Joseph D. Weeks
Joseph D. Weeks (c1841-1897)
1897 Obituary [1]
JOSEPH D. WEEKS died at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 26, 1896, at the age of fifty-six.
Born at Lowell, Massachusetts, he began his career in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church. During the American Civil War he served on the Sanitary Commission, after which he became identified with the iron trade at Pittsburgh, and subsequently became editor of The American Manufacturer. On the amalgamation of the latter with The Iron Age he accepted the post of associate editor.
In 1886, on securing the control of The American Manufacturer and Iron World, he relinquished his connection with The Iron Age. He was at the same time secretary of the Western Iron Association, and in 1878 visited Europe for the purpose of studying the labour question and the trades union movement, and of making a report to the Governor of Pennsylvania. He became a strong advocate of arbitration and conciliation, and was on one occasion selected by the coal-miners and operators as arbitrator in a great dispute.
In 1880 he was appointed Government expert on the coke industry of the United States, and when the Geological Survey of the United States commenced the publication of mineral statistics, Mr. Weeks was appointed expert on coke, petroleum, manganese ore, and natural gas. He took a very active part in the introduction of European methods for the recovery of by-products in coking. He served on the Pennsylvania Tax Commission, and also held many other similar positions, both scientific, industrial, and social, and served as a judge in the Mines and Mining Department of the Columbian Exposition.
He was an enthusiastic Freemason, and was prominent in temperance works. He was a valued and active member for many years of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, to which society he contributed a considerable number of papers. He had repeatedly held office on the Board of that Institute, and was in 1895 elected President.
He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1878, and was an active member of the Reception Committee on the occasion of the visit of the Iron and Steel Institute to the United States in 1890.