Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Horton, Joseph P 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com October 3, 2007, 3:51 am

Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County

JOSEPH P. HORTON, foreman of the machine shop of the Illinois Steel Company, 
is a successful skilled machinist who fills his responsible position with 
credit to himself and to the satisfaction of the company. He was born in Troy, 
N. Y., December 23, 1858, a son of John and Jane (Reid) Horton. His father, 
who was the son of John Horton, Sr., a machinist, learned the machinist's 
trade in his native city of Manchester, England. At twenty-six years of age he 
came to America and settled in Troy, N. Y., where he was employed first as 
foreman, then as master mechanic in the arsenal. For a time he was in Burden's 
machine shop in South Troy. After a short time as master mechanic in iron 
works at Harrisburg, Pa., he returned to Troy, and then removed to Wheatland, 
Pa., from there to Youngstown, Ohio, next to Ashtabula, the same state, and 
finally back to Youngstown. In each of these places he was employed as master
mechanic. He died in Youngstown in 1876. His wife, who was born in Edinburgh, 
Scotland, and is now living in Cleveland, Ohio, was a daughter of William 
Reid, a cabinet-maker, who came to this country and settled in Trenton, N.J.
As far back as the Reid genealogy can be traced the members of the family were 
strict Presbyterians, identified with the Scotch Church.

In a family of six children, all but one of whom are still living, the subject 
of this article was the fourth in order of birth. He was reared in the 
different cities where his father resided. The year after his father died he 
accompanied his mother to Cleveland. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed  
to the machinist's trade, which he completed in the mills of the Cleveland
Rolling Mill Company. On the expiration of his time he secured employment at 
his trade. In 1881 he went to Chicago, where for eighteen months he was 
employed as a machinist in the old Union plant. Next he spent a year with the
Minneapolis, St. Paul& Manitoba Railroad Company. Returning east, he was for  
eighteen months with the Westinghouse firm in Pittsburg. Next he resumed work 
with the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company, and later was with the Buckeye Bridge 
Company in Cleveland, and for six years held a position in the Cleveland City
forge. In 1892 he came to Joliet as foreman of the machine shop of the 
Illinois Steel Company, a position that he has held ever since with the 
exception of a year as assistant master mechanic of the works. Under him, in 
his department, are eighty-five skilled machinists, whose work he 
superintends, with painstaking care, seeing that each does his duty wisely and 
satisfactorily.

It has been impossible for Mr. Horton to give much attention to public affairs 
or to politics, but he is a believer in Republican principles, and rejoices in 
any success which his party gains. He was married in Cleveland, Ohio, to Miss
Emma Breyley, who was born in that city, and by whom he has two children, 
Daisy and John. The family reside at No. 111 Cagwin avenue.

Additional Comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical 
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900


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