The "History of Catasauqua" (1914) states that in the year 1892 there was published a "History of the Manufacture of Iron in all ages, and particularly in the United States from Colonial times to 1891", by James M. Swank.  It contains the following:

"David Thomas was born on November 3, 1794, at a place called, in English, Grey House, within two and a half miles of the town of Neath, in the County of Glamorgan, South Wales.  He landed in the United States on June 5, 1839, and on July 9th of that year commenced to build the furnace at Catasauqua.  He died at Catasauqua on June 20, 1882, in his 88th year.  At the time of his death he was the oldest ironmaster in the United States in length of service, and he was next to Peter Cooper, the oldest in years.  David Thomas's character and services to the American iron trade are held in high honour by all American iron and steel manafacturers.  He is affectionately styled the Father of the American anthracite iron industry, because the furnace built under his directions at Catasauqua and blown by him was the first of all the early anthracite furnaces that was completely successful, both from an engineering and a commercial standpoint, and also because he subsequently became identified with the manufacture of anthracite pig iron on a more extensive scale than any of his contemporaries.  He was the founder of the Thomas Iron Company, at Hokendauqua, which has long been at the head of the producers of anthracite pig iron.  The first two furnaces of this Company were built by Mr. Thomas in 1855".