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THOMAS, David, manufacturer, born near Neath, Glamorganshire, Wales, 3 November, 1794: died in Catasauqua, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 20 June, 1882. He was employed in the business of manufacturing iron after 1812, and in 1839 came to this country and built the first of the furnaces of the Lehigh Crane iron company. He remained with this company till 1854, when, with his sons and others, he organized the Thomas iron company, and built two blast-furnaces at Hokendauqua. They were at the time the largest and most productive anthracite blast-furnaces in the country. Afterward other furnaces were built by the company, and successfully operated. He was one of the proprietors of the Catasauqua manufacturing company which was organized to roll plate-and bar-iron, for many years served as its president, and was an owner of the Lehigh fire-brick works at Catasauqua. Mr. Thomas was the first in this country to make the manufacture of anthracite pig-iron commercially successful, and was the first person in the world fully to realize the value of powerful blowing engines in the working of blast-furnaces. He supported the cause of the Union during the civil war. In 1866 he was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for congress.
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