Charles Lukens Huston, Sr. He was one of the sons of Dr. Charles Huston and Isabella Pennock and the brother of A.F. Huston.
Attended Haverford College where he studied Metallurgy. Went on a Christian Mission down in Savannah, Georgia where he met an organist, Annie, and got married.
Took partnership into the business in 1879 and was placed in charge of the puddling furnace where pig iron was converted into wrought iron. In 1882 he took over the management of all plants in 1882 and continued in sole charge of the operation until 1925. He was the senior vice president who was most interested in the engineering and manufacturing aspect of the plants, well known as the Works Manager. In 1925 he retired from that position and remained the vice president.
Huston was an industrialist who made it a point to go around the plant, meet everyone, and know him or her by name. On Sundays, when workers still worked in the mill seven days a week, he went around and preached sermons to the men and women so they would not loose their connection with God. He continued in this occupation until his death in 1951 at the age of 94, succeeded by his two sons, Charles Lukens Huston, Jr. and Stewart Huston, and his daughter Ruth Huston.
He developed both the three-high universal mill and the four-high 206 mill. He had seen the Lukens Steel Company pioneer and develop from a provider of iron plates, into a maker of steel plates and steel specialties. He employed upwards of 5,100 men and women with a plant covering approximately 600acres.
He was intensely interested in the religious life of the foreign missions. Charles was a birthright member of the Society of Friends, associated with the Presbyterian Church where he was a ruling elder since 1875. He had been a Sunday school teacher for 25 years and helped found the Coatesville YMCA. Huston served as a commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church and from 1911 to 1914, he was chairman of the Committee on Evangelism of the Church. He had been Chester County Director of the Poor and was a founder of the Coatesville Hospital. Among all this, he was also an active director and the first vice president of the Montrose Bible Conference Association and supporter of the China Inland Mission.
