Background
Charles was born at Philadelphia, Pa. , 1822, the son of Dr. Robert Mendenhall and Hannah (West) Huston. His father was a prominent physician and later a member of the faculty of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.
Charles was born at Philadelphia, Pa. , 1822, the son of Dr. Robert Mendenhall and Hannah (West) Huston. His father was a prominent physician and later a member of the faculty of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.
His preliminary education was received in the public schools of Philadelphia and in 1836 he entered the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with the degree of A. B. in 1840.
Following his father in the medical profession, he entered the Jefferson Medical College where he received the degree of M. D. in 1842. He then went abroad to continue his medical training at Heidelberg and Paris.
He began the practice of medicine in Philadelphia. Soon afterward it became apparent that his health would not stand the strain of medical practice and he removed to the former home of his wife and became a partner in the iron business with his mother-in-law, Rebecca W. Lukens, and his brother-in-law, Abraham Gibbons. Upon the death of Mrs. Lukens and the retirement of Gibbons, Huston and his partner, Charles Penrose, became the owners of the Lukens Iron and Steel Mills. The company manufactured a special brand of charcoal iron boiler-plate.
Huston's scientific turn of mind and progressive spirit gave the company a leading position in the trade. Two articles which he wrote, bearing upon the effect of heat and stress upon iron and steel, were published in the Journal of the Franklin Institute (February 1878, January 1879). In 1895 he was selected by Chauncey M. Depew to contribute the article on the iron and steel industry to One Hundred Years of American Commerce (2 vols. , 1895).
In 1877 he had been made chairman of the committee of manufacturers of boiler-plate called by the United States Treasury Department to cooperate with the board of supervising steamboat inspectors in forming a proper standard of tests for boiler-plate. His recommendations were adopted by the board and in following years his advice was frequently sought by government officials and by the leading steam-boiler inspection and insurance companies of the United States.
Aside from his manufacturing interests he took a leading part in the promotion of community interests and was president of the Coatesville Gas Company, which he aided in organizing in 1871. He died at Coatesville after a long illness.
In April 1848 he married Isabella Pennock Lukens of Coatesville, Pa.