Charles Hempstead Gratiot (1814 - 1883)

Born 14 Jan 1814 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Ann Eliza (Sheldon) Gratiot — married 27 Nov 1836 in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, United States

Descendants

Died 15 Mar 1883 at age 69 in Gratiot, Wisconsin, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Casey Welch [send private message]

Biography

Charles was born in St Louis in 1814, the son of Henry Gratiot and Susan Hempstead.

In 1825 he moved with his parents to Galena, Illinois as his father was opposed to slavery and Missouri had been admitted to the Union as a slave state as part of the Missouri Compromise. His father and his uncle developed the first successful lead mining and smelting operation in the area^[1].

Henry Gratiot was a major figure in the Black Hawk War, using his influence with the local Winnebago to try and keep them from joining Black Hawk. Charles, at the age of eighteen, was a Lieutenant in that conflict.

In 1832 he entered into business at Gratiot and a year later he opened the first store in Dubuque, Iowa in partnership with Peter A. Lorimer^[2]. Later he went to the copper region of Michigan and opened the first copper mine there. In 1849 he went to the California goldfields and stayed there for a few years before returning to Gratiot. Then in 1859 he led a wagon train to Pike's Peak^[3], where he came down with some form of paralysis from which he never recovered.

Charles died in Gratiot in 1883.

Sources

1. ↑ Gratiot, WI website
2. ↑ Peter Lorimer of Dubuque (a former business partner of Adele's brother Charles and brother-in-law of her brother Henry) books.google
3. ↑ Presumably part of the Pike's Peak (aka Colorado) Gold Rush.

• Wisconsin Historical Society. Wisconsin Local History & Biography Articles; O. D. Brandenburg, "Col. Henry Gratiot's Madison Descendants," '
• The Madison Democrat; Madison, Wisconsin; Sunday, 5 October 1919, pp. 1-4; viewed online at https://www.wisconsinhistory.org on 5 February 2023.
• Image of memorial for Charles, his parents, three sisters, and wife
• Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin. J.H. Beers & Co. Chicago: 1901 books.google
• Frederic Louis Billon, Annals of St. Louis in its Territorial Days, from 1804 to 1821 (St. Louis: Printed for the author, 1888).