Background
He was born on a farm near York, Pa. , in 1802, the son of Christopher and Lydia (Grubb) Hussey. Soon after his birth, the family moved to Ohio, where he grew up.
He was born on a farm near York, Pa. , in 1802, the son of Christopher and Lydia (Grubb) Hussey. Soon after his birth, the family moved to Ohio, where he grew up.
He attended the district school in the intervals when he could be spared from the work of the farm.
When he was about eighteen he entered the office of a physician at Mount Pleasant, Ohio. In 1825 he qualified to practise medicine and moved to Morgan County, Ind. , where he quickly built up a lucrative practice. Within four years he had accumulated a capital of several thousand dollars with which he purchased general stores in the territory which he covered in his practice. The stores, bought as an investment, grew so rapidly that soon he devoted his entire time to their management and finally went into the business of dealing in pork, an important product of the section.
Since Pittsburgh was the center through which his goods passed to the East, Hussey went there in 1840 to supervise more closely the marketing phase of his business. Here in 1842 rumors of rich copper deposits in the Lake Superior region stirred his interest, and the following year he sent John Hays, an associate, to make investigations. Hays was impressed by what he learned and purchased for Hussey a sixth share in each of the first three permits to mine copper in that district granted by the United States government. Hussey then organized the Pittsburgh & Boston Mining Company, which opened the first of the Lake Superior copper mines (the Cliff) and demonstrated that the metal was there in paying quantities. A rush of miners to the region followed. The Cliff mine is reputed to have returned profits of $2, 280, 000 on an original investment of $110, 000.
In 1849 Hussey and Thomas M. Howe, a partner in the mining company, organized C. G. Hussey & Company, copper manufacturers, for the rolling and marketing of copper. This company, later known as the Pittsburgh Copper & Brass Rolling Mills, soon came into the sole ownership of Hussey. Its mill was the earliest of its kind west of the Alleghanies, and one of the first in the country to supply American copper in large quantities to manufacturers. In 1859 Hussey and Howe bought the old steel plant of Blair & Company and began the manufacture of crucible steel by the "direct process. " Hussey spent much time and money to perfect this process, with the result that his success led to its substitution for the English cementation process both in the United States and abroad. Hussey, Howe & Company was the outcome of this enterprise.
In addition to the management of his own businesses, Hussey acted in the capacity of adviser to mining developments in every part of the country. He served one term in the Indiana legislature (1829). A hobby of his was the promotion of the influence of women in industry and business, an outcome of which was his establishment of the School of Design for Women in Pittsburgh. He was also a founder and president of the Allegheny Observatory, which later was combined with Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh), of which he was a trustee (1864 - 93).
His views on the subject of religion, war, slavery, and temperance were in agreement with those of the Society of Friends, of which he was a member.
In 1839 he married Rebecca, daughter of James and Susanna (Jackson) Updegraff of Jefferson County, Ohio.