Whitaker iron family

Members of the Whitaker family and related families were important in the iron and steel business in America during much of the 19th and 20th centuries.

First Generation

• Joseph Whitaker I (1755-1838) was the son of a Leeds cloth manufacturer; he came to America as a British soldier during the American Revolution and deserted, settling in Pennsylvania near Hopewell Furnace.^[1] He was merely a woodcutter for the ironmakers, but three of his children became prominent ironmakers.^[2]

Second Generation

• Joseph Whitaker II (1789-1870) was a prominent ironmaster, businessman, and politician. He was the ironmaster at the Phoenix Iron Works, the Principio Furnace, and owned parts of these businesses and others, along with others of his family.
• George Price Whitaker (1803-1890), brother of Joseph Whitaker II, was his partner in most of his enterprises. He received his early training at an iron works in New Castle County, Delaware and also saved enough money to receive some formal education in Philadelphia. He went on to manage a forge near Reading, Pennsylvania. His first investments were in a rolling mill near Elkton, Maryland and (with his brother James) a forge in North East, Maryland, which he managed for seven years.^[3] In 1836 George and his brother Joseph Whitaker II purchased the Principio Furnace and related properties, which had been in ruins since being burned during the War of 1812, and rebuilt. In 1845 George, Joseph, W. P. C. Whitaker and a partner built an ironworks at Havre de Grace, Maryland. In 1848 George, Joseph, and partners purchased the old Durham Furnace (once run by George Taylor, a signer of the Declaration of Independence) in Durham Township, Pennsylvania and revived that. In 1855 George and Joseph purchased an interest in the Crescent Iron Works in Wheeling in what was then Virginia. At the beginning of the Civil War George and Joseph divided their properties, George receiving the Maryland and Virginia share, Joseph the Pennsylvania holdings. In 1863 George purchased the Crescent ironworks outright and ran it until 1868, when it was bought by others. George repurchased the works after the owners went bankrupt and created the "Whitaker Iron Company", with George as president and his son Nelson E. Whitaker as secretary. George P. Whitaker served one term in the Maryland legislature, in 1867, and also represented Maryland on the board on of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
• James Whitaker (1782-1875) began producing nails in Philadelphia about 1805, and in 1816 he and his brother Joseph II leased a rolling mill at the Falls of the Schuylkill, beginning a long series of investments in the iron trade. He was the managing partner at the Phoenix Iron Works for several years and later was active in family interests at Reading. In 1846 he returned to Philadelphia and mostly retired from iron work, although he remained an investor in several enterprises. He became a Quaker late in life.^[4]

Third Generation

• Nelson Evans Whitaker (1839-1909) was the son of George Price Whitaker and inherited a share of his iron and steel interests in West Virginia and Maryland. He ran the businesses successfully and became a politician in West Virginia as well, serving as president of the state senate 1897-9.
• Edmund Simmons Whitaker (1838-1898) was another son of George Price Whitaker. He managed the Durham Iron Works in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and the Principio Furnace for many years.^[5]
• Joseph Coudon (III) (1823-1880), a member of a wealthy Maryland family (owner of the estate Woodlands), married Caroline Whitaker (1833-1898), daughter of George Price Whitaker, in 1854. He became a partner in Whitaker & Coudon, which sold iron products from the family furnaces and elsewhere in Philadelphia.^[6] His son Joseph Coudon (IV) (1858-1940) was one of the executors of George Price Whitaker's will, and helped to defend the actions of the executors from legal challenges by some of the other members of the family.^[7]

Fourth Generation

• Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker (1843-1916) was a grandson of Joseph Whitaker II; he was a judge, historian, and governor of Pennsylvania. As a young man he worked at the firm of Whitaker & Coudon, iron merchants, in Philadelphia, which sold iron from the family ironworks and other furnaces.^[8]
• William Perkins Tyler (about 1849-1902) was a son-in-law of Nelson E. Whitaker, and his Tyler Tube and Pipe Company ultimately leased Principio Forge from Whitaker (1900-1925). Their works at Washington, Pennsylvania were very large; in 1896 it was reported that the company had installed "two lap-weld furnaces, which are said to be the largest in the country".^[9] His New York Times obituary said he "was the originator in this country of the old Egyptian manufacture of charcoal iron, and it has become standard for use in the manufacture of boiler tubes".^[10] He died at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, and his funeral was the first one ever held in that hotel.^[11]
• Alexander Glass (1858-1941) was a son-in-law of Nelson E. Whitaker. After working for both the LaBelle Iron Works in Steubenville, Ohio (which his father Andrew Glass had helped found) and Whitaker family steel plants, he started the Wheeling Corrugating Company, with the help of an investment from his father-in-law. It was the first firm in Wheeling to make zinc-coated steel, corrugated for strength, for building, and it was a success. In 1919 Glass' company, the La Belle Iron Works, the Whitaker-Glessner Company, and the Wheeling Steel and Iron Company combined to form the Wheeling Steel Corporation, which Glass led until his death in 1941. Wheeling Steel merged with Pittsburgh Steel to form Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel in 1968.^[12] Glass incidentally made Wheeling, West Virginia famous by placing a large red "Wheeling" label on the company's garbage pails, which were widely used.
• Albert C. Whitaker (1867-1951) was a son of Nelson E. Whitaker; he served as president of the Whitaker Iron Company, the Wheeling Corrugating Company, and the Riverside Bridge Company.^[13] He retired from business in 1921.
• Nelson Price Whitaker (1873-1922) was a grandson of George Price Whitaker (through his son Cecil, who predeceased him). He helped manage the family businesses, serving in 1910 as the general manager of the Whitaker-Glessner Company, Wheeling Corrugating Company, and the Portsmouth Steel Company.^[14] He was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1916, and was chairman of the state Highway Commission until shortly before his death.^[15]

Fifth Generation

• Andrew Glass (1881-1925) was a nephew of Alexander Glass. He started as a salesman for his uncle's Wheeling Corrugating Company, managed the Portsmouth, Ohio ironworks of the Whitaker-Glessner Company, and later served as president of the Whitaker-Glessner Company and vice-president of the Wheeling Steel Company (after their consolidation). He died of an illness at the age of 44.^[16]
• George Parks Whitaker (1891-1948) was the son of Albert C. Whitaker. A Princeton University graduate, he helped run some of the Whitaker family enterprises, serving as secretary/treasurer of the Whitaker Iron Company, assistant treasurer of the Whitaker-Glessner Company, and assistant treasurer of the Wheeling Corrugating Company.^[17]

Sixth Generation

• George Parks Whitaker Jr. (1922-2003) was the son of George Parks Whitaker. He served in the Army Air Force (Air Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross) during World War II, graduated from Kenyon College, and traveled around Europe, meeting his future wife Marie Stifel while working at the Sandvik Steel Works in Sweden. He returned to Wheeling to join the Wheeling Steel company and retired after 25 years as the General Manager of the Ohio Valley Division of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel. He then became president of the Wheeling Stamping Company, a manufacturer of tubes.^[18]

References

1. ^ Pennypacker, Samuel Whitaker (1895). Joseph Rusling Whitaker 1824-1895 And His Progenitors. Philadelphia: "150 copies privately printed". p. 3. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/gdc/scdser01/200401/books_on_film_project/PSCLOC_BF011/20070427024jo/PDFs/00000015.pdf. Retrieved 2011-08-12. 
2. ^ "William and Mark Bird and the Founding of Hopewell Furnace, National Parks Service
3. ^ Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Maryland and Washington, DC, National Biographical Publishing Company, Baltimore, Maryland, 1879, pp. 661-2
4. ^ transcribed bio, supposedly by Samuel Pennypacker
5. ^ bio of E. S. Whitaker
6. ^ The Autobiography of a Pennsylvanian, Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker, Philadelphia, 1918, p. 56
7. ^ Atlantic Reporter, volume 100, p. 280
8. ^ The Autobiography of a Pennsylvanian, Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker, Philadelphia, 1918, p. 76
9. ^ Engineering News and American Railway Journal, Volume July - December 1896, #7 (Aug. 13, 1896), p. 56
10. ^ New York Times, December 29, 1902
11. ^ Akron Daily Democrat, December 29, 1902, p. 1.
12. ^ Wheeling Hall of Fame entry for Alexander Glass
13. ^ bio of Albert C. Whitaker
14. ^ Industrial World, Vol. 44, issue 1
15. ^ Cornell Alumni News, August 1922, p. 474
16. ^ History of West Virginia, Old and New, Vol. 2, American Historical Society, 1923, p. 68-9
17. ^ bio of G. P. Whitaker
18. ^ obituary of George Parks Whitaker Jr.