Charles P. Heimlich, of Hiawatha, Kan., is known throughout Brown county and northeastern Kansas as one of the most successful real estate dealers in that section of the state. He is a native of Buffalo, N. Y., where he was born, in 1864, and comes of sturdy German ancestry, on both the paternal and maternal sides. His father, P. J. Heimlich, was a native of Germany, born in 1812, and when sixteen years of age, or in 1828, accompanied his parents to America, locating in Buffalo, N. Y. There he grew to manhood and continued to reside until he removed with his family to Kansas, in 1871. He came directly to Hiawatha, arriving there on March 21, 1871, a passenger on the first emigrant car run into Hiawatha over the St. Joseph & Grand Island railroad. He decided on making Hiawatha his permanent home and resided there until his death, in 1878. He was a stanch Republican, and when the Civil war broke out he tried in vain to enlist in defense of the Union, but was rejected because he had passed the age limit.

Charles P. Heimlich was but seven years old when he accompanied his parents to Hiawatha. There he attended the city schools until his sixteenth year, when he became apprenticed with the firm of H. B. Wey & Company, to learn the tinner's trade. After mastering this trade he followed it for several years, or until Aug. 9, 1895, when he entered the real estate office of C. H. Pierce, of Hiawatha, as a general utility man. After two years in that capacity he purchased the business, which from that time to the present he has conducted with flattering success. He makes a specialty of Brown county realty and his annual sales will average $300,000 per year. He also does an extensive fire insurance and farm loan business in addition to his real estate operations, and being a hustler he probably does more in his line than all others in a similar business in Brown county. While it has been his aim to confine himself strictly to local business, in 1882 he united with other citizens of Hiawatha and vicinity in forming the Hiawatha Land & Water Company, which invested in 1,000 acres of irrigation land in Idaho. The company set about improving the land and at the present they have over 200 acres of fine apple orchards and a large acreage in alfalfa. The object of the company in developing the tract is to subdivide it into small lots of ten acres or more and dispose of them to homeseekers as fruit farms. While Mr. Heimlich is a stanch Republican and takes an active interest in political matters, he has no aspirations for office, preferring to devote his time and energy to his business. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Life and Annuity Association. Although deprived of a collegiate education, Mr. Heimlich has been a great reader and close student all of his life, and through self-study has secured an education quite as proficient as many college graduates acquire.