largely interested in the Thomas Iron Company and the Catasauqua Manufacturing Company, was a Director in the Catasauqua National Bank, and was one of the organizers of the rolling mills of this city. He was President of the Catasauqua Gas Light Company, which he organized, and acted as President of the Catasauqua & Fogelsville Railroad. He was Chairman of the Baker Lime Company, Limited, and the Bryden Forged Horse-shoe Company, Limited. In political opinions he was first a Whig, and afterward a Republican. For nearly forty years he officiated as an Elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Catasauqua, and was for a long time the Superintendent of the Sunday-school. Socially he was identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. During the late war he was Captain of Company B, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Pennsylvania Infantry. Both by precept and practical example he advocated temperance in all things. His death occurred July 18, 1886, when he was sixty-seven years of age. Thus was lost to Catasauqua one of its most progressive citizens, one who had witnessed much of its growth and aided materially in its progress.

The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Gwenllian Thomas, and was born in Glamorganshire, Wales, in 1824. In 1838 she came to the United States with her father, David Thomas, and her brothers Samuel, John and David. She died in October, 1878, after having had eleven children. Four of the number are now living, namely: Mrs. Robert H. Hepburn, of Chester County, this state; Mrs. William Vollmer, of Philadelphia; Joshua, a resident of Chester County; and David, of this sketch. Roger, a graduate of the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, died in Catasauqua at the age of thirty-five years. Thomas, a soldier in the Civil War, and afterward Assistant Superintendent of the Crane Iron Works, was killed in Catasauqua by an explosion.

At his father's home on the corner of Bridge and Second Streets, Catasauqua, the subject of this sketch was born August 26, 1854. The rudiments of his education were gained in the schools here, and afterward he spent three years at Swarthmore College and one year at Lafayette College. Having assisted his father considerably and thus gained a practical knowledge of the iron business, he went to Alabama in 1876, and was employed in the blast furnace managed by James Thomas. In 1877 he returned to Catasauqua, where he was engaged as machinist. In 1878 he went to South America in the employ of Mackay, Scott & Co., and was engaged as a mechanical engineer on the Madeira River. The object of the Collins expedition, as it was called, was to construct a railroad from the foot of the Falls of San Antonio to the head of navigation. Six months were spent in South America, but the expedition proving a failure, the party returned to the United States.

March 15, 1879, Mr. Hunt entered the employ of the Lehigh Firebrick Company as manager, and has since been connected with the works. The plant was started in 1868 by McHose & Ritter, but the frame building occupied by them was burned to the ground in 1872. It was rebuilt by Joshua Hunt and Samuel and John Thomas. In 1883 the company was incorporated with a capital stock of $120,000, Joshua Hunt being Chairman, and David Hunt Secretary and Treasurer. Since the death of the former gentleman the position of Chairman has been filled by Hope Hepburn. On the 1st of December, 1892, our subject formed a partnership with L. H. McHose, and they now lease and run the concern. The clay used in the manufacture of the firebrick is shipped from New Jersey. The main buildings are two stories in height, and 141 1/2x65 feet in dimensions. Another two-story structure, 65x65, is used, together with the kiln buildings, 72x42 1/2, and the stock house, 80x65. A switch has been built to the Crane Iron Company, and every facility added for the successful management of the business. McHose & Hunt lease ninety acres of clay beds near Amboy, N. J., comprising a valuable property.

Besides the company with which the name of Mr. Hunt is closely associated, he is also interested in other enterprises, is a stockholder in the Catasauqua Manufacturing Company, the Thomas Iron Company, the Catasauqua National Bank, the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and holds membership in the Firebrick Manufacturers’ Association. He owns twenty-seven acres adjoining the city, on the Howertown road. In political views he is a Republican, and firm in his allegiance to party principles.

In Mobile, Ala., April 7, 1880, occurred the marriage of David Hunt and Miss Anna L. Manning, who was born in that city. Her father, Hon. Amos R. Manning, was Judge of the Supreme Court of Alabama until his death at the age of seventy. He was a native of Amboy, N. J., where Mrs. Hunt was educated. Seven children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Hunt, three of whom are deceased. Lewis Manning died November 4, 1893, at the age of eleven years; David died when four years old; Stilwell lived but one year. The surviving members of the family are Roger, Gwenllian Thomas, Martha Manning and Grace Manning.