Henry Huhn

For much of its history, Philadelphia’s brickyards helped build the city’s economy by building the city itself. With an abundance of brick clay in South Philly, there were nearly 3000 men employed in the business in the late 1800s, with the city boasting a peak production of 220 million bricks annually.

Henry Huhn was the son, brother, and father of brickmakers but it wasn’t his passion. In the 1871 city directory there are seven men named Huhn employed in that field, but only one is related to Henry and that’s his father, John R. Huhn. Two years later the enterprise would be passed to his brother, Samuel, then to Henry’s son, John.

Samuel and John also spent a few years in politics but that was Henry’s real calling, investing 30 years in the building blocks of city and state government. He was the oldest of 10 offspring; boys outnumbered girls 6 to 4 but three boys didn’t live to adulthood. Henry graduated from Central High School and was usually known by his nickname, Harry.

His first job was working for a printing company, then as a clerk for the Little Schuylkill Navigation, Railroad and Coal Company. It was a 21-mile “shortline” railroad that connected with a canal and eventually to the Reading Railroad to transport coal to Philadelphia. He moved to Tamaqua in Schuylkill County as chief clerk but soon added the title of husband when he married a local girl, Mary Oakley, in 1855. 

Another promotion made Henry the company’s paymaster. The couple named their first child John in 1856 after Henry’s father, and their daughter was given her mother’s name in 1859. In his first run for political office he won a seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 1861 session but then decided not to run again.

One biography reported that he was also a literary editor and engaged in a mercantile business during the Civil War years. The family also welcomed a second daughter, Eleanor just after the war ended in June of 1865. 

The years in Tamaqua must have made Henry feel like a big fish in a little pond. He would soon find himself becoming a big fish in a big pond when he moved the Huhns to Philadelphia and became a coal merchant in 1867. He must have had a way of making friends quickly, especially in Republican party circles, because he was elected the very next year to serve on the city’s Common Council starting in 1869. Then he was re-elected to three more one-year terms, and was voted by his peers to be president of the council in 1871 and 1872.

It was there that Henry sharpened his skills as a parliamentarian and the art of dealmaking. His brother, John S. Huhn, also held a council seat but died in 1872. Henry left after that, entering into a partnership related to the brick business, but it didn’t last long.

His party recognized his popularity and convinced him to run for the state House of Representatives in 1874. The term was still for just one year, but he was elected, then re-elected three times from the 15th district.

His younger brother, Samuel, worked in the office at his father’s brickyard. He decided to run for a 7th district House seat which, thanks to a new state constitution, now came with a two-year term. He served from 1879-1882, then chose not to return. That was a good decision because his father died in 1883 and Samuel took over the business.

Henry, meanwhile, found his time as an assemblyman paid off with a paid position in Harrisburg. The House elected him to the job of chief clerk for 1881-82, and this is his portrait from that session. He held the post of reading clerk from 1885-88 and Speaker’s clerk until his death. 

He had the unusual distinction of working in the legislature at the same time as his son, however briefly. John R. Huhn won the 1902 election to the House from the 25th district, so he was in the state capital with his father from January through June of 1903.

In his later years, Henry had a business in the summers at Atlantic City, where he owned several boat houses. While there in July of 1903, he celebrated his 71st birthday but suffered a stroke two weeks later and died four days after that. 

News of his death came with high praise for his work in Harrisburg, as shown here.

John won re-election to the House three times, but he was also busy as executor of his uncle Samuel’s estate, including the brickyard once owned by his grandfather. Samuel kept it going and averted a strike in the 1880s as president of the 41-member Brick Manufacturers’ Association of Philadelphia. 

By the time Samuel died in 1898, John had also served as president of that association and was a director of the Master Builders’ Exchange. But only a fraction of the 41 brickyards were still operating in the new century. In some areas the clay deposits were depleted, and competition grew with increasing use of other building materials like steel and concrete blocks.

John’s listing in the 1904 city directory was manager of the Samuel Huhn estate. He apparently liquidated the assets at some point after that and had no need to work. He left politics after the 1910 session.

The Huhn family plot in Section 33 required two lots for the dozen occupants. The monument shown here is for Henry’s parents. Surrounding them are the graves of Henry with his wife, his brother John with his son, his brother Samuel with his wife and daughter, and his three brothers who died as minors. Henry’s son John and his wife are in Section 7, plus there are another seven relatives here, five of them in section 121.