My Genealogy Hound

JOHN PRICE WETHERILL, of South Bethlehem, is one of the most prominent zinc manufacturers in the United States, the concern with which he is connected having been established here by his father about half a century ago. The Lehigh Zinc Works, as it is now known, ranks among the most important industries of the Lehigh Valley, and they afford employment to hundreds of men. Step by step this enterprise has advanced from a very small beginning to its present vast proportions.

The subject of this sketch, who is general manager of this company, comes from one of the old families of New Jersey, his ancestors having settled in Burlington in 1660. They were English Quakers, and were among the first manufacturers in the United States, first as cloth-weavers and afterward branching into the manufacture of white lead. Our subject’s grandfather, John Price, who was born in Philadelphia, was an extensive manufacturer of white lead in that city, and was Chairman of the Select Council there for twenty years. The Wetherills were Quakers until the Revolutionary War, when, on account of their service in the army, they were excluded from the church, and soon after started the society of Free Quakers, building a church at the corner of Fifth and Arch Streets, Philadelphia. Col. Samuel, the father of our subject, was also born in Philadelphia, and followed the same calling as his father. Afterward he took up the manufacture of white zinc at Newark, N. J., whither he went to introduce the new enterprise. In 1852 he perfected his process, which he patented the following year, and then located in Bethlehem, building the works on the eastern part of the present property of the Lehigh Zinc and Iron Company. He engaged m the manufacture of oxide of zinc, and later erected buildings on the other half of the property, his aim being to produce the pure metallic zinc by a new process of his own invention, which, however, did not prove a thorough success. Before this time the Belgium process for manufacturing metallic zinc had been introduced, and workmen had been brought over from Belgium. In 1860 the proprietors of these firms consolidated, becoming known as the Lehigh Zinc Company.

About this time the war broke out, and Mr. Wetherill enlisted, raising two companies in Bethlehem, the first becoming a part of the Eleventh Pennsylvania, and the other a part of the Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry. Mr. Wetherill was commissioned Captain and later promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. He went through the entire war, taking part in all the engagements in which his command participated. During this time the works were carried on under the supervision of B. C. Webster, and when the Colonel returned he retired from the business, having sold out his interest. For a time he resided in Bethlehem, later removing to the eastern shore of Maryland, where his death occurred at the age of sixty-eight years. His wife, Sarah Chattin, was of Scotch-Quaker parentage, and was born in Tampico, Mexico, her father having been engaged in business in Tampico. After her parents’ death Mrs. Wetherill went to Philadelphia, and in that city occurred her death, at the age of fifty years. Her husband was twice married, having four children by his first union, and two children by his second marriage. An own brother of J. Price is S. P., who is Vice-President of the Zinc Company of South Bethlehem. Georgiana became the wife of W. E. Cox, of South Bethlehem, whose biographical sketch occurs elsewhere in this work. W. C. is manager of the Empire Iron Company in Joplin, Mo.

Born in Montville, N. J., in 1844, J. P. Wetherill, on attaining a suitable age, pursued his studies in Nazareth Hall for three years, thence going to school in the state of New Jersey, and in 1863 entering the Polytechnic College of Philadelphia. In that year he enlisted as a member of Company H, One Hundred and Forty-seventh Pennsylvania Infantry, from Bethlehem, and served in Philadelphia, being mustered out in Reading on the expiration of two months. Returning to college, he resumed his interrupted studies, devoting his time to mining, engineering and metallurgy, being graduated in 1865 with the degree of Mining Engineer. Thence going to Schuylkill County, he was employed with the Philadelphia & Reading Coal and Iron Company, becoming Chief of Mining Engineers in 1877. In 1881 he resigned and purchased the plant of the Lehigh Zinc Company, which had been unsuccessful. In this enterprise he was not alone, as he had associated with him Richard and August Heckscher, of Philadelphia, and Samuel P. Wetherill. In 1881 the company was incorporated as the Lehigh Zinc and Iron Company, Limited, and later was re-incorporated as the Lehigh Zinc and Iron Company, with a capital stock of $600,000, J. P. Wetherill becoming general manager. The various departmentsof this extensive plant turn out immense quantities of metals, about five hundred tons of white zinc, four hundred and fifty tons of metallic zinc and three hundred tons of Spiegeleisen per month. The plant covers eleven acres, and in the works are employed some four hundred men. They also own mines at Franklin, N. J., and there employ three hundred men. In 1887 the Empire Zinc Company at Joplin, Mo., was incorporated for mining ore and manufacturing metallic zinc, and of this our subject is President. He was also one of the organizers of the Florence Company at Florence, for manufacturing oxide of zinc by the French process, the best in the trade. Branch offices of these companies are at No. 45 Cedar Street, New York, and No. 925 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, and they ship to all parts of the United States and Europe. The location of the work here was made on account of the discovery of zinc deposits of great value in the vicinity. The discovery was made by William T. Roepper, Secretary of the Moravian congregation. Those mines were operated by the company until 1881, but the present corporation operate their mines at Franklin, N. J.

In 1869 Mr. Wetherill was married to Miss Alice, daughter of Ira Cortright, and their residence is on Delaware Avenue, Fountain Hill. They have six children, Ira C., being employed at the works at Joplin, and the others are: Anna, Florence, John Price, Jr., William Chattin and August Heckscher. In politics Mr. Wetherill is a strong Protectionist, and, like his father, is greatly interested in the welfare of South Bethlehem. The latter laid out seventeen acres in what is now the main part of the city, and both he and his son have been important factors in the upbuilding of the place.