Joseph Wharton

Joseph Wharton (March 3, 1826January 11, 1909) was an American industrialist. He was involved in mining, manufacturing and education. He founded the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, co-founded the Bethlehem Steel company, and was one of the founders of Swarthmore College. Early years Wharton was born in Philadelphia in 1826, the fifth child of ten in a liberal Hicksite Quaker family. His parents, William Wharton and Deborah Fisher Wharton, were both from prominent early American immigrant families of Quaker descent. Both of Wharton's grandmothers were named Hannah and were from Newport, Rhode Island. Wharton's maternal grandfather, Samuel R. Fisher, ran a prosperous mercantile business and shipping packet line between Philadelphia and London, and his grandmother, Hannah Rodman, was a descendant of Thomas Cornell, the ancestor of Ezra Cornell, who founded Cornell University. Wharton's youth was spent in the family's house near Spruce and 4th Streets in central Philadelphia and at the country mansion "Bellevue". Wharton's father was a typical gentleman, and did not hold a regular job because he had several illnesses, but oversaw his estate, served on the Philadelphia School Board, and was active with his wife, Deborah, in the Hicksite ministry. From their country estate, the family often went to the nearby Schuylkill River, visited neighboring estates such as Deborah's grandfather Joshua Fisher's The Cliffs, and went on weekend horse and carriage excursions to the countryside surrounding Philadelphia, sometimes attending the smaller Quaker Meetings. Schooling As a boy, Wharton attended two Quaker boarding schools in the towns outside of Philadelphia and also several private schools in the city. Between the age of 14 and 16, Wharton was prepared for college by a private tutor. However, when he was 16, he went on the advice of his parents to mature and learn the life of a farmer, a common dream of city-born Hicksite Quakers at the time, and boarded with Joseph and Abigail Walton on their family farm near West Chester, Pennsylvania, for three years. By that time, Wharton had matured to a strong frame, in stature, with a serious but cheerful outlook. He was accomplished in sports such as horseback riding, swimming, and rowing on the Schuylkill River. During the winter Wharton returned to his parents' home in Philadelphia and studied languages such as French and German, which were useful for learning about science and technology.