Charles Stewart Wurts

Charles Stewart Wurts (August 8, 1790 – June 26, 1859) was a founder of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which built the Delaware and Hudson Canal and later became the Delaware and Hudson Railway. Along with his brothers, he helped launch the anthracite industry in America.

Born in Flanders, New Jersey on August 8, 1790, he was a son of John Wurts (1744–1793) and Sarah Grandin; and a grandson of Johannes Conrad Wirz (1706–1763), who founded the Wurts family in America.

As a youth, Wurts moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and found work at one of the commercial houses there. In 1823, he helped found the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company along with his brothers Maurice (1783–1854), William (1788–1858), and John Wurts (1792–1861).

Charles married Mary Van Uxem (1802–1877) on August 16, 1826; among their children was Charles Stewart Wurts II (1830–1907), who married his cousin Martha Haskins Wurts (1833-1859) in 1858 and then Mary Stuart Wood (1845-1883) in 1865.

He died on June 26, 1859 and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.