US Congressman, Lawyer. He was a United States Representative from the State of Pennsylvania. He was born one of ten children as Joseph Henry Kuhns to John Kunz (1761-1823), and his wife Anna Elizabeth Marchand Kunz (1768-1830), in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, on September 30, 1800. He was educated locally and attended the common public schools and then attended the prestigious Greensburg Academy in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. He also attended and later graduated from Washington College, later Washington and Jefferson College, in Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1820. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1823, and commenced his practice of law shortly thereafter in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Congress and was elected to replace the outgoing United States Representative Job Mann (1795-1873), on March 4, 1851. A Member of the Whig Party, he then served Pennsylvania's 19th District (Thirty-Eighth Congress), in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1851, to March 3, 1853. He was an unsuccessful Candidate for reelection to represent the Thirty-Third Congress. Following his term in the United States Congress he was succeeded in office by the incoming United States Representative Augustus Drum on March 4, 1853. After leaving the United States Congress he resumed his practice of law in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, until his death. He passed away following a month-long illness in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, on November 16, 1883, at the age of 83. Following his death, his funeral was held at the Christ's Episcopal Church in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and conducted by Bishop Whitehead, and after the service he was buried in Saint Clair Cemetery in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. He was married twice, first to Margaret Elizabeth Alexander Kuhns (1800-1851), from 1825 until her death in 1851, and second to Harriet Eason Jack Kuhns (1809-1879), from about 1853 until her death in 1879. His wife Harriet had previously been married to the United States Representative William Jack (1788-1852). He was the father of ten children including, Thomas Carothers Kuhns (1830-1831), Henry Byer Kuhns (1828-1889), Rebecca Kuhns Barclay (1832-1901), Eliza King Kuhns Keenan (1834-1914), and Edward Lewis Kuhns (1858-1917).