70 Facts About Joseph Wharton

Joseph Wharton was an American industrialist and philanthropist.

Joseph Wharton was instrumental in the development of the nickel and zinc metal industries in the United States.

Joseph Wharton created the first plant in the United States to produce metallic zinc, or spelter, and became the largest producer of nickel and pig iron in the country.

Joseph Wharton was the largest shareholder in Bethlehem Steel, held multiple investments in railroads, and owned vast amounts of land containing iron, coal, copper and gold ores.

Joseph Wharton founded the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and was one of the founders of Swarthmore College.

Joseph Wharton's youth was spent in the family's house near Spruce and 4th streets in Center City Philadelphia and at Bellevue, a country mansion near the Schuylkill River.

Joseph Wharton attended boarding schools in Byberry, Pennsylvania, and West Chester, Pennsylvania, as well as schools in Philadelphia.

Between the age of 14 and 16, Joseph Wharton was prepared for college by a private tutor.

Joseph Wharton matured to a strong frame, and was just over 6 feet tall.

Joseph Wharton was accomplished in sports, including horseback riding, swimming, and rowing.

Joseph Wharton competed in crew races as a member of the Camilla Boat Club.

When he was 19, Joseph Wharton apprenticed with an accountant for two years and became proficient in business methods and bookkeeping.

Joseph Wharton partnered with his brother in a cottonseed oil business for four years but disbanded the venture in 1849.

Joseph Wharton started a business manufacturing bricks in 1849 using a patented machine which formed dry clay into bricks.

Joseph Wharton left the brick-making business due to the significant competition and cyclical business swings.

In 1853, Joseph Wharton joined the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Company near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Joseph Wharton first managed the mining operation and then the zinc oxide works.

Joseph Wharton brought in experienced workers from the Vieille Montagne works in Belgium, built sixteen furnaces and by 1863 had produced nine million pounds of spelter.

Joseph Wharton was asked by James Pollock, the Director of the United States Mint, to secure an American source of nickel to provide raw material for the minting of one-cent coins.

Joseph Wharton took a controlling interest in the Gap Mining Company, a nickel mine and refining works in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.

Joseph Wharton partnered with Theodor Fleitmann for several years to improve the manufacturing process.

Joseph Wharton renamed the Camden plant the American Nickel Works, and his office there became his center of operations.

Joseph Wharton had success due to his production of the first in the world malleable nickel.

Joseph Wharton created nickel magnets, and received a Gold Medal at the Paris Exposition of 1878 for his inventions.

The surface deposits at the Gap mine were eventually depleted, and Joseph Wharton began to purchase nickel ore from mines in the Sudbury Basin.

Joseph Wharton became frustrated with the Mint since they had requested that he enter the nickel industry.

Joseph Wharton did not sell any nickel to the mint in 1870 and 1871 and temporarily closed the plant in 1870.

Joseph Wharton threatened to completely close the only nickel manufacturer in the United States.

Joseph Wharton made huge profits from 1873 to 1876 by supplying Prussia with nickel to mint their coins.

Joseph Wharton started purchasing land in South Jersey in the 1870s, eventually acquiring 150 square miles in the Pinelands, which contained an aquifer replenished by several rivers and lakes.

Joseph Wharton suggested that a city-controlled company could develop the necessary water mains and pump, funded by public purchase of stocks and bonds.

Joseph Wharton traveled widely and became involved in many industrial enterprises such as mines, factories and railroads.

Joseph Wharton started several enterprises on South Jersey property, including a menhaden fish factory that produced fertilizer, a modern forestry planting operation, and cranberry and sugar beet farms.

Joseph Wharton purchased land in Port Oram, New Jersey, to expand his iron operations.

Joseph Wharton added furnaces to the site with the capacity to produce over 1,000 tons of iron per day.

Joseph Wharton had extensive ownership of coal-containing lands, with 7,500 acres in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and 24,000 acres in West Virginia and New York.

Joseph Wharton owned iron and copper mines in Michigan, and gold mines in Arizona and Nevada.

Joseph Wharton became involved in railroads including the Reading, Lehigh Valley Railroad, San Antonio Railroad, Arkansas Pass Railroad, Oregon Pacific Railroad, and Hibernia Mine Railroad.

Joseph Wharton became the largest shareholder with a position on the board of managers, and eventually purchased a controlling share of the company.

Joseph Wharton was the largest single producer of pig iron in the United States.

Joseph Wharton was a scientist interested in the natural world, and wrote scientific papers on a variety of topics including astronomy and metallurgy, presenting several to the American Philosophical Society.

Joseph Wharton was curious, and one morning when a light snow was falling, collected some from a field near his house, melted and evaporated it, studying the remaining particles under a microscope, which he had on hand for metallurgy.

Joseph Wharton visited a ship from Manila that arrived in port in Philadelphia, a course that took a few hundred miles from Krakatoa.

Joseph Wharton obtained some pumice from one of the ship's crew, compared it with the dust he had collected, and found almost identical particles.

In 1893, Joseph Wharton presented a paper about the dust to the 150th anniversary meeting of the American Philosophical Society.

Joseph Wharton wrote a paper about the use of the Doppler effect on the color of light emitted by binary stars to determine their distance from Earth, and made the analogy to a train whistle which changes tone as it passes.

Joseph Wharton served as president of the American Iron and Steel Association and as a member of the Iron and Steel Institute.

Joseph Wharton led the electoral tickets for the Republican Party nomination of William McKinley for president.

Joseph Wharton donated $150,000 for the construction of Joseph Wharton Hall, $40,000 for the endowment of the Chair of Economics and Political Science, $10,000 for the construction of a library, $15,000 for the construction of a Friends Meeting House, and $10,000 for the construction of a science hall.

Joseph Wharton was often on campus and gave many commencement addresses.

Joseph Wharton wrote extensively on economic matters, including protective tariffs and business cycles.

Joseph Wharton conceived of a school that would teach how to develop and run a business, and to anticipate and deal with the cycles of economic activity.

In 1881, Joseph Wharton donated $100,000 to the University of Pennsylvania to found a "School of Finance and Economy" to help students succeed in business.

Joseph Wharton insisted that the Wharton School faculty educate on economic protectionism, similar to the lobbying he had done for American businesses in Washington.

The Joseph Wharton School was the first to include such a practical focus on business, finance, and management.

In 2023, the Joseph Wharton School fell off of the Financial Times 2023 MBA rankings for the first time since the ranking's inception.

Joseph Wharton was active to near the end of his life both physically and in business affairs.

Joseph Wharton practiced total abstinence from tobacco and restricted use of alcohol.

Joseph Wharton read widely in literature and was an accomplished poet.

In 1907, Joseph Wharton experienced a stroke while travelling in London.

Joseph Wharton survived the stroke and was able to travel home but never fully recovered his health.

Joseph Wharton's health was worsened by a fall and he died at his Ontalauna estate on January 11,1909, at age 82.

Joseph Wharton was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Joseph Wharton lived apart from the family while managing the zinc works in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Anna cared for their child at their home in Philadelphia.

In 1856, Joseph Wharton rented the house in Philadelphia and moved with his family to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Joseph Wharton purchased a 63-acre estate in the Branchtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, and built a Second Empire style mansion he named "Ontalauna".

Joseph Wharton was a member of the Union League of Philadelphia.

In 1908, Joseph Wharton granted a 25-acre plot of forested land to the city of Philadelphia for the creation of a park.

In 1954, the Joseph Wharton family sold his vast Pinelands properties in South Jersey to the state of New Jersey, which now form the core of Joseph Wharton State Forest.

In 1997, Joseph Wharton has inducted into the National Mining Hall of Fame.