Joshua Hathaway, pioneer surveyor, was born in Rome, N.Y., the son of Joshua and Elizabeth (Lord) Hathaway. His father fought with the Continental forces in the Revolutionary War and later was a judge in the court of common pleas, and a postmaster at Rome for thirty years. His mother was descended from John Haynes, who came to Boston in 1633 and became governor of Massachusetts in 1635, the founder of Connecticut, and governor of that state in 1639.
Young Hathaway first studied law at the wish of his father but later chose civil engineering because of his health. After fitting himself for the latter profession he secured, through the influence of his brother-in-law, Judge Samuel Beardsley, attorney-general of New York, an appointment as a federal surveyor in the Northwest territory. In 1832, with a group of twelve men as his assistants, he went to Chicago, where he made his headquarters. From Chicago he conducted surveying expeditions into the western portion of Michigan Territory, which is now a part of Wisconsin. Large areas of the state, especially the southern portion, were surveyed under his supervision, including the cities of Waukesha and Kewaunee.
In 1835 Hathaway transferred his headquarters to Milwaukee, pitching a tent in what is now a downtown location. He later bought the land from the government and built on it one of Milwaukee's first brick houses, his lifelong home. He became active in real estate promotion, and in the same year (1835) he was given a federal contract to survey outlying land in the Michigan territory.
After the organization of the Wisconsin Territorial government in 1836, Hathaway was named by Governor Henry Dodge to the post of district surveyor, July 8, 1836. In the Green Bay land sale of 1837 Hathaway's name appears among the buyers. The following year he was appointed public administrator of Milwaukee, later a function of the judge of probate court. In 1843 he won public election to the latter position. His information on land titles had become cyclopedic and in his official and business capacities he became a judge of last resort in settling intricate legal problems involving real estate transactions. Among his land interests along the Lake Michigan counties of Wisconsin, he was especially identified with the development of the village of Kewaunee.
When the Milwaukee and Watertown Plank Road company was organized in 1847, Hathaway was chosen as its secretary. In 1851 he was elected a school commissioner and reelected in the two succeeding years. Representing the First Ward in Milwaukee he was elected a street commissioner in 1852, a commissioner of surveys in 1853, and an assessor in 1854.
After the financial panic of 1857 Hathaway, Alexander Mitchell, and Charles Quentin were named as Commissioners of Public Debt. They were charged under legislative authority to readjust the debt load of Milwaukee, a task in which they were successful.
In the pioneer period before a minister had been obtained for the Episcopalians of Milwaukee, Hathaway acted as a lay clergyman. He later was one of the organizers of St. Paul's Episcopal church and a member of its vestry. Five years after he married his second cousin, Ann Jeanette Hathaway, in Buffalo, N.Y., October 10, 1842, both he and his wife (a Presbyterian) were converted to Catholicism. He was a Democrat, a member of Milwaukee's city council, a life member of the Wisconsin Historical Society, and a geologist and botanist of local reputation.
He died at Milwaukee in 1863 in the home on the site where he had pitched his tent 28 years previously. Surviving were his wife and five children, Andrew A., John E., Mary L., Jeanette, and Sarah Hathaway.
