Born: Keepskill, New York, 1830.Died: Rockwell, Iowa, 1877.
Born: Keepskill, New York, 1830.
Died: Rockwell, Iowa, 1877.
Came to Whiteside County, Illinois, in 1842. There he grew up on a farm near Coleta. His parents were Methodists and most excellent people. Charles resided in a community of Disciples of Christ and became a Christian only at the age of twenty-one. At the "social meetings" on the Lord's day he began to speak, which led into the ministry. Then he farmed in the summer-time, mended shoes during the winter, and preached on Sundays as he could find opportunity. As he sat on his bench a copy of the Bible and Webster's Dictionary lay open before him--so he kept pegging away.
As a preacher he was popular with all classes because he preached the truth in love. He was a fine, all-round minister who traveled from place to place with his horse and buggy. His evangelistic labors were chiefly in northern Illinois, where he baptized about six thousand persons. Editor B. W. Johnson once referred to him as "the noble-hearted Sherwood, the Lion of the North."