Josiah Huntoon

Josiah Parmerley Huntoon was a businessman and abolitionist in New Jersey. A painting of him by Thomas Waterman Wood is in the National Portrait Gallery.
He was born in Montpelier, Vermont. He lived in Paterson, New Jersey.
He had a successful coffee business including a mill. He and his apprentice William Van Rensalier, an African American who became an engineer, were part of the Underground Railroad. A plaque commemorates their work in helping people who escaped slavery.
Huntoon's home, a stop on the Underground Railway, was demolished for a parking garage and later a Taco Bell was proposed for the site.
His son Louis Huntoon was an economics professor at Yale University and wrote a family history.