Ulysses G. Charles

ULYSSES G. CHARLES, cashier of the Hudson State Bank, is a member of one of the most widely known and substantial families of Stafford County, his father, Joseph C. Charles, having been one of its pioneer settlers and is now a well known banker.

Joseph C. Charles was born in Martin County, Indiana, in 1847. He is of Scotch-Irish ancestry and his forefather settled in South Carolina in colonial times. Mr. Charles grew up and married in his native county and besides farming also had experiences as a boatman on the pioneer avenues of transportation and communication between the central west and the southern markets. He helped convoy many boats laden with provisions down the White River of Indiana and the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. In 1871 he went to Texas and had two years of experience on the southwestern plains. He then returned to Indiana, and in the spring of 1880 came to Kansas. After prospecting over several sections of the West he located his homestead four miles north of where the town of Hudson was later established. He continued profitably engaged in farming there until 1902, and still owns 800 acres in that vicinity.

After moving to Stafford, Joseph C. Charles helped establish the Hudson State Bank in 1904, and has since been its president. Jacob Hitz is vice president and his son Ulysses G. Charles, is cashier. The bank has a capital of $10,000 and surplus and profits of $7,000. Joseph C. Charles is a republican, a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the United Brethren Church. He married Catherine Riley, who was born in Martin County, Indiana, in 1854. Of their children Ulysses G. is the oldest. Cora B., the second, is at home with her parents. The sons J. M. and B. H. are both farmers and live at Stafford. R. C., the youngest, was inducted into the army and, at the close of hostilities, was stationed at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis.

Ulysses G. Charles was born at Columbia, Missouri, September 29, 1879, and was only a few months old when his parents moved to Kansas. He grew up on his father's homestead, attended the rural schools, and acquired a liberal education. He took a special science and commercial course in the Central Normal College at Great Bend, and during 1901-02 was a student in the Kansas Wesleyan Business College at Salina. He has been active in business affairs at Hudson since 1903 and since it was established has been cashier of the Hudson State Bank. He also handles much of the fire insurance business for his community. He is a stockholder in the Kansas Casualty and Surety Company and in the Farmers and Bankers Life Insurance Company. During the last two years he has been very active in war work in his community and is an associate member of the local advisory board. He is a republican, a past grand of Hudson Lodge of Odd Fellows, and is one of the broad minded and liberal citizens of Hudson. His modern home in that town was built in 1912.

Mr. Charles married in 1909, at Corydon, Iowa, Miss Myre C. Rickey, born at Cambria, Iowa, and they have one daughter, Charlene, born April 18, 1910.

Page 2411.