Sacramento County
Biographies
HARRY G. CHARLES.
HARRY G. CHARLES--An efficient, faithful executive, never failing to do the best he can for the interests of others entrusted to him, is Harry G. Charles, the outside agent of the Dredgermen's Union, at Sacramento. He hails from San Francisco, having been born in that city on October 25, 1873, the son of H. A. Charles, who came in 1848, and had married Miss Martha G. Robinson, born in Missouri and who crossed the plains, landing at Marysville in 1850. From 1853 to 1855, he was secretary of the California Stage Company, and remained so until that company was absorbed by the Wells Fargo Express Company; and he was a charter member of the stockbroking firm of Hall, Charles & Mackey, afterward Hall & Charles, and a charter member of the first stock board in San Francisco in 1882, it being his sixtieth year. He was kind-hearted and beloved, and was well-known.
The death of his father, while Harry was a mere boy, compelled the lad to leave off school studies at the end of the grammar grades; and he soon got work with the American District Telegraph Company. Then he went to Mexico and Arizona, and for seven years he rode the range. After that, he was with the Wells Fargo and the Southern Pacific Companies, the United Railroad, as foreman of the repairs department. Then, for seven months he was in the service department of the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, in San Francisco, while from 1906 to 1909 he was in the transfer business in San Francisco. The next year, he spent with the Home Telephone Company, and he was then with the dredge department of the state harbor board for eight years.
For the past seven years, Mr. Charles has been outside agent of the Dredger's Union, and so has been active in labor movements and prominent in all that has spelled progress to the hard worker. Mr. Charles' relation, therefore, to both labor and capital is one in which he is able to serve both sides and parties.
On May 16, 1901, he married Miss Rose Callan, a native of San Francisco, and also a member of an interesting pioneer family; and three children have blessed the union; Harry Martin; Ruth Martha, Mrs. Donald Alexander of San Francisco; and Naomi Asa. Donna Alexander is the only grandchild. Owing to their ancestors, and especially their parentage, both Mr. and Mrs. Charles are keenly interested in Sacramento County, in its most promising future as well as in its historic past.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Page 568. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA.
1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.