READING, Joseph H. – (1849-1920) was a son of Frenchtown wagon-spoke manufacturer Philip G. Reading. Joseph was a storekeeper in various locations on Bridge Street in the 1860s and '70s – first with Oliver Worman and later with brother Charles in the Cheap Cash Store. Then he traded the mercantile life for one of adventure.
He was sent, with wife Mary and baby, by the Board of Foreign Missions to Gaboon, West Africa. Baby Arthur sickened and died there, but Joseph and Mary made two more mission trips to Africa, and at least one of the trips was supported by the women of the Frenchtown Presbyterian Church who'd made clothing for the African children.
In 1877 the Frenchtown Independent was publishing his dispatches from Africa, and in 1882 he built a palm-shaded home there with plenty of veranda.
At some point, Reading became a different kind of missionary. He was secretary and treasurer of the U.S. government's commercial mission to Gaboon and the tiny island of Corisco.
In 1890 he published “The Ogowe Band; A Narrative of African Travel.” His second book, published in 1901, was: “A Voyage Along the Western Coast, or Newest Africa.” It was a happy, indulgent time when authors were allowed two tries at a title. The book's cover promised “a description of newest Africa, or the Africa of to-day and the immediate future.”
By 1900 he and his family had come back to New Jersey, settling in Salem County, where he trafficked in stocks and bonds.
From "Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia"
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