Whitaker, Joseph, 1789-1870.

Joseph Whitaker was a leading American ironmaster in the mid-19th century.

Joseph Whitaker was born in 1789, the third son of Joseph Whitaker (1755-1838), a British soldier who deserted during the Revolutionary War and went to work in the charcoal iron industry of Chester County, Pa., safe behind the American lines. Joseph Whitaker, Jr., and his brother James engaged in the manufacture of cut nails at Philadelphia from 1809 until about 1820, when the two brothers leased the Delaware Iron Works near Wilmington and the Gibralter Forge at Reading.

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