Gladding, Charles, 1828-1894.

Charles Gladding was born in New York, April 28, 1828. His parents died when he was very young. At age fourteen he went to work on the Erie Canal. He traveled to Ohio where he became interested in the lime business, subsequently residing in Chicago, Illinois, while engaging in the manufacturing of sewer pipe.

During 1861 and 1862 Charles donated time and money towards raising and equipping volunteer troops in the Civil War. He organized Company K, 72nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry and was elected and commissioned First Lieutenant. He accompanied the regiment to Paducah and Columbus, Kentucky. Charles also took part in the expedition to, and capture of, Island Number 10, under General Pope, and was afterward assigned to the brigade of General Crocker in the Army of the Tennessee. He participated in General Grant's campaign to Holly Springs, Mississippi, Lake Providence and the Yazoo River expeditions. He served during the final assault at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and was present at the surrender of General Pemberton. He continued in expeditions to Natchez, Mississippi before resigning and being honorably discharged from the military, September 15, 1863.

In these letters, Charles mentions William who is the brother of Charles' wife, Ann Bloomfield, to whom these Civil War letters are written. The letters reveal that William was wounded, losing part of his left hand during the Battle of Vicksburg. In addition, Charles inquires and makes reference to Mr. George Chambers who was married to Ann's sister Elizabeth. George Chambers later became one of the three principal partners in the founding of Gladding, McBean and Company. On August 5, 1863, Charles' wife, Ann Bloomfield Gladding, died in Chicago, Illinois. She left behind her husband, Charles Gladding and three small children: Albert James Gladding, George Lincoln Gladding, and Flora Eleanor Gladding.

Charles visited California in 1875. After investigating a piece of clay from Lincoln, in Placer County, he returned to Chicago, only to permanently relocate to California where he formed a partnership with himself, Peter McGill McBean and George Chambers, to establish the terra cotta pottery works firm, Gladding, McBean and Company. The manufacturing plant was located in Lincoln and the marketing office in San Francisco. Charles became a member of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, the George H. Thomas Post of the Grand Army of the Republic and a member of the Gold Hill Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons. Respected in the community as an "enterprising and wide-awake" citizen, he was noted as generous and unselfish, responding generously when called upon to aid a charitable purpose.

January 17, 1894, Charles Gladding died suddenly while on an extended trip to Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean. He left behind a widow, Sarah Gladding, and the adult children from his first marriage. Charles Gladding's ashes were returned to San Francisco in an urn and placed in a niche in a granite columbarium at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.